Chapter 8 - the breach
Lorenzo was on his feet instantly, drawing his weapon from his shoulder holster.
"Stay here. Lock the bolt behind me," he commanded, moving toward the door.
"Lorenzo, wait!" Amelia grabbed his forearm. Her touch was warm, desperate. "Take your radio!"
Lorenzo looked down at her small hand against his sleeve, nodded once, and vanished into the corridor.
Amelia immediately engaged the deadbolt, picked Leo up from the crib, and retreated into the reinforced bathroom. She kept the light off, listening to the muffled chaos downstairs.
Down in the main courtyard, heavy rain had begun to fall.
A black SUV had smashed through the secondary iron gate, its front bumper crumpled against the marble fountain. Security guards had weapons drawn, surrounding the vehicle.
Marco stood at the front, rain plastering his hair to his forehead, gun aimed directly at the driver’s side window.
"Step out of the vehicle with your hands visible!" Marco bellowed over the roar of the rain.
Lorenzo arrived at the grand entrance, descending the stone steps with lethal grace. "Hold your fire!"
The driver’s side door creaked open. A woman in a soaked trench coat tumbled out onto the wet cobblestones, coughing and holding her side.
Marco moved in with two guards, kicking away her dropped purse. He grabbed her shoulder and flipped her over to face the floodlights.
Lorenzo stopped dead in his tracks.
The woman lying in the courtyard was not a Moretti hitman.
It was Dr. Evelyn Vance—the wife of the pediatrician who had just left the estate twenty minutes ago.
"Lorenzo..." Evelyn gasped, clutching Lorenzo’s wet trouser leg. "They have my husband. They took him from our driveway..."
Lorenzo crouched down, hauling her up by her lapels. "Who took him, Evelyn?"
May you like
"The woman..." Evelyn cried hysterically, rain streaming down her pale face. "The woman with Clara’s face!"
***
