Chapter 4 - THE BULLET AND THE RABBIT"No!" Aleandro roared.
It wasn't a command; it was a primal sound born from the deepest, darkest trenches of his soul—the sound of an orphan refusing to let another child be sacrificed to the violence of the underworld.
With a burst of explosive speed, Aleandro lunged across the dining room, throwing his body directly into the line of fire just as Isabella pulled the trigger.
CRACK.
The gunshot deafened the room. A white-hot searing pain tore through Aleandro’s left shoulder, missing his heart by precisely three inches—exactly as the prophecy of the night had foretold. He slammed into the heavy oak door, sending a spray of dark blood across the white trim, but he used his momentum to tackle Isabella hard to the floor.
Her gun went skittering across the polished marble, coming to a stop near Mateo’s tactical boots.
Mateo rushed forward, kicking the weapon away and slamming Isabella face-first onto the floor, pressing a heavy combat boot between her shoulder blades. "Got her! Boss, are you hit?"
Aleandro clutched his left shoulder, blood leaking between his massive fingers, staining his custom charcoal suit crimson. He didn't look at his wound. He crawled on his knees toward the pantry door where Emma stood shaking, frozen in absolute terror with her stuffed rabbit still clutched to her chest.
He scooped the little girl into his right arm, pulling her tightly against his chest, shielding her face from the carnage of the room.
"You're safe, Emma," Aleandro breathed, his voice thick with pain but steady as an anchor. "You're safe. Close your eyes."
Across the room, pinned beneath Mateo’s boot, Isabella was laughing hysterically, blood trickling from a split lip where she had hit the floor.
"You think you won, Aleandro?" she shrieked over the rising din of explosions outside. "Valentin is already in the courtyard! Your safehouse codes are broadcasted! Your money is being transferred to Swiss accounts as we speak! Moretti Holdings is dead!"
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Aleandro slowly rose to his feet, handing a trembling Emma to a trusted housekeeper who had crawled out of the kitchen in a panic. He walked over to Isabella, towering over her broken, defiant form.
"Valentin is welcome to try," Aleandro said, his voice dropping into a register so cold it made Mateo shudder. "Because unlike you, Isabella... he doesn't know what's waiting for him in the dark."
