Chapter 3 - The Broken Glass
Miller thrashed violently against the desk.
Blood pooled rapidly around the steel staple pinning his hand to the wood.
Dante walked slowly across the reception area.
His dark eyes flicked from the screaming federal agent to the staple gun in Emily's hand.
"I see you handled the audit," Dante said with absolute calm.
"He threatened my brother," Emily gasped, backing away from the desk.
"He is FBI, Dante."
Dante pressed the barrel of his pistol against Miller's temple.
"He is not FBI," Dante corrected her.
"He is a mercenary who bought a fake badge on the dark web."
Dante leaned down and ripped the staple out of the wood with one brutal pull.
Miller collapsed onto the floor, clutching his bleeding hand and whimpering.
"Who hired you to spy on my office?" Dante asked the bleeding man.
"Go to hell," Miller spat.
Dante did not hesitate.
He fired a single suppressed shot into Miller's kneecap.
The man shrieked in pain and curled into a tight ball on the carpet.
"I will ask you one last time," Dante said softly.
"Clara!" Miller screamed through his tears.
"Clara hired me!"
The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees.
Emily watched Dante's face completely lose its color.
"My wife is dead," Dante whispered, his voice trembling for the first time.
"She survived the car bomb," Miller cried.
"She has been building her own syndicate in secret for nine years."
Emily suddenly remembered the warning Salvatore had whispered to her.
The ghost was back.
Dante stumbled backward and lowered his weapon in pure shock.
His invincible armor had just shattered.
"She wants the master ledger, Marino," Miller laughed bloodily.
"And she is going to kill the secretary's brother to get it."
Emily's heart stopped.
"Where is the sniper?" Emily demanded, grabbing Miller by the collar.
Before Miller could answer, a deafening crack echoed through the room.
The massive floor-to-ceiling glass window behind Dante violently exploded inward.
Shards of glass rained down like lethal daggers.
"Get down!" Dante roared, tackling Emily to the floor.
A barrage of high-caliber bullets tore through the office.
The expensive computer monitors shattered into pieces.
The walls were chewed apart by automatic gunfire coming from the adjacent skyscraper.
Dante dragged Emily behind the thick oak desk for cover.
He pulled a spare magazine from his pocket and reloaded his weapon.
"They are trying to trap us here," Dante yelled over the deafening noise.
He looked at Emily, his eyes completely focused and deadly again.
"We have to get to the elevator before her strike team breaches this floor."
Emily crawled over the broken glass and reached for the black flash drive on the floor.
"Leave it!" Dante ordered.
"It has the ledger," Emily argued, shoving it into her pocket.
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The gunfire suddenly stopped, leaving a ringing silence in the destroyed office.
Heavy tactical boots pounded against the hardwood floor in the hallway outside.
