Chapter 10 - BLOOD IN THE HALLWAY
|
Luca stepped inside the vault, immediately pulling Sophia into his arms and holding her against his broad chest.
The little girl wrapped her arms around her father's neck, sobbing with immense relief as the sounds of battle downstairs began to fade.
"Daddy, Claire saved me! She shot the bad man!" Sophia cried, pointing toward the fallen mercenary outside the door.
Luca looked up at me, his gaze softening into an expression of sheer awe and unyielding respect.
"You are the bravest woman I have ever known, Claire," he said, his voice thick with genuine emotion.
"I did what anyone would do to protect this sweet angel, Mr. Moretti," I whispered, lowering the trembling gun to my side.
"No, Claire. Most people would have hidden in the corner and begged for mercy," Luca replied firmly.
"You stood between an assassin and my daughter with a weapon you had never fired in your life."
Before we could speak further, Marco appeared in the library doorway, holding a tactical radio to his ear.
"Boss, the perimeter is secure. Our outer teams took down the secondary assault vehicle."
"Julian Russo is trapped in the grand foyer, but he has Vanessa at gunpoint as a human shield."
Luca's jaw hardened into steel as he gently set Sophia back down on the comfortable sofa inside the vault.
"Claire, stay inside this room with Sophia until I return. The lockdown mechanism is reset."
"Please be careful, Luca," I found myself saying, using his first name for the very first time without thinking.
He paused at the doorway, turning his head to look back at me, a faint, determined smirk touching his lips.
"For you and Sophia, I will always come back," he replied, before stepping out into the smoke-filled corridor.
I engaged the digital lock, listening as the heavy hydraulic bolts sealed us safely inside the reinforced sanctuary.
Downstairs in the grand foyer, Julian Russo was backing slowly toward the shattered front entrance of the mansion.
He held Vanessa tightly by her hair, pressing the barrel of a custom chrome revolver against her trembling temple.
Vanessa was weeping hysterically, her designer robe ruined, her bare feet bleeding from shards of broken crystal chandeliers.
"Back off, Luca! Back your men off right now!" Julian roared, his eyes wild with the manic desperation of a cornered beast.
Luca descended the grand marble staircase with calm, measured steps, holding his silver pistol casually at his side.
Ten heavily armed Moretti enforcers fanned out across the foyer, their laser sights painting bright red dots across Julian's chest.
"You brought fifteen men into my home to murder a nine-year-old child, Julian," Luca said, his voice echoing in the vast room.
"She's not a child, she's your weakness!" Julian spat back, his hand shaking against Vanessa's skull.
"Untie my getaway car and let me take this useless traitor with me, or I'll blow her brains all over your marble floor!"
Vanessa looked at Luca with desperate, pleading eyes, praying for a shred of mercy from the husband she had betrayed.
"Luca! Please! Don't let him kill me! I made a mistake! Forgive me!" she screamed through her tears.
Luca stopped at the bottom step, looking at Julian with absolute indifference.
"Julian, do you really think you can negotiate with me using a traitor as currency?"
"She sold out my daughter's life for five million dollars and a ticket to Italy."
"Her life has zero value to me."
Vanessa's eyes widened in horrifying realization as she understood that her betrayal had stripped her of all protection.
May you like
"You're a monster, Moretti!" Julian screamed, cocking the hammer of his revolver.
"No, Julian," Luca whispered coldly. "I'm the king of Chicago."
