CHAPTER 5 – THE BULLET MEANT FOR A CHILD
CHAPTER 5 – THE BULLET MEANT FOR A CHILD
The red laser stopped on Sophia's heart.
Everything else disappeared.
The flames.
The screaming.
The gunfire.
Dominic saw only that tiny crimson dot dancing across his five-year-old daughter's pajamas.
"Down!" he roared.
The shot rang out.
Elena moved before anyone else.
She threw herself across Sophia.
The bullet tore through Elena's shoulder instead.
Blood splashed across the white marble floor.
Sophia screamed.
"Miss Elena!"
Dominic spun toward the tree line.
"There!"
A second sniper fired.
This time Dominic was ready.
He pulled Sophia behind a stone pillar and fired three rapid shots toward the flash.
One missed.
The second shattered the rifle scope.
The third struck the sniper in the chest.
The man fell backward into the darkness.
For a brief moment, silence returned.
Then slow applause echoed from the mansion gates.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
A tall man stepped out of the smoke.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Black leather gloves.
No weapon in sight.
Yet every surviving gunman lowered their heads the instant they saw him.
Even Alessandro Romano's face drained of color.
"No..."
he whispered.
"He came himself."
Dominic narrowed his eyes.
"I don't know you."
The stranger smiled.
"No."
"But I knew your father."
His voice was calm.
Almost kind.
"My name is Adrian Varga."
The name hit Elena harder than the bullet.
She struggled to stand despite the blood soaking her uniform.
"You should have stayed dead."
Varga chuckled.
"So should you."
Dominic noticed something strange.
Neither Romano nor the remaining assassins looked at Varga with respect.
They looked at him with fear.
Real fear.
Romano suddenly dropped to his knees.
"Please..."
"I did everything you asked."
"I betrayed Moretti."
"I brought Victoria."
"I delivered the estate."
Varga never answered.
He simply nodded once.
A suppressed shot echoed from somewhere behind him.
Romano collapsed face-first onto the driveway.
Dead.
One bullet.
One execution.
Varga didn't even turn around.
"Betrayers," he said quietly, "always imagine they're partners."
He looked directly at Dominic.
"You've been fighting the wrong enemy for years."
Dominic tightened his grip on his pistol.
"What do you want?"
Varga smiled.
"Your children."
Sophia clung to Dominic's leg.
Lucas stepped in front of his sister without thinking.
The seven-year-old spread his arms wide.
"You can't have her."
Varga actually laughed.
"Interesting."
He looked at Lucas.
"You have your grandfather's courage."
Dominic's heart skipped.
"My father had no father."
Varga's smile disappeared.
"That's another lie you were raised to believe."
Before Dominic could demand answers, a helicopter thundered overhead.
Searchlights flooded the estate.
Black ropes dropped from the aircraft.
More Shadow Wolf operatives descended onto the battlefield.
The balance had shifted.
Varga glanced upward.
"Another night, then."
He pressed a small remote hidden inside his glove.
A series of explosions erupted beneath the mansion.
The ground shook violently.
Columns cracked.
Windows burst outward.
"The tunnels!" Elena shouted.
"He's collapsing the foundations!"
The hidden command center beneath the mansion began caving in.
Thousands of classified files...
Evidence...
Years of surveillance...
Everything was disappearing beneath tons of concrete.
Varga stepped backward into the smoke.
"You still don't understand, Dominic."
"This house was never the target."
"It was only the first lock."
Then he vanished.
Leaving behind fire...
May you like
Blood...
And far more questions than answers.
