Chapter 8 - Blood and Lullabies
Cold sea water dripped onto Evelyn’s forehead, pulling her back to consciousness.
She tried to move, but her wrists were bound behind her back with coarse nylon rope, tied to a rusted iron support pillar. The side of her head throbbed with a sickening, pulsing ache.
She opened her eyes.
She was in an abandoned dock warehouse on Pier 42. Outside, the foghorn wailed into the stormy night.
Ten feet away from her, tied to three wooden chairs, were Julian, Leo, and Mia. They had duct tape over their mouths, their eyes wide with terror, tears streaming down their small, pale faces. Standing over them, holding a small silver revolver, was Celeste.
Beside Celeste stood four heavily armed Moretti mercenaries, along with her cousin, Don Moretti, who was pacing back and forth looking at his watch.
"He’s not going to wire the money, Celeste," Moretti barked, racking the slide of his pistol. "He’s coming here to kill us."
"He will wire the two hundred million," Celeste snapped, her eyes crazed, her makeup smeared across her pale face. "Or he will watch his little gutter-trash lover and his precious brats die on a live video feed!"
She turned toward Evelyn, strutting over on her heels. Celeste grabbed Evelyn by the chin, digging her sharp crimson nails deep into Evelyn’s skin.
"Look at you," Celeste sneered. "A filthy little diner girl wearing my emeralds. You really thought you could replace me? You thought Adrien Belandi could love something like you?"
Evelyn spat a mouthful of blood directly onto Celeste’s designer shoes.
"He doesn't love you," Evelyn rasped, her eyes burning with pure defiance. "And neither do they. You’re not a mother, Celeste. You’re a monster."
Celeste’s face twisted in rage. She raised the heavy silver revolver and brought the barrel down hard across Evelyn’s cheek.
The blow sent stars flashing across Evelyn’s vision, but she didn't scream. She kept her eyes locked on the children. Mia was thrashing in her chair, muffled sobs escaping through the tape.
"Shh," Evelyn whispered through bloody lips, looking directly into Mia’s terrified eyes. "Look at me, Mia. Look at me, boys."
Evelyn began to hum.
Through the split in her lip, through the metallic taste of blood, she hummed the mountain lullaby. Steady. Calm. A promise of safety in the middle of hell.
Julian stopped thrashing. He stared at Evelyn, his little chest heaving. Leo leaned his head back, his eyes locking onto hers. Mia stopped crying, her small shoulders relaxing as she listened to the only sound that made the monsters go away.
"Shut up!" Celeste shrieked, leveling the revolver directly between Evelyn’s eyes. "Shut your filthy mouth!"
"Shoot her, Celeste!" Moretti shouted. "We don't need the girl!"
Celeste pulled back the hammer of the gun. The click echoed through the empty warehouse.
"Goodbye, Cinderella," Celeste hissed.
*BOOM!*
The corrugated iron roof of the warehouse exploded inward.
Shards of metal and glass rained down as four black-clad tactical operators rappelled through the ceiling, automatic weapons barking with deafening precision.
*Crack-crack-crack-crack!*
The two mercenaries near Moretti collapsed instantly, dead before they hit the concrete floor.
At the same time, the massive steel roll-up door was blown off its tracks by a thunderous breaching charge, collapsing inward with an ear-splitting crash.
Through the fiery smoke strode Adrien Belandi.
He was bleeding from a shrapnel wound on his temple, his tuxedo shirt shredded and soaked in crimson. He held a customized shotgun in one hand and a combat knife in the other. He didn't look human; he looked like an ancient god of vengeance clawing his way out of the underworld.
"Kill them!" Moretti screamed, firing wildly toward the door.
Adrien didn't even flinch. He fired three devastating rounds from the shotgun. Moretti was lifted off his feet by the concussive force, thrown backward against a stack of wooden crates, and lay motionless.
Celeste panicked. Screaming hysterically, she grabbed Mia by the hair, dragging the little girl out of the chair and pressing the silver revolver against her five-year-old daughter’s temple.
"Stay back!" Celeste shrieked, backing toward the edge of the pier where the open dock doors led to the churning ocean below. "Stay back, Adrien, or I’ll blow her brains out!"
The tactical operators froze, weapons lowered.
Adrien stopped ten feet away. His chest heaved. His knuckles were bone-white around his weapons. His eyes flicked to Mia, then to Evelyn, who was still tied to the pillar, watching in breathless horror.
"Let her go, Celeste," Adrien whispered. His voice was a flat, dead calm more terrifying than any scream. "Take the money. Take the plane at the private airstrip. Just let my daughter go."
"You ruined my life!" Celeste sobbed, her finger trembling violently against the trigger. "You and your pathetic little bastards! If I can't have the empire, no one will!"
"Mia," Evelyn spoke, her voice cutting through the wind and rain.
Celeste’s eyes darted toward Evelyn for half a second.
"Bite," Evelyn said simply.
Mia didn't hesitate.
With all the strength left in her tiny body, Mia clamped her teeth down hard onto Celeste’s wrist, biting deep into the flesh.
Celeste shrieked in agony, her grip loosening, the revolver discharging into the concrete floor.
In that split second, Adrien moved faster than thought.
He closed the distance in a single leap, ripping Mia out of Celeste’s grip and tossing the little girl safely into Marco’s waiting arms behind him.
With his left hand, Adrien caught Celeste by the throat.
The momentum carried them both toward the edge of the rusted loading dock, hovering over the pitch-black, freezing waters of the Atlantic fifty feet below.
Celeste clawed at his fingers, choking, her eyes bulging with terror. "Adrien... please... I was your wife..."
Adrien looked into the eyes of the woman who had locked his children in a dark cellar. Who had tried to murder them for paper money.
"You died two years ago," Adrien said coldly.
He released his grip.
Celeste screamed as she fell backward into the dark void, her cry swallowed by the roar of the ocean waves crashing against the jagged rocks below.
Silence fell over the warehouse.
Adrien turned slowly. He dropped his weapons onto the concrete floor. He didn't look at his dead enemies. He didn't look at his soldiers.
He ran straight to Evelyn.
Marco was already cutting the ropes around her wrists. The moment the nylon fell away, Evelyn collapsed forward, but Adrien caught her before she could touch the ground.
He pulled her into his chest, crushing her against him with a desperation that bordered on madness. His hands buried themselves in her hair, his face pressing into the crook of her neck, his tears hot and wet against her skin.
"I’ve got you," Adrien choked out, his entire body trembling violently. "I’ve got you, Evelyn. You’re safe. I’m sorry... God, I’m so sorry..."
Evelyn wrapped her bruised arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest, breathing in the scent of rain, smoke, and cedar. "The babies... are they okay?"
From behind them, three pairs of small arms wrapped around them both.
Julian, Leo, and Mia were there, free from their ropes, their faces buried in Evelyn’s dress, their tiny hands clutching Adrien’s back.
Mia looked up, her slate-gray eyes clear, bright, and completely free of the shadows that had haunted them for two years.
She reached up, touching Evelyn’s bloody cheek with one hand, and Adrien’s cheek with the other.
"Mama," Mia whispered clearly. "Papa."
May you like
Adrien broke completely. He pulled Evelyn and all three children into a single, unbreakable embrace, weeping openly under the broken roof of the warehouse, while the rain washed the blood from their hands.
***
