Chapter 2 - The Bloody Contract
Gabriel reacted with terrifying speed.
He grabbed Clare by the collar of her cheap uniform and dragged her violently to the floor.
Bullets shredded the antique leather chairs and shattered the crystal whiskey decanter on the desk.
"Stay down," Gabriel roared over the deafening noise.
He pulled his gun and fired three suppressed shots blindly through the splintered door.
A heavy thud echoed from the hallway, followed by the wet sound of a body collapsing.
Gabriel scrambled across the glass-covered carpet, pulling Clare toward a massive oil painting on the far wall.
He ripped the painting down, revealing a thick steel safe embedded in the wall.
He punched in a rapid code, pulled the heavy door open, and grabbed a thick, black tablet.
"What is happening?" Clare screamed, covering her ears as another burst of gunfire echoed from downstairs.
Gabriel ignored her panic, his bloody fingers flying across the digital screen.
He demanded the exact banking routing number for St. Jude's hospital.
Clare recited the numbers through her tears, her mind struggling to process the chaos.
Gabriel hit a final button and tossed the tablet onto the ruined floor.
He looked at her with eyes as cold as dead winter.
"Thirty thousand dollars just cleared their accounts," Gabriel told her.
He stated that her sister would get the medicine tonight.
He then pulled a heavy, antique book on the shelf, causing a hidden panel in the wall to slide open.
Gabriel shoved Clare into the pitch-black passageway just as a new team of heavily armed men breached the study.
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"You belong to me now, Clare," Gabriel whispered into the darkness.
He slammed the stone wall shut, sealing them inside the airless tomb as the mansion burned above them.
