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Chapter 5 - CROSSFIRE AND WHISPERS"Move!" Dante snarled, pushing Vera and Elina toward the heavy reinforced door of the master suite.

Elina clutched baby Leo tightly to her chest, ducking low as a loud CRACK echoed through the mansion—the unmistakable sound of a silenced gunshot piercing the glass windows downstairs. Fear clawed at her throat, but an alien surge of adrenaline kept her feet moving. She wasn't just a waitress anymore. She was caught in a war she didn't start, holding the most precious thing in the world to the most dangerous man alive.

"In! Get in!" Dante commanded, holding the panic room door open.

Vera scrambled inside, pulling Elina and the baby past the threshold. But before Dante could step in behind them, a hail of suppressed gunfire shredded the wooden door frame. Wood splinters exploded everywhere.

"Dante!" Vera screamed.

"Stay inside!" Dante roared back, spinning around with his weapon raised.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Muzzle flashes strobed in the hallway like angry lightning. A heavy thud sounded outside as a body hit the floor, followed by the metallic clatter of a tactical weapon sliding across the hardwood.

Dante backed into the panic room, a shallow crimson graze bleeding across his left shoulder, his chest rising and falling heavily. Without a word, he slammed the massive steel vault door shut and spun the heavy combination wheel, locking them inside a fortress of concrete and titanium.

Silence descended, save for the rhythmic hum of the emergency air filtration system and the soft, steady breathing of baby Leo, who had somehow fallen back asleep right against Elina’s racing heart.

In the dim amber glow of the emergency lights, Dante turned around, wiping a streak of blood from his shoulder. He looked at Elina, whose uniform was stained with a smudge of soot and blood, yet she stood tall, shielding his son with her own body.

"You didn't run," Dante murmured, his voice laced with stunned awe. "You could have dropped him and hidden under the bed. Why didn't you?"

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Elina swallowed hard, her voice trembling slightly but clear. "Because... he’s safe with me. And quite frankly, your son has better manners than anyone else I’ve met tonight."

A rare, dangerous, yet breathtaking smile flickered across the mafia boss's scarred face.

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