Chapter 6 - INTO THE STABLES
When the ringing in his ears subsided and his vision cleared, the study was empty. The surviving intruder had dragged his wounded partner out through the shattered window. Sirens wailed softly in the distance—local police, finally responding to the automated panic alert he had triggered earlier from his phone before it died. But Alejandro didn't wait for the corrupt local authorities. He knew the local department was in someone's pocket; otherwise, heavily armed thugs wouldn't be roaming his property with impunity. He slipped out through the service entrance, keeping low beneath the low-hanging branches of the pine trees as he jogged toward the old horse stables. The cold mist clung to his jacket like a shroud. Inside the dark, cavernous stable, the sweet smell of dry hay and horse manure masked the metallic tang of fear. He pushed open the heavy wooden door of the main stall. There, huddled together in the corner behind a pile of old saddles, were Sofía and Lucía. They were shivering uncontrollably, their small arms wrapped tightly around each other. "Daddy?" Sofía whispered, her voice cracking in the dark. The word hit Alejandro with the force of a physical blow. He had never been anyone's father. Not yet. But kneeling in the hay, wrapping his heavy wool coat around their fragile frames, he knew there was no turning back. "I've got you," he whispered, his throat tightening. "Nobody is ever going to hurt you again." But as he scooped them into his arms and turned toward the exit, a pair of heavy headlights cut through the fog outside, trapping them in the doorway.
