Chapter 8 - The Breach
Leo didn't back down.
The puppy darted toward the glass, his growls turning into sharp, frantic barks. His hackles were raised completely, his tiny body trembling with raw adrenaline. He was staring at a dense thicket of spruce trees just fifty yards beyond the glass conservatory.
Suddenly, a bright red laser dot appeared on the glass.
“Down!” Luca roared.
He didn't wait for me to move. He threw himself sideways, wrapping an arm around my waist, and tackled me off the bench just as the world exploded into noise.
*CRACK!*
The heavy glass pane shattered into a million glittering shards. A high-caliber bullet tore through the wrought-iron bench where we had been sitting half a second earlier, burying itself deep into the brick wall behind us.
The puppy gave a panicked yelp as glass rained down around him.
“Leo!” I screamed, trying to crawl toward the dog despite the white-hot agony flaring in my healing ribs.
“Stay down!” Luca commanded, his body completely covering mine. He raised his weapon with his right hand, aiming through the shattered gap in the conservatory wall.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Luca fired three precise, deafening shots into the darkness outside. A muffled shout echoed from the trees, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the snow.
Alarms began to wail across the estate—a piercing, mechanical siren that split the night. Floodlights snapped on along the perimeter, bathing the snow-covered grounds in blinding white light. Gunfire erupted from the front gates as Matteo and his security team engaged the intruders.
“Matteo!” Luca barked into the radio pinned to his collar, his voice shockingly calm amid the chaos. “West perimeter breach! Two shooters in the spruce line! Lock down the primary residence!”
“Leo!” I cried out again, tears blinding me.
The puppy was trapped near the shattered glass, pinned down by falling debris, whimpering in terror.
Luca looked from me to the dog, then out into the blinding snow where another shadow was moving through the trees.
Without a second of hesitation, Luca lunged forward.
He moved low, sliding across the damp flagstones. Another bullet whizzed past his shoulder, shattering an antique terra-cotta planter next to his head. Luca didn't flinch. He scooped Leo up by the scruff of his neck with one hand, fired two more suppressing shots toward the tree line with the other, and scrambled back to the shelter of the stone fountain.
He shoved the trembling puppy into my arms.
“Take him,” Luca ordered, breathing hard, his dark hair falling into his eyes. “Head for the reinforced tunnel beneath the wine cellar. The door is behind the third oak barrel on the left. The code is 0-4-1-8.”
“Luca, no!” I grabbed his sleeve, terror gripping my throat. “Come with me! There are too many of them!”
He looked down at my hand clutching his fabric.
In the flashing red emergency lights, his expression was fiercely resolute. He reached up with his free hand and gently cupped the side of my face, his thumb brushing away the dust and tears from my cheek.
“This is my home, Emma,” he said softly, his voice cutting through the wailing sirens. “No one takes what is mine. Now go.”
He pushed me toward the heavy oak door that led from the conservatory into the main basement corridors.
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Clutching Leo tightly against my chest, ignoring the tearing pain in my ribs, I scrambled through the doorway. Behind me, the roar of Luca’s gun echoed once more as he stepped back out into the open to face the storm.
***
