Chapter 5 - The Unraveling
The deafening report of the handgun echoed violently in the enclosed space of the library. The recoil slammed into my wrists, sending a shockwave up my arms.
The bullet struck the assassin in the shoulder. He grunted in pain, staggering backward, his silenced pistol firing wildly into the floorboards near my feet.
"You crazy bitch!" he snarled, clutching his bleeding shoulder, his eyes burning with lethal fury.
I didn't give him a second to recover. I scrambled back onto my feet, pointed the gun again, and pulled the trigger two more times. The bullets tore into his chest. The killer collapsed heavily onto the Persian rug, his weapon skittering across the slick floor, his eyes rolling back as he went still.
I stood there, gasping for air, trembling from head to toe, the smoking gun shaking violently in my grasp. I had just shot a man. I had taken a life to protect the children.
"Isabella!"
A familiar, frantic voice roared through the shattered front doors of the estate.
Footsteps thundered down the hallway—heavy, desperate, fast. Dominic burst into the library, flanked by half a dozen heavily armed guards. His suit coat was gone, his shirt rolled up, his hands covered in soot and blood. His gray eyes swept the room wildly until they locked onto me standing over the dead assassin.
"Isabella!" Dominic rushed across the room, throwing his heavy arms around me, pulling me violently against his broad chest.
I dropped the gun. It hit the floor with a dull thud as I buried my face into his neck, my whole body breaking into uncontrollable, violent sobbing. The adrenaline that had sustained me suddenly evaporated, leaving me utterly weak.
"I've got you. I've got you," Dominic breathed heavily, his hands clutching the back of my head, his chest heaving against mine. "Where are the children? Where is Leo?!"
"They're safe... in the panic room," I choked out, pointing a shaking finger toward the open bookcase.
Dominic didn't hesitate. He rushed to the reinforced door. "Leo! Lily! It's Daddy! It's safe!"
The two small figures tumbled out of the darkness. Lily was crying, throwing herself into my arms as I dropped to my knees. Dominic scooped Leo into his massive arms, holding his son so tightly it looked as if he were trying to merge the boy into his own skin.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Leo," Dominic wept quietly, burying his face into his son's dark curls. "I failed you again."
Leo pulled back slightly, looking down at the body of the man lying near the desk. His small face went entirely pale, his eyes wide with recognition.
"Daddy..." Leo whispered, his voice trembling violently as he pointed a tiny, shaking finger at the dead killer's exposed hand. "That's him."
Dominic froze. "What did you say, Leo?"
Leo tears spilled over his cheeks. "The man with the snake... he's the one who opened Mommy's car door before the fire. He's the one who hurt Mommy!"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Dominic slowly turned his head to look at the dead man on the floor, his gray eyes locking onto the green snake tattoo etched across the assassin's knuckles.
He slowly looked up at me, realization dawning in his eyes with terrifying clarity. "You knew," he whispered, his voice dangerously low. "That's what Leo told you behind the study door."
"He was terrified to tell you," I admitted softly, holding Lily tight. "He thought if he spoke, the killer would come back for you."
Dominic stood up slowly, holding Leo in his left arm, his posture radiating a cold, devastating fury that made even his armed guards step back in apprehension. He looked at the dead killer, then down at his son, and finally at me.
"Marco," Dominic commanded coldly, his voice echoing off the high ceilings.
The bleeding second-in-command stepped forward, clutching a bandage to his shoulder. "Don?"
"Find out who leaked our security codes," Dominic ordered, his eyes burning like liquid steel. "Every guard, every driver, every staff member. Audit their accounts. Sweep their phones. If someone in this house took Falcone's money, I want them brought to the basement before midnight."
"Yes, Don Moretti," Marco replied grimly.
Dominic turned back to me, extending his right hand. "Come, Isabella. You and Lily are coming with us to the safe house downtown. The estate is compromised."
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I took his hand. His grip was warm, solid, and fiercely protective. As we walked out of the ruined library, past the bloodstains and broken glass, I realized that the nightmare was far from over.
The assassin was dead, but the mastermind behind the attack—the person who had betrayed the Moretti family from the inside—was still breathing the same air as us. And Dominic Moretti was about to tear Boston apart to find them.
