CHAPTER 3 – THE GIRL THEY WERE REALLY HUNTING
CHAPTER 3 – THE GIRL THEY WERE REALLY HUNTING
The words hit harder than the gunfire.
"They came... for me."
Emily stared into Ava's terrified eyes, searching for any sign that panic had twisted the child's imagination.
Instead, she found certainty.
Not the certainty of an eight-year-old inventing monsters.
The certainty of someone who had seen something no child should ever witness.
Another volley of bullets ripped through the front windows.
Dominic's men returned fire with disciplined precision.
"Move!" one bodyguard shouted.
"Get Mr. Moretti to the armored vehicles!"
Dominic never moved.
His attention remained fixed on Ava.
"Why would they come for you?"
She shook her head violently.
"I wasn't supposed to tell."
"TELL WHO?" he demanded.
"The man in the blue room."
Every guard exchanged uneasy glances.
"There is no blue room," one muttered.
Ava covered her ears again.
"Yes there is! He keeps saying the same numbers!"
Emily leaned closer.
"What numbers, sweetheart?"
Ava closed her eyes.
As if listening.
Then she whispered,
"Seven... four... one... nine... two... eight..."
One of Dominic's oldest bodyguards suddenly froze.
His face drained of color.
"Boss..."
Dominic looked at him sharply.
"What?"
"I've heard those numbers before."
"Where?"
The man swallowed.
"They're the access code to Warehouse Twelve."
Silence.
Dominic's expression hardened instantly.
Nobody outside his inner circle knew that warehouse existed.
No one.
Not even most of his own organization.
"Impossible."
"I swear on my life."
Ava had never been there.
She had never even left the family estate without an escort.
So how did she know?
Before anyone could answer, a loud explosion rocked the building.
The chandeliers swayed violently.
Smoke poured in through the shattered entrance.
"They've breached the lobby!"
"Fall back!"
The attackers weren't random gunmen.
They moved with military precision.
Disciplined.
Silent.
Professional.
Dominic understood immediately.
"Black Vipers."
The name spread through the room like poison.
Chicago's deadliest contract killers.
Men who never accepted jobs they couldn't finish.
If the Black Vipers had been hired...
Someone had invested millions to make sure nobody survived tonight.
Dominic pulled a compact pistol from beneath his jacket and handed another to his chief of security.
Then he did something nobody expected.
He looked directly at Emily.
"Can you protect her?"
Emily blinked.
"What?"
"If I go down..."
He crouched in front of her.
"...don't let them take Ava."
"You don't even know me."
"No."
His gray eyes remained steady.
"But she trusts you."
Emily glanced toward Ava.
The little girl had wrapped both arms around her waist.
She refused to let go.
Dominic noticed.
So did every bodyguard.
One whispered,
"Incredible..."
Another simply stared.
Three nannies.
Psychologists.
Private tutors.
None of them had managed to get within three feet of Ava.
Emily had known her less than fifteen minutes.
Yet somehow...
The terrified child had chosen her.
Outside, tires screeched.
More vehicles.
Too many.
A bodyguard looked through the shattered doorway.
"There are at least twenty of them."
"We're surrounded."
Dominic nodded once.
Then his expression became frighteningly calm.
"So be it."
The restaurant erupted into another firefight.
Tables splintered.
Marble columns cracked.
Bullets shredded expensive paintings.
Emily curled around Ava as glass rained from the ceiling.
She wasn't thinking about bravery.
She was thinking about keeping one frightened little girl alive.
Ava suddenly whispered against her shoulder,
"They're coming through the wine cellar."
Emily frowned.
"What?"
"The secret door."
"There isn't—"
Before she finished speaking...
A section of the wine cellar wall exploded inward.
Masked gunmen flooded into the restaurant.
Exactly where Ava had pointed.
The bodyguards spun around in shock.
"They're behind us!"
Dominic fired twice.
Both attackers dropped instantly.
But six more replaced them.
The Black Vipers kept advancing.
Cold.
Methodical.
Unstoppable.
Emily looked down at Ava.
"How did you know?"
The little girl burst into tears.
"I heard them."
For the first time...
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Emily wasn't wondering whether Ava imagined voices.
She was wondering whose voices they really were.
