Chapter 6 - Fire and Iron
Dante turned to me, his hands framing my face, his thumb softly wiping away a smear of drywall dust from my cheek. "Listen to me carefully, Lena," he said, his eyes burning with an undeniable, fierce devotion. "There is a reinforced escape cellar beneath the pantry floor. You get inside, lock it from the inner bolt, and do not open it for anyone except me."
"I'm not leaving you!" I cried, grabbing his lapels as tears finally spilled over my eyelashes. "If you die out there, Dante—" "I am not dying today," he interrupted, kissing my forehead with a desperate intensity that shattered whatever anger I had left. "I have two babies to raise with the only woman I’ve ever loved. Now go!"
He shoved me toward the kitchen pantry just as another round of gunfire shredded the door. I scrambled into the hidden trapdoor, pulling the heavy iron bar into place just as the sound of splintering wood and brutal hand-to-hand combat exploded above me. I crouched in the pitch-black darkness, pressing my hands over my mouth to muffle my sobs, listening to the agonizing sound of gunshots, breaking bones, and Dante's furious roars echoing through the floorboards.
