Chapter 5 - TRAITOR IN THE FAMILYThe betrayal hit like an artillery shell.
Matteo’s face turned into a mask of pure, terrifying fury. His own sister—his blood—had sold him out to his worst enemy.
Outside the room, heavy gunfire erupted. Glass shattered, and automatic weapons roared as Nina’s loyalists engaged Matteo’s faithful bodyguards in the hallways of the safehouse.
"Lev! Hold the line at the main stairs!" Matteo barked into his comms, grabbing me by the arm. "Elena, put Sophia in the chest carrier! Now!"
I strapped the baby securely to my chest, covering her head with a padded Kevlar flap. Fear threatened to paralyze me, but the thought of my twin boys waiting for me pulled me forward.
Matteo hit a hidden switch behind a bookshelf in the corner of the room. A section of the wall slid open, revealing a tight, dark spiral staircase leading down into the foundations of the estate.
"Down! Go!" he ordered.
We hurried down the narrow metal steps just as the bedroom door was blown off its hinges by a flashbang grenade. Explosive heat and deafening sound echoed down the stairwell, but Matteo slammed the reinforced steel hatch behind us, locking it from the inside.
We descended into a subterranean tunnel system illuminated by dim yellow emergency lights.
"Where does this lead?" I gasped, holding Sophia tightly as we ran.
"To an underground motor pool beneath the boathouse," Matteo said, his voice dripping with venom. "Nina thinks she’s backed me into a corner. She forgot who built this house."
As we sprinted through the damp concrete tunnel, the muffled explosions above us shook dust from the ceiling. We reached a heavy blast door at the end of the passage. Matteo entered a complex sequence into a key pad, and the heavy door hissed open.
Inside sat a matte-black, high-speed tactical assault boat docked in an underground water canal connected directly to the river system.
"Get in!" Matteo commanded.
I jumped into the passenger seat, strapping myself in while keeping Sophia sheltered. Matteo hopped into the captain's chair, flipping a row of toggle switches. The twin V8 marine engines roared to life with a thunderous growl.
Suddenly, heavy footsteps echoed from the tunnel behind us.
Nina walked out into the subterranean dock, flanked by four heavily armed mercenaries holding assault rifles.
"It’s over, Matteo!" Nina shouted over the roar of the boat's engines, aiming a custom handgun straight at her brother's head. "Give me the girl and the baby, and I’ll let you leave the country alive. You don't have to die for them!"
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Matteo slowly turned his head to look at his sister. His eyes were void of any human emotion—only cold, absolute death remained.
"You betrayed family, Nina," Matteo said softly, his voice cutting through the noise of the engines. "In our family, that carries only one penalty."
