Chapter 8 - The Reckoning
BOOM!
The heavy glass windows in the drawing room shattered into thousands of sparkling shards as the security alarms across the estate began to wail in high-pitched unison.
Gunfire erupted outside—the sharp, rhythmic chatter of automatic weapons echoing through the night air.
Gabriel reacted instantly. He shoved Sophie behind his broad frame, pulling a sleek black pistol from a concealed holster beneath his arm.
“Sal!” Gabriel roared into his lapel comms.
“Boss!” Sal’s voice cracked over the speaker amid the sound of gunfire. “Two armored vans just rammed the front gate! It’s Falcone’s crew—and Victor Serno is with them!”
“Get the perimeter team into the courtyard!” Gabriel commanded, his voice cold, steady, and entirely devoid of fear.
He turned to Sophie, grabbing her by her shoulders. “Sophie, listen to me. Go to the safe room behind the library pantry. Lock the door from the inside and do not open it for anyone except me or Sal.”
“No!” Sophie cried, clinging to his arms. “I’m not leaving you!”
“You have to,” Gabriel urged, his eyes burning with absolute determination. “They came here tonight because Victor knows you’re here. If they take you, I lose everything. Go to the safe room, Sophie. Trust me!”
Sophie looked into his eyes, saw the unwavering promise in his gaze, and nodded. “I trust you.”
She turned and ran toward the library just as three armed hitmen shattered the French doors leading to the garden.
Gabriel turned, raised his weapon, and opened fire.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The battle for the Moretti estate was swift and ruthless. Gabriel moved through his home like a shadow, taking down Falcone’s mercenaries with lethal efficiency. Sal and the estate guards held the main hall, creating an impenetrable bottleneck that trapped the invaders in the courtyard.
Outside, rain began to pour, mixing with the smoke and fire rising from the ruined entrance gate.
Inside the library, Sophie stood behind the heavy steel safe-room door. But as she watched the security monitors inside the room, her eyes caught sight of the service hallway near the kitchen.
Victor Serno was inside the house.
He had bypassed the main courtyard battle, slipping through a basement access door he knew from his years of working for the Moretti family. He held a silenced pistol, moving stealthily toward the library—toward her.
Sophie’s heart slammed against her ribs. She looked around the safe room. On the counter lay a heavy steel fire extinguisher and a heavy tactical flashlight.
She didn't lock herself inside.
Instead, she grabbed the heavy brass flashlight, opened the safe-room door quietly, and stepped into the dim library shadows.
Ten seconds later, Victor Serno pushed open the library door, his weapon raised, a cold, desperate smirk on his face. “Come out, Miss Miller! Let’s end this little charity act!”
He stepped past the heavy oak bookshelves.
From behind the tall leather sofa, Sophie stepped out. She didn't scream. She didn't hesitate.
She swung the heavy brass flashlight with all the strength in her broad shoulders, slamming it directly into the side of Victor’s head.
CRACK!
Victor let out a strangled groan as his gun flew from his hand, spinning across the polished floor. He stumbled sideways, crashing into a table of crystal glassware before hitting the floor hard.
Before he could recover, Sophie kicked his pistol under the sofa, picked up the heavy steel fire extinguisher from the wall, and pointed the nozzle directly at his face.
She pulled the pin and squeezed the lever.
A massive cloud of white chemical powder erupted into Victor’s eyes and mouth. He gagged, screaming in blinding agony as he writhed on the carpet.
Gabriel burst into the library a second later, gun drawn, his face covered in rain and gunpowder smoke.
He froze in the doorway.
Sitting on top of Victor Serno’s back, her heavy knees pinning the traitor’s arms securely to the floor while holding him down with a fire extinguisher, was Sophie.
Gabriel stared at her.
Then, despite the alarms, the smoke, and the gunfire dying down outside, a rich, deep, triumphant laugh burst from Gabriel Moretti’s chest.
He walked over, slid his gun into his holster, and pulled Sophie up into his arms, lifting her completely off her feet and spinning her around.
“You absolute, glorious woman,” Gabriel laughed, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, and her lips.
On the floor, Victor choked out a cloud of white powder, groaning softly. “She... she hit me...”
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Gabriel looked down at the traitor, his eyes turning back into cold steel. “Sal! Get this garbage out of my house and hand him over to the federal prosecutor along with the security tapes.”
The war was over.
