Chapter 1 - The Breach
"Rule 3," Sadi whispered.
Her eyes remained locked on the dark barrel of the pistol.
"You broke it," Dante Russo rasped.
His finger tightened slightly on the trigger.
"I can leave right now," she offered in a trembling voice.
"You have seen entirely too much," he said.
Blood dripped steadily from his side and pooled on the expensive Persian rug.
"If you shoot me, you will bleed to death in less than ten minutes," Sadi stated firmly.
She forced herself to look past the deadly weapon and directly into his cold gray eyes.
"I was a nursing student before I took this job," she lied slightly to simplify her past.
"I know exactly how to stop arterial bleeding."
Dante stared at her for a long and terrifying moment.
His breathing grew shallower with every passing second.
The heavy pistol suddenly slipped from his failing grip and hit the floor with a dull thud.
"Do it," he commanded before his head rolled back against the mahogany desk.
Sadi rushed forward and tore his ruined white shirt completely open.
The bullet had entered just below his ribs.
Dark blood pulsed rapidly from the deep entry wound.
She stripped off her thick cotton apron and pressed it fiercely against his side.
Dante grunted in sudden agony.
"Who did this to you?" she asked.
"The men guarding the front gate," he whispered.
Sadi felt a sharp chill run entirely down her spine.
The men guarding the front gate were his own personal security detail.
Heavy footsteps suddenly echoed from the hardwood floor in the hallway outside the study.
Someone was walking up the restricted staircase.
"They are here to finish the job," Dante choked out.
He weakly reached for the dropped gun on the floor.
Sadi kicked the weapon under the heavy oak desk and grabbed him under the arms.
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"We have to hide," she urged frantically.
The heavy footsteps stopped right outside the slightly open door of the study.
