Chapter 7 - IN THE LION'S DEN
The rejection of the arranged marriage sent the Moretti family into a rabid frenzy. They knew Julian’s weakness now. It wasn't his shipping routes or his offshore accounts. It was his home.
It happened on a rainy Thursday afternoon. The children were in the heavily fortified courtyard, playing a chaotic game of soccer. Claire was sitting on the terrace, watching them, when a massive explosion rocked the front gates of the estate.
A coordinated assault team had used a hijacked garbage truck packed with C4 to blow the reinforced steel gates completely off their hinges.
Alarms screamed. Guards shouted in Italian and English, raising their automatic weapons as black vans swarmed up the driveway.
“Inside! Now!” Claire screamed, sprinting toward the children.
She grabbed Rosie by the collar and shoved her toward the reinforced panic room doors. Mateo and Enzo were fast on her heels, but Leo tripped over the soccer ball, falling hard on the wet grass.
A Moretti gunman rounded the corner, raising an assault rifle directly at the eight-year-old boy.
Claire didn’t think. She threw herself entirely over Leo’s small body, shielding him just as a bullet ripped through the air. A blinding, searing pain exploded in her left shoulder.
She screamed, the force of the impact knocking them both into the mud.
Before the gunman could fire a second shot, Julian’s voice tore through the courtyard like the roar of a demon. He emptied an entire magazine into the gunman, the bullets tearing the man apart. Julian dropped the empty weapon, drawing a second gun as his elite security forces flooded the lawn, systematically slaughtering the intruders.
Julian fell to his knees beside Claire, his hands covered in her blood. She was gasping for air, her vision blurring, her hands still desperately clutching Leo to her chest.
“Claire. Claire, look at me,” Julian begged, tearing off his suit jacket and pressing it violently against the gunshot wound in her shoulder. His hands were shaking. The untouchable king of New York was falling apart in the mud. “Stay awake. Do not close your eyes.”
“Leo,” Claire gasped, coughing weakly. “Is he okay?”
“I’m okay, Claire,” Leo sobbed, gripping her bloody hand. “Don’t die. Please don’t die.”
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Julian picked Claire up in his arms, screaming for the estate’s private medical team. As darkness crept into the edges of her vision, Claire looked up at Julian’s terrified face.
“You… owe me… a raise,” she whispered, before completely losing consciousness.
