Chapter 13 - Midnight Extraction
The suppressed round caught me in the shoulder, throwing me back against the heavy mahogany desk. Pain exploded through my chest, burning hot and sharp, but I didn't drop.
I lunged forward, grabbing the bronze paperweight from my desk and throwing it with all my strength. It struck Sophia's arm, deflecting her second shot into the ceiling plaster.
Lily reacted with frightening speed. Small, nimble, and enhanced by specialized training, she dove under my reach, swept my left ankle, and drove a precise strike into my exposed side. I crashed onto the marble floor, gasping for air as my shoulder bled heavily into my shirt.
"Secure the panic room," Sophia ordered, holding her bruised wrist. "Lock him in."
Lily grabbed the heavy steel door of my private study vault, swinging it shut.
"Wait," I choked out, pushing myself up with one arm, blood pooling beneath my palm. "Sophia... please... he's just a child..."
"He’s an asset, Dominic," Sophia said, looking down at me through the narrowing gap of the heavy door. "And you were just the incubator who kept him safe until he was ready."
The heavy vault door slammed shut with an echoing metallic thud. The digital locking mechanism engaged with three heavy clangs, sealing me inside a soundproof, reinforced steel tomb.
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The room plunged into pitch darkness.
I collapsed against the cold metal floor, my breathing shallow, my pulse thumping wildly in my ears. Outside, my empire was being dismantled, my son was gone, and I was bleeding to death in the dark.
