Chapter 4 - Blood in the Hallways
The sound of shattering glass echoed from the eastern wing, followed by the dull, rhythmic pop-pop-pop of suppressed gunfire.
Clara curled into a tight ball beneath the desk, her hands clamped over her ears, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. The terrifying reality of the world she had stepped into crashed down upon her with brutal force. This wasn't a corporate boardroom dispute; it was an execution.
“Noah!” Dominic shouted into his comm-link, his voice like jagged glass. “Status!”
“Front gate cameras are down!” Noah’s voice crackled back over the receiver, punctuated by the sound of a shotgun blast. “It’s the Irish crew from the docks! They brought heavy ordnance! They’re pushing toward the second-floor stairwell!”
Dominic flicked the safety off his pistol, his jaw clenched so tightly a muscle ticked in his cheek. He looked down at Clara, who was trembling violently against the wood paneling.
“Listen to me, Clara,” he commanded, his voice cutting through the chaos. “Take this.”
He reached into his pocket and pressed a heavy, cold backup pistol into her shaking hands.
“I-I don’t know how to shoot!” she gasped, tears stinging her eyes.
“It’s simple. Point it at anything that isn’t me and pull the trigger until it clicks,” he said grimly. “If they breach this room, you don't hesitate. Do you understand me?”
Before she could answer, the heavy double doors of the antechamber were blown open by a concussive blast. Splinters of wood exploded across the room.
Dominic didn't hesitate. He rolled out from behind the desk, firing two rapid shots through the smoke into the hallway. A muffled cry of pain echoed from the corridor, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the marble floor.
“Russo!” a harsh, guttural voice shouted from the smoke. “Your time is up! Give us the ledgers and your head, and maybe we’ll let your little whore walk out of here alive!”
A volley of automatic gunfire chewed through the drywall above Clara’s head, raining plaster down onto her hair.
Blind terror surged through her veins, overriding the paralyzing shock. She looked at the heavy pistol in her hand, then toward the shattered doorway where a masked figure holding an assault rifle was stepping into the room, scanning the shadows for targets.
The man raised his rifle, aiming directly toward the desk where Dominic was reloading his magazine behind a marble pillar.
Clara didn't think. She raised the weapon with both shaking hands, closed her eyes, and pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The deafening roar of the pistol inside the enclosed room nearly burst her eardrums. The kickback threw her wrists backward, but when she opened her eyes, the intruder was stumbling backward, dropping his rifle as he collapsed against the doorframe before sliding down into a growing pool of dark red.
Silence descended upon the room for three agonizing seconds, broken only by the hiss of the sprinkler system kicking on overhead.
Dominic stepped out from behind the pillar, his gun raised, scanning the doorway. When he saw the intruder neutralized, his dark eyes snapped back to Clara, who was still kneeling on the floor, staring at her smoking hands in absolute horror.
Noah rushed into the room a second later, his gun drawn, stepping over the body.
“Area secure, Dom,” Noah panted, wiping blood from a shallow graze on his forehead. “We got the rest of them in the stairwell. It’s over.”
Dominic didn't answer Noah. He walked slowly across the room, dropped to one knee in front of Clara, and gently pried the heavy pistol from her trembling fingers, tossing it aside.
He reached out and cupped her face in his large, warm hands. Her skin was ice cold, her eyes wide with shock.
“You shot him,” Dominic murmured, a strange, fierce awe cutting through the cold edge of his voice.
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“I... I killed him,” Clara whispered, a sob finally breaking through her throat. “I killed a man, Dominic.”
“You defended your life,” he corrected fiercely, pulling her rigid body against his chest, completely ignoring the water pouring from the overhead sprinklers that soaked them both to the bone. “You stayed alive. In this house, that’s the only law that matters.”
