Chapter 10 - The Siege of Queens
Chaos erupted in a fraction of a second as blinding smoke filled the cramped apartment from wall to wall.
Lucas reacted with lethal, instinctive speed, tackling Hannah to the floor and shielding her body with his own.
He drew his Sig Sauer pistol from his shoulder holster, his eyes scanning the shattered window through the stinging haze.
Heavy boots pounded up the wooden stairs outside the apartment door, followed by the deafening roar of automatic gunfire chewing through the drywall.
"Stay down," Lucas commanded, his voice dark, steady, and terrifyingly calm in the face of imminent death.
He scooped the sleeping Matteo into one arm while pulling Hannah close with the other, retreating toward the small bathroom in the back.
Moresco’s mercenaries were blasting their way through the front entrance, wood splinters flying like shrapnel across the room.
Lucas kicked open the bathroom window, which overlooked a narrow alleyway connected to the elevated train tracks above.
He hoisted Matteo through first, dropping him gently into the arms of his trusted bodyguard waiting on the fire escape below.
As Lucas turned to pull Hannah through, a masked gunman burst into the hallway with a raised assault rifle.
Hannah screamed a warning, throwing a heavy ceramic soap dispenser directly at the intruder's face to break his aim.
The mercenary stumbled, his weapon discharging wildly into the ceiling tiles before Lucas put a precise bullet through his chest.
Lucas grabbed Hannah's hand, pulling her through the narrow window just as a second wave of gunmen swarmed the apartment.
They scrambled up the rusted iron ladder of the fire escape as bullets pinged off the metal rails around them.
Lucas fired back with deadly efficiency, covering their retreat until they reached the rooftop of the adjacent tenement.
The midnight wind whipped through their hair as they stood high above the glittering, indifferent lights of Queens.
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Lucas looked down at Hannah, checking her body frantically for any sign of injury amidst the soot and blood.
Hannah stared into his fierce, protective eyes, realizing with absolute certainty that there was no turning back from this world anymore.
