CHAPTER 5 — THE BLOODLINE
CHAPTER 5 — THE BLOODLINE
The cabin fell into complete darkness.
Only the orange glow from the fireplace remained, casting long shadows across the wooden floor.
Outside...
Snow continued falling.
Inside...
Death waited only a pane of glass away.
Luca extinguished the fire with a single sweep of the poker.
The room disappeared into blackness.
Nora's breathing quickened.
"I can't see anything."
"Good," Luca whispered. "Neither can they."
Another voice boomed through a loudspeaker outside.
"You have one minute, Moretti."
"No tricks."
"We know she's inside."
Luca ignored it.
Instead, he opened a hidden compartment beneath the kitchen table.
Inside were several loaded magazines, a compact medical kit, a folded map, and a worn wooden box sealed with an old brass lock.
He handed the box to Nora.
"Whatever happens, don't let anyone take this."
She frowned.
"What's inside?"
"I've never opened it."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"It isn't mine to open."
Before she could ask another question—
BOOM!
The front porch exploded as a flash grenade shattered every window in the cabin.
Glass rained across the floor.
Gunfire erupted immediately afterward.
Wood splintered.
Bullets ripped through the walls.
"They're coming!" Nora shouted.
"They're already here."
Luca fired twice through the smoke.
Two screams answered.
Then silence.
Only for a heartbeat.
The front door burst inward.
Three masked men stormed inside.
Luca met the first with a chair swung like a battering ram.
The second fired wildly.
The bullet grazed Luca's shoulder.
He didn't even flinch.
He drove the attacker into the wall before disarming him with brutal efficiency.
The third man raised an assault rifle—
Nora reacted without thinking.
She hurled the heavy wooden box.
It struck the gunman's face.
The rifle discharged into the ceiling.
Luca finished him with one precise shot.
The room became still again.
For exactly three seconds.
Then came the sound neither of them wanted to hear.
A helicopter.
Its blades thundered above the cabin.
Luca looked upward.
"They brought air support."
"They came for one waitress?"
"No."
He turned toward her.
"They came for the woman whose DNA can unlock a fortune."
Nora stared.
"My blood?"
"Twenty-six years ago, your parents created something far more valuable than money."
He hesitated.
"They built an international financial network hidden behind dozens of shell companies."
"Only direct biological descendants can legally reclaim it."
She blinked.
"That makes no sense."
"It wasn't meant to."
He pulled another document from the map case.
An old newspaper clipping.
A smiling couple.
A baby wrapped in a pink blanket.
The headline read:
'Young Billionaire Couple Dies in Private Plane Crash.'
Nora's heart pounded.
The baby...
The date...
Matched her birthday.
"No..."
She whispered.
"My parents died."
Luca looked at her with unusual sympathy.
"They never boarded that plane."
The room seemed to tilt beneath her feet.
"What?"
"The crash was staged."
"They vanished."
"And every person who helped them disappeared within months."
Nora's voice cracked.
"So they're alive?"
"I don't know."
"But someone has spent twenty-six years making sure nobody discovers the truth."
Before either could speak again—
A missile struck the roof.
The explosion tore half the cabin apart.
The ceiling collapsed between them.
"Nora!"
"I'm here!"
Smoke filled the room.
Luca grabbed her hand.
May you like
"We leave now."
They disappeared into the forest seconds before the burning cabin collapsed behind them.
