Chapter 13 - Blood at the Docks
The coastal fog rolled thick and heavy across the manicured lawns of the Hamptons estate as automatic gunfire shattered the night.
Moresco's mercenaries swarmed the perimeter walls like black ghosts, firing blindly into the reinforced glass windows.
Lucas moved through the corridors with ruthless efficiency, his tactical training turning him into an apex predator.
Each shot he fired was calculated and lethal, dropping the intruders before they could ever reach the inner chambers.
Down in the secured panic room, Hannah held Matteo tightly against her chest, singing a soft nursery rhyme to drown out the explosions.
Despite the terror vibrating through her bones, her mind remained razor-sharp, focused on keeping the little boy safe.
Suddenly, the heavy steel door of the panic room rattled violently as a high-explosive charge was planted against the outer frame.
Hannah's eyes widened in horror as she realized an infiltrator had bypassed the lower security grid through the old drainage tunnels.
She gently set Matteo inside the reinforced floor vault, telling him to stay hidden no matter what sounds he heard outside.
She grabbed a heavy iron fire poker from the decorative hearth beside the desk and braced herself against the wall.
The steel door blasted inward with a deafening roar, sending twisted shards of metal flying across the room.
A heavily scarred mercenary stepped through the smoke, scanning the dark room with a tactical flashlight.
Before he could raise his submachine gun, Hannah swung the iron poker with every ounce of strength in her body.
The metal struck the intruder squarely across his helmet, sending him stumbling backward onto the concrete floor.
He lunged forward, grabbing her wrist and twisting her arm behind her back with brutal force.
Hannah gasped in pain, refusing to scream as she kicked backward, catching him squarely in the knee joint.
The mercenary collapsed with a furious curse, raising his combat knife to deliver a fatal blow.
Before the blade could descend, a deafening gunshot echoed through the room, and the attacker slumped forward, lifeless.
Lucas stood in the shattered doorway, his chest heaving, his face splattered with soot and blood.
He dropped his smoking rifle, rushed across the room, and pulled Hannah into his arms with desperate intensity.
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He checked her over frantically, whispering words of frantic adoration and relief into her hair.
The perimeter security feed flashed green a moment later, signaling that the last of Moresco's assassins had been neutralized.
