Chapter 7 - Blood and Tenderness
The estate in Pacific Heights was under siege.
Alarms blared through the massive corridors, red emergency lights flashing against the walls. Outside, heavy gunfire shattered the peaceful night as Renzo’s perimeter guards fought off twenty masked Yakuza hitmen who had breached the front gates.
Inside the master suite, Claire had dragged heavy oak dressers against the double doors, creating a barricade. She stood in the center of the room, holding a heavy brass candlestick, her body shaking hysterically as she pulled Ivy behind her.
BOOM.
The heavy wooden doors shuddered as an explosive charge detonated against the lock. Splinters flew into the room, and the dressers collapsed inward.
Through the smoke stepped a tall, scar-faced Japanese commander holding a silenced submachine gun. Behind him were three heavily armed men.
"The girl," the commander rasped in rough English. "Give us the girl, and the mother lives."
"Touch her and I'll kill you!" Claire screamed, stepping forward with the brass candlestick, her maternal instincts completely wiping away her fear.
The commander laughed coldly, raising his gun to shoot her.
THUD.
The glass skylight fifty feet above the room shattered inward.
A black tactical rope dropped through the rain, and Renzo Mercer descended like an avenging angel. He kicked the commander square in the chest before his boots even hit the floor, sending the man flying across the room through a glass coffee table.
Renzo unclipped from the harness, drawing two handguns, and opened fire with terrifying speed. The three remaining hitmen were cut down before they could raise their weapons.
The commander scrambled from the glass shards, drawing a combat knife, and lunged at Renzo from behind!
"Renzo, behind you!" Claire shrieked.
Renzo spun, catching the commander’s wrist, but the sharp steel sliced deep across Renzo’s side, tearing through his kevlar vest and opening a heavy crimson wound. Renzo grunted, disarmed the man with a brutal twist of his arm, and drove his fist into the commander's throat, dropping him permanently.
The room fell dead silent, save for the blaring alarms and the patter of rain from the shattered skylight.
Renzo stood trembling, blood soaking rapidly through his black shirt. He turned slowly toward Claire and Ivy.
"Are you... hurt?" Renzo gasped out, his face pale, his knees buckling under him.
Claire dropped the candlestick and ran to him, catching his massive frame before he hit the floor. "Renzo! Oh my god, you're bleeding!"
"I'm... fine..." Renzo muttered, though his eyes were rolling back from blood loss.
"Ivy, get the towels from the bathroom!" Claire yelled, dropping to her knees and pressing her hands hard against the deep gash in his side.
Ivy sprinted to the bathroom, grabbing a stack of white towels, and rushed back, pressing them over her mother’s hands.
"Hold it tight, baby, press hard!" Claire sobbed, tears pouring down her cheeks as she pulled Renzo’s head into her lap. "Stay with me, Renzo! Look at me! You can't die, do you hear me? You promised you'd come back!"
May you like
Renzo looked up through blurred vision at Claire’s beautiful, panic-stricken face. He reached up with a blood-stained hand, gently touching her cheek.
"I kept... my promise..." he whispered, before darkness swallowed him whole.
