Chapter 4 - The Line of Fire
My breath caught in my throat as my own father aimed a loaded weapon at my husband.
The betrayal hit me harder than Julian's infidelity ever could have.
My father had sold me out for gambling money, using my heartbreak to pay his personal debts.
"Put the gun down, Arthur," Nikolai said, his voice terrifyingly calm as he stood perfectly still.
"The Rossi family will kill me if I don't pay them by midnight," my father panicked, his hands shaking violently.
"If you pull that trigger, my men will cut you into pieces before your body hits the floor," Nikolai promised.
I stepped directly in front of Nikolai, placing my body between my husband and my father's trembling gun.
"Evelyn, move out of the way!" my father shouted, sweat pouring down his pale face.
"Shoot me then," I challenged, staring directly into the eyes of the man who raised me.
"You already sold my future to Julian, so you might as well finish the job and kill me yourself."
My father's hands shook harder, the heavy revolver wavering as he stared at his own daughter.
In that brief moment of hesitation, Nikolai moved with blinding, lethal speed.
He pulled me to the floor just as a deafening volley of automatic gunfire erupted from the surrounding rooftops.
The glass balcony shattered into a million deadly pieces, showering us in sharp, glittering rain.
I covered my head, pressing my face into the cold marble as bullets tore through the expensive patio furniture.
My father screamed as a bullet clipped his shoulder, dropping his revolver and scrambling toward the elevator for his life.
Nikolai threw his massive body over mine, shielding me entirely from the deadly crossfire.
He pulled a secondary weapon from his ankle holster, returning precise, calculated fire toward the sniper positions.
"We have to move!" Nikolai roared over the deafening sound of shattering glass and flying bullets.
He grabbed my hand, pulling me up and dragging me frantically toward the reinforced steel doors of his private study.
We dove inside just as the heavy doors slammed shut, locking automatically with a loud, electronic click.
The study was soundproof and heavily armored, plunging us instantly into a tense, suffocating silence.
Nikolai leaned heavily against the wall, breathing hard, his white shirt torn and stained with dust.
"Are you okay?" I asked, my voice trembling as the sheer terror of the ambush finally set in.
He nodded slowly, holstering his weapon and running a hand through his messy dark hair.
"The Rossi family just declared open war on my syndicate," he stated grimly.
He walked over to his massive mahogany desk and opened a hidden compartment, pulling out two passports.
"We are leaving the city tonight, Evelyn."
I looked at the passports, realizing one of them bore my face but a completely different, fabricated name.
Before I could ask where we were going, Nikolai's private encrypted phone buzzed loudly on the desk.
He put the call on speaker, and a distorted, mechanical voice filled the silent room.
May you like
"We missed the husband, but the explosive charge under his desk should finish the job nicely."
I looked down at the desk just as a red digital timer strapped to the underside hit exactly three seconds.
