Chapter 3 - THE RED DRESS TO TACTICAL GEAR
"Did you really think I was just a brainless socialite, Alessandro?" Vivian’s voice rasped through the smoke, cold as ice.
The room erupted. Marco fired two quick shots, forcing Vivian to dive behind the leather sofa. Alessandro shoved me and Emma behind his heavy oak desk, using his own body as a shield while returning fire with lethal precision.
"Get to the panic room through the bookshelf!" Alessandro barked into my ear, pressing a cold metal keycard into my hand. "Take Emma and don't open the door for anyone except me!"
"I'm not leaving you!" I cried out, terror making me bold.
"You have to live, Clara! She’s after Emma!" he yelled over the thunderous gunfire.
Outside the study, chaos had unleashed across Villa Moretti. The twelve families, believing they were being betrayed by Alessandro, had turned their weapons on his loyal guards. The entire mansion was a warzone of crossfire, glass shattering, and roaring men.
Vivian’s mercenaries flooded the study doorway. Marco was hit in the shoulder, grunting as he fell back against the wall, but continued firing one-handed.
I scrambled on my knees toward the hidden mechanism behind the bookshelf. My hands shook so violently I dropped the keycard twice. Emma was crying hysterically, clutching my shirt.
"Hurry!" Alessandro shouted, ducking as a volley of bullets tore through the leather chairs behind him. He dropped his empty magazine, slapped in a fresh one, and leaned out to eliminate two mercenaries coming through the door.
I finally swiped the card. The bookcase clicked and slid back with a heavy hydraulic hiss, revealing a dark, steel-reinforced elevator shaft.
"Go!" Alessandro ordered, grabbing my shoulder and shoving us inside.
"Alessandro, wait!" I screamed.
Through the closing gap of the secret door, I saw Vivian step into the room, flanked by four armed men. She leveled her gun straight at Alessandro’s chest while he was distracted reloading.
"Goodbye, my darling fiancé," Vivian sneered.
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The secret heavy steel door slammed shut, cutting off the sound of a gunshot.
CHAPTER 3 HOOK: The elevator plunged down into total pitch-blackness. Five seconds later, the elevator cables snapped with a sickening CRACK, and we began free-falling into the deep subterranean abyss beneath the villa.
