Chapter 5 - The Hunter in the Dark
The red emergency lights cast long, demonic shadows across the grand hallways of the estate. Lorenzo and Sofia emerged from a hidden panel behind a bookcase in the ground-floor library.
They moved with brutal efficiency.
On the monitors in the bunker, Lorenzo had noted the exact locations of the remaining four men. Two were in the kitchen, trying to pry open the reinforced service doors. One was guarding the stairs. Julian was still tearing apart the master suite upstairs.
Lorenzo held up two fingers, pointing toward the kitchen, then tapped his chest. He pointed at Sofia, then toward the staircase. She nodded, melting into the shadows like the ghost she had pretended to be for four years.
Lorenzo stepped into the dining room, his boots completely silent on the thick rugs. He could hear the two men in the kitchen cursing, the screech of a crowbar against steel.
He didn't hide. He didn't creep. He walked straight into the kitchen, leveling the heavy shotgun at his hip.
The two men spun around, their eyes widening in the crimson light.
"Tell Julian he failed," Lorenzo said.
Before they could raise their weapons, Lorenzo pulled the trigger. The deafening roar of the shotgun shattered the kitchen windows that were shielded by the steel shutters. The incendiary rounds caught the first man in the chest, throwing him violently backward over the marble island.
The second man scrambled for cover behind the massive stainless-steel refrigerator, blind-firing his pistol. Bullets shattered the expensive china and tore through the plaster walls.
Lorenzo didn't flinch. He racked the pump of the shotgun, advanced methodically, and fired a round directly through the engine block of the refrigerator. The massive appliance shuddered, and the man behind it dropped with a heavy thud, blood pooling across the imported Italian tiles.
Simultaneously, a muffled crack echoed from the grand foyer.
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Lorenzo walked out of the kitchen. At the base of the grand staircase, Sofia stood over the body of the stair guard. She had snapped his neck so cleanly he hadn't even had time to scream.
Only Julian remained.
