Chapter 9 - WRATH OF THE DON
Inside the panic room, time ceased to exist. We watched the security monitors in horror. The mansion was a war zone. Smoke filled the grand foyer. I watched Victor fight like a demon, moving with lethal precision, dropping enemy after enemy. He was defending his castle, his bloodline, and me.
But there were too many. On the monitor, I saw Victor take a bullet to the shoulder. He stumbled behind a marble pillar, reloading with one hand. Carlo, the traitor, stepped into view, pointing a gun at Victor's hiding spot.
"Dad!" Marco screamed at the screen, tears streaming down his face.
I couldn't stay in the box. "Lock the door behind me," I told Marco.
"No! Serena, he said to stay!"
"Lock it!" I demanded, grabbing a spare weapon from the panic room's armory. I opened the heavy steel door, slipped out, and ran up the servant's stairs. I came out on the second-floor balcony overlooking the foyer.
Carlo was laughing, taunting Victor. "You got soft, Boss! A woman ruined you!"
"No," I shouted from the balcony. "She just fixed his aim."
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Carlo looked up, startled. It was the split-second distraction Victor needed. Victor swung around the pillar and fired twice. Carlo fell dead on the marble floor. The remaining Moretti soldiers, seeing their leader and the inside man dead, broke and ran. The Rinaldi guards swarmed in, securing the house.
I dropped the gun and ran down the stairs. Victor collapsed to his knees, clutching his bleeding shoulder, but when he saw me, he caught me in his uninjured arm, burying his face in my neck.
