Chapter 3 - The Mountain Falls
The second assassin spun around wildly, firing his weapon blindly into the thick gray mist.
Another precise gunshot echoed, and the second man dropped his gun, clutching his shattered knee.
A massive, broad-shouldered silhouette emerged slowly from the heavy fog.
It was Maso Greco, the giant bodyguard who had tried to stop me from leaving the mansion last night.
He walked up to the injured assassin and delivered a brutal, silencing kick to the man's head.
Maso turned toward us, his chest heaving and his left arm soaked in dark red blood.
I rushed forward to help him, realizing he had taken a bullet in the shoulder during the brief firefight.
He waved me off, insisting that we did not have a single second to waste.
I asked him how he had managed to find us in this abandoned part of the city.
He explained that Alessandro had ordered him to track my phone the moment I left the birthday dinner.
Maso had been waiting outside my jewelry shop all night to ensure my absolute safety.
When Ruggero's men breached the front door, Maso had used the distraction to flank their vehicles.
I asked him if Alessandro was safe, and Maso's tough, hardened expression completely crumbled.
He told me that the birthday dinner had been a carefully orchestrated trap set by Ruggero.
Ruggero had locked the dining room doors the exact second I walked out of the mansion.
Half of the family captains had drawn their weapons, betraying Alessandro right there at the table.
Alessandro was currently being held hostage in the basement of his own ancestral home.
Maso had barely escaped the estate to fulfill his final order of protecting me at all costs.
Elena let out a quiet sob, realizing that the man who had hired her was now facing certain death.
I felt a cold, furious fire ignite in my chest, burning away the last remnants of my heartbreak.
I told Maso that we were going to find a safehouse and decode the microchip immediately.
He nodded, leading us toward a stolen black sedan hidden beneath a crumbling overpass.
We climbed into the vehicle, and Maso sped recklessly through the empty industrial streets.
I looked out the window, gripping the tiny microchip in my pocket like a weapon.
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Maso glanced at the rearview mirror and cursed violently under his breath.
A dark gray armored van had just turned the corner, accelerating rapidly toward our bumper.
