Chapter 5 - Midnight Siege
The drive back to the Bedford estate broke every traffic law in the state of New York.
Three tinted SUVs tore through the dark, rain-slicked highway at over a hundred miles an hour. Inside the lead vehicle, Luca sat in stony silence, checking his firearm with practiced, rhythmic precision. I sat beside him, clutching my hands together so tightly my knuckles turned white, praying to whatever god was listening to keep that innocent little boy safe.
"They used the gala as a distraction," Marco grunted from the front passenger seat, monitoring a satellite tablet. "Vance’s older brother, Victor, orchestrated it. He sent a mercenary team to the house while we were all in the city."
"Is Mateo safe?!" I cried out, unable to contain the terror clawing at my chest.
"The panic room sealed automatically when the perimeter fence was breached," Luca said, his voice eerie in its calmness. "He is inside. But the power to the house has been cut, and the backup generators are being tampered with."
He turned to me, his hand reaching out to wrap firmly around mine. The contrast between his lethal preparation and his gentle touch left me breathless. "Listen to me, Claire. When we arrive, you stay in the vehicle with Marco. Under no circumstances do you enter that house until I come get you."
"Luca, no!" I protested. "Mateo knows my voice! If he's locked in a dark room, he’s terrified! Let me come with you!"
Luca stared at me, his thumb tracing a comforting circle over the back of my hand. "It’s going to be violent, Claire. You shouldn't see this."
"I don't care! I'm coming!"
Luca held my gaze for three agonizing seconds before letting out a sharp exhale. "Stay behind me. If I tell you to drop, you drop flat on the floor. Am I clear?"
"Clear."
We hit the estate gates at full speed—they had been rammed open, the heavy iron hinges twisted like foil. The SUV screeched to a halt on the gravel driveway in front of the pitch-black manor. Rain poured down in heavy sheets.
Luca’s men moved like shadows, breaching the front doors with silenced weapons drawn. The interior of the house was a nightmare of shattered glass, broken furniture, and gunshots echoing through the long corridors.
Luca moved with terrifying efficiency, clearing rooms alongside Marco while keeping himself strictly positioned between the shadows and me. Every time a threat emerged, Luca eliminated it with brutal, precise lethality, his eyes never losing their laser focus.
We reached the basement level, where the reinforced steel door of the panic room sat embedded in the foundation. Two armed mercenaries were using a thermal cutter against the heavy lock mechanism.
"Clear!" Luca roared.
Before the men could turn, shots rang out. The mercenaries collapsed to the concrete floor.
Luca rushed to the heavy electronic keypad on the wall, punching in a master override code. The heavy steel door unlatched with a loud pneumatic hiss, swinging open slowly.
Inside the dark, steel-lined room, huddled under a small wooden bench, was Mateo. He was clutching his tiny plastic dinosaur to his chest, trembling uncontrollably, tears streaming down his face.
"Mateo!" I cried, breaking past Luca and throwing myself onto the floor inside the safe room.
The little boy gasped. "Claire!"
He threw his small arms around my neck, sobbing hysterically into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his hair, holding him as tightly as I could while heavy rain and gunshots continued to echo from the upper floors of the house.
Luca stepped into the doorway of the safe room, towering over us, his weapon lowered, his chest heaving as he looked down at his son safely wrapped in my arms.
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"Papa!" Mateo cried out through his tears, holding out one small hand toward his father.
Luca dropped to his knees, wrapping his massive arms around both of us, pulling us close against his chest. For a long, silent minute, surrounded by the cold concrete walls of a panic room, the three of us stayed wrapped in a single embrace, the violent world outside fading into nothingness.
