CHAPTER 4 — A Bullet for a Child
CHAPTER 4 — A Bullet for a Child
Time slowed.
Victor threw himself toward Sophia just as the sniper squeezed the trigger.
The rifle cracked through the morning air.
The bullet sliced past Sophia's shoulder, missing her by inches before shattering a marble fountain behind her.
Victor wrapped the little girl in his arms and rolled across the grass.
Fragments of stone rained around them.
Sophia buried her face against his chest, trembling but silent.
"It's okay," Victor whispered. "I've got you."
He looked up.
The rooftop sniper was already chambering another round.
"Roof!" Marco shouted.
Three of Victor's men opened fire.
The sniper abandoned his position, sprinting across the tiles before disappearing over the back of the villa.
"He can't get far!" Marco yelled.
Victor shook his head.
"He doesn't need to."
The sniper's mission had changed.
He wasn't trying to kill Victor anymore.
He was creating enough chaos for the real targets to escape.
Victor's eyes snapped toward the driveway.
The sedan was empty.
The assassin, Isabella, and Senator Coleman were gone.
"Damn it!"
Luca's voice came through the radio.
"Boss! They're heading for the underground garage!"
Victor froze.
Only family members knew about the hidden tunnel beneath the estate.
Years earlier, his father had ordered its construction as an emergency escape route.
The plans had never been shared outside the family.
Yet Isabella knew every inch of it.
She wasn't improvising.
She had planned to use it all along.
Victor, Marco, and six men raced toward the villa.
Inside, elegant hallways echoed with hurried footsteps.
They reached the wine cellar.
A massive rack of vintage bottles had swung open, revealing a concrete passage lit by dim emergency lights.
"They're ahead of us," Marco said.
Victor stepped into the tunnel.
The heavy stone door slid shut behind them.
The tunnel stretched for hundreds of yards beneath the estate.
Fresh tire tracks marked the dusty floor.
"They brought a vehicle in here," Marco observed.
Victor nodded.
"They planned their escape before sunrise."
Suddenly, Antonio's frightened voice crackled over the radio.
"Boss!"
Victor answered immediately.
"What is it?"
"Sophia..."
Victor's heart tightened.
"What about her?"
"She says she remembers the assassin."
Victor stopped walking.
Marco nearly collided with him.
"What?"
Antonio continued,
"She says he's the man who visited the gardener's cottage three nights ago."
Victor frowned.
"He spoke with my daughter."
Marco's expression darkened.
"What did he want?"
Antonio answered with a shaking voice.
"He asked Sophia one question."
Victor gripped the radio.
"What question?"
Antonio swallowed.
"He showed her an old photograph... and asked if she'd ever seen the boy in the picture."
Victor felt the blood drain from his face.
"What boy?"
Antonio hesitated.
Then quietly said,
"The photograph wasn't of a boy."
"It was of you."
Victor stood motionless in the center of the tunnel.
This had never been just an assassination.
Someone had been investigating his past.
Someone had been searching for him long before the bomb, long before Isabella's betrayal.
And for the first time since the nightmare began, Victor realized a terrifying possibility:
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He wasn't the beginning of this conspiracy.
He was its final target.
