Chapter 4 - The Breach
The attack came at three in the morning, under the cover of a brutal Chicago thunderstorm.
I woke up to the sound of shattered glass and the heavy, rhythmic thud of suppressed gunfire echoing from the lower levels of the mansion. Before I could even process the terror, Dominic was out of bed. He was in his tactical gear in seconds, a heavily modified assault rifle in his hands, his eyes completely devoid of the warmth I had grown used to. The Devil of the West Side had returned.
"Claire, get up!" he ordered, tossing me a thick Kevlar vest. "Get Sophie. Now!"
I scrambled across the hall to Sophie’s room. She was crying, clutching Mr. Buttons to her chest. I scooped her up, wrapping a thick blanket around her, and ran back to Dominic.
"The panic room is behind the library," Dominic said, pressing us against the wall as he checked the corridor. "Silas sold us out. He deactivated the perimeter alarms for the Russians."
Betrayal. The man who had sneered at me in the study had brought an army to our door.
We moved swiftly through the darkened corridors. The smell of gunpowder hung heavy in the air. Suddenly, three masked men rounded the corner. Dominic pushed me and Sophie behind a marble pillar and opened fire. The deafening roar of the gun made Sophie scream. I covered her ears, praying frantically.
"Go! Down the stairs!" Dominic yelled over the chaos.
We made it to the library. Dominic punched in the code to the hidden steel door behind the bookcase. He pushed us inside the reinforced steel bunker, but before he could step in, a gunshot rang out. Dominic grunted, stumbling forward as a bullet grazed his shoulder.
"Dominic!" I screamed, reaching for him.
"Lock the door!" he roared.
Silas stepped into the library, raising his weapon toward the bunker. With blinding speed, Dominic ignored his wound, tackled his former friend to the floor, and smashed the panic room button. The heavy steel door slammed shut, plunging us into absolute darkness, locking us safely inside while the man I loved fought for his life on the other side.
For twenty agonizing minutes, the muffled sounds of war echoed above us. Sophie cried into my chest while I rocked her, my own tears soaking her hair. I prepared myself for the worst. I prepared myself to lose him all over again.
Then, the heavy grinding of the vault door echoed in the dark.
May you like
I held my breath. The door swung open, revealing Dominic. He was battered, bleeding, and covered in dust, but he was standing. Behind him, the house was silent. He dropped his weapon, fell to his knees, and pulled us both out of the bunker, burying his face in my hair as he sobbed with relief.
"It's over," he choked out, holding us with a desperate, iron grip. "They're gone. It's over."
