Chapter 7 - The Blood on the Floor
The deafening echo of the gunshot rang in my ears, leaving a high-pitched ringing in its wake.
I kept the gun aimed at the open doorway, my breath coming in ragged, desperate gasps.
Another shadow moved at the top of the stairs, and my finger tightened on the trigger again.
"Elara! Don't shoot!" a deep, familiar voice bellowed.
Gabriel rushed down the stairs, stepping over the dead mercenary, his clothes covered in soot and blood.
He dropped his weapons and fell to his knees in front of me, pulling both me and Mateo into his massive arms.
"You're safe, I've got you," he chanted, burying his face in my neck as he held us in a crushing embrace.
I finally let go of the gun, allowing it to clatter onto the floor, and buried my sobbing face against his broad shoulder.
Dante limped into the room a moment later, bleeding from a graze on his arm but looking victorious.
"The perimeter is secure, Boss. The Russians are dead," Dante reported.
Gabriel pulled back, checking Mateo carefully, finding the baby completely unharmed and surprisingly calm.
He then looked at me, seeing the gun on the floor and the dead man in the doorway.
"You protected him," Gabriel whispered, his eyes filled with a mixture of awe and deep, undeniable love.
"I told you I wouldn't let them take him," I replied, my voice shaking but fiercely proud.
Gabriel stood up, helping me to my feet, his protective grip never leaving my waist.
"Marcus wasn't with them," Gabriel said, his voice hardening back into the ruthless syndicate leader.
"He sent them to do his dirty work while he hides in the city."
May you like
"Then we go to the city," I said, surprising myself with the coldness in my own voice.
"It is time to end this."
