Chapter 3 - Blood on the Marble
I screamed and threw my body over Nora.
A sharp, deafening crack echoed through the garden.
I waited for the burning pain of a bullet, but it never came.
Instead, warm liquid splattered across my cheek.
I opened my eyes and saw Marco collapsing to the grass.
A dark hole was perfectly centered in his forehead.
I looked up toward the mansion.
Adrian stood on the second-floor balcony, a smoking sniper rifle resting against the railing.
His face was an expressionless mask of pure violence.
"Get inside!" his voice roared through the night, echoing off the trees.
I scooped Nora into my arms and ran faster than I ever had in my life.
My lungs burned as I burst back through the kitchen doors.
Adrian was already flying down the stairs, a handgun now gripped in his fist.
He grabbed my shoulder, his eyes scanning my face for injuries.
"Are you hit?" he demanded, wiping Marco’s blood off my cheek with his thumb.
"No," I choked out, trembling uncontrollably.
Nora was crying silently, hiding her face in my neck.
Adrian locked the heavy steel deadbolts on the kitchen doors.
Alarms began to blare throughout the massive estate.
Red emergency lights painted the walls in terrifying flashes.
"He had a spider tattoo," I whispered, still in shock.
Adrian’s jaw locked tight.
"The Moretti syndicate," he confirmed.
He pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt.
"Lock down the perimeter, no one gets in or out," he barked into the radio.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the hidden basement door.
"Why do they want my daughter?" I cried as we descended into the dark stairwell.
Adrian stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked back at me.
"Because James wasn't just my younger brother," Adrian said softly.
He typed a passcode into a heavy vault door.
"James was the sole owner of the legitimate half of the Cole empire."
The vault door swung open, revealing a massive panic room.
"And now, your three-year-old daughter is worth four billion dollars," Adrian revealed.
I stumbled backward, feeling the world spin out of control.
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"And Clara," Adrian added, his voice turning deadly.
"The Morettis couldn't have known about her unless someone inside my house told them."
