Chapter 5 - The Cabin in the Pines
I ran until my lungs burned and my legs gave out, hiding Leo in a hollowed-out embankment beneath a cluster of ancient pine trees. We waited in terrified silence for hours. The gunfire had stopped, but I didn't know who had won.
Just before dawn, a shadow moved through the trees. I grabbed a heavy rock, ready to fight to the death.
"Clara," a hoarse voice whispered.
It was Marcus. His suit was shredded, his face bruised, and he was favoring his left leg, but he was alive. I dropped the rock and threw my arms around his neck, burying my face in his chest. For a moment, the untouchable don hesitated. Then, his massive arms wrapped around me, crushing me to him.
"I've got you," he breathed into my hair. "I've got you both."
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He led us to a secondary extraction point, where a sleek helicopter waited. By sunrise, we were touching down at a remote, off-the-grid cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There were no maids here. No staff. Just a dozen lethal guards patrolling the woods, and the three of us inside.
It was here, stripped of his empire and his suits, that I saw the real Marcus Vance. The man who chopped wood, cooked scrambled eggs, and read bedtime stories to his son.
