Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
I had never seen such an alert and almost lethal look in his gaze before. For a moment I couldn’t register anything else that was going on around us. Suddenly, I found myself being pulled around his desk.
“Shhh,” he warned sternly.
I couldn’t stop myself from trembling.
Then he mouthed to me. “Everything is going to be fine.”
As I stared at him in shock and fear, he set his gun on the table and pulled away the rug underneath him. To my surprise, it exposed a latch which he pulled open, revealing steps leading down into a secret underground space.
I was shocked because I had lived in that house for so long and never knew that something like that existed.
My eyes widened as I stared at him, and then he started to guide me towards the hole in the ground. Before I could say a single word, I was hurrying down the narrow stairs. At the bottom, I turned around to wait for him but he was not coming down. He smiled at me. It was devoid of the warmth I had long come to appreciate and anticipate whenever he looked at me. Instead, his face was sad and cold, and it broke my heart. I couldn’t understand why he was looking at me that way, but then I began to hear the lock to his office being fumbled with and I almost passed out.
“Quickly, Papa, come down,” I urged desperately, but he didn’t come down to join me.
Instead, he squatted and said softly to me. “You’ll get an email from me.”
I was confused as to what he was talking about. “What?”
“I love you,” he said, and before I could respond the door was shut and locked. I was encompassed in complete and total darkness.
Chapter 2
Dante
Iheard the gunshots over the phone.
And everything inside of me went cold.
The intruders would be professional killers with silencers. That must be Marco Leone, either he was just shooting warning shots, or wildly shooting at the intruders. Either scenario meant bad news for him. Instinct told me he was probably already dead, but he would have hidden his daughter though. A few seconds passed, but it felt like an eternity.
“Boss? Boss?” Luca called.
I gripped the phone hard. “Are you inside?” I barked.
“Yes, Boss. We're navigating our way through the living room.”
“Head straight to his study,” I instructed. “That’s where they are.”
“Yes, Boss,” he said.
“Take a left when you get out of the dining room,” I told Luca.
“We just did,” he replied, his tone low and cautious.
“Go into the living room on the right … you’ll see a door at the end of the hall. That’s where they are.”
“Yep, I see it.”
“Be careful and precise in your movements in case the intruders are still there. And you must protect the man … if he is still alive, and his daughter at all costs. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Boss,” he replied.
I sat back to wait and hear every word they said, how they interacted, and how all of their actions were purposeful.
The worst feeling of dread imaginable was already affecting every single cell in my body. I was worried, furious, and frustrated all at once but I had to remain calm.
“We see his office-”
“Any signs of a struggle?” I interrupted impatiently.
“Yes,” Luca replied softly. “Someone is crying?”
I tried my best to remain calm, but my blood was boiling. “Get ready to kill on sight. No hesitations. If it’s not Leone himself or his daughter, take them out. Don’t waste a fraction of a second.”
“Yes, Boss,” he said, and I listened as they continued in.
I heard the first shot fired, deafening as it rang from the receiver and echoed through the confines of the private airplane. Then the sound of the door being broken down. A few shouts. Another gunshot … and then another. A window shattering … shouting … and what seemed to be a pursuit. Instructions were shouted, most of which were too urgent to decipher.
The moment things seemed to quieten down a little, I called out to Luca. In the background was the unmistakable whimpering of someone who was absolutely terrified.
“Is she okay?” I asked. “What of her dad? Where is he?”
There was a moment of silence and then I heard her heartbreaking scream.
Luca exited the room then and everything was even quieter. In the distance, I could still hear her scream or perhaps it was now just etched into my mind.
Either way, I waited until he was ready to speak.
“She seems to be alright, Boss. A bit bruised because the attacker was trying to pull her out of an escape hole under her father’s desk. We walked in just in the nick of time. He had his gun facing her head, but we startled him and he turned the gun on us. We took him out.”
“Her father?” I asked. “Where is her father?”