Chapter 3 - THE MAID OF BLACKWOODThe entryway exploded into chaos. The intruder screamed as Goliath’s massive jaws clamped down on his forearm, the sound of tearing ballistic fabric and bone blending with the roar of the storm. The man dropped his rifle, firing blindly into the ceiling as the mastiff dragged him backward onto the porch.
"Goliath, heel!" Natalie screamed, raising the Glock with both hands, her arms shaking violently.
Another shadow appeared in the doorway, raising a pistol to shoot the dog. Dante moved with terrifying speed. Despite his severe injuries, he lunged forward, his tactical knife flashing in the dim light. He drove the blade downward with brutal precision, neutralizing the second assailant before the man could pull the trigger.
The second man crumpled to the floor, gasping once before going entirely still.
Dante stood over the body, blood dripping from his knife, his chest heaving as searing pain tore through his stitched abdomen. He kicked the man's weapon away across the floorboards.
"Natalie," Dante said, his voice dropping to an urgent, commanding whisper. "Get the rifle. There are more coming up the ridge. That was just the vanguard."
Natalie stood frozen for a split second, staring at the body bleeding onto her worn rug. The reality of her quiet, struggling life had shattered into a million jagged pieces. She wasn't just an ER nurse anymore. She was an accomplice to a mafia war.
"Liam!" she gasped, remembering the baby monitor.
Footsteps echoed from the top of the wooden stairs. Natalie whipped around, leveling the Glock upward.
A small figure in dinosaur pajamas appeared at the top of the landing, rubbing his sleepy eyes. "Mommy? Why is there so much noise? Is it storming?"
"Liam, stay in your room!" Natalie yelled, her voice cracking with terror.
Dante stepped in front of her, lowering his profile to shield her line of sight. He looked up at the boy, his ferocious expression softening for a microsecond—a strange, unreadable flicker of raw emotion crossing his battered features.
"Hey, buddy," Dante called out, keeping his voice steady and calm. "Everything's fine. Go back to bed and count to fifty. Your mom and I are just cleaning up a mess."
Liam blinked sleepily, looked down at the strange man covered in blood, and then at his mother holding a gun. But kids possess a strange resilience. "Okay," the boy mumbled, turning around and padding back into his bedroom.
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Natalie exhaled a breath she felt she’d been holding for a decade. She looked at Dante, her eyes blazing with a dangerous mix of fury and adrenaline. "If my son gets so much as a scratch, I will put a bullet in your brain myself."
Dante met her gaze without flinching. "Understood. Now help me barricade this door. We have about three minutes before Viktor realizes his first team didn't check in."
