Chapter 2 - THE MIDNIGHT AMBUSH
I did not turn around immediately.
My fingers remained frozen on the cold brass door handle.
Behind me, the grandfather clock struck half past one.
Its deep chimes echoed through the cavernous foyer.
Alessandro stood ten feet away.
His tall frame was silhouetted against the library light.
His white shirt was unbuttoned at the throat.
The lipstick stain on his collar looked like dried blood.
"Sofia," he pleaded.
His voice was hoarse.
Unsteady.
A sound I had never heard from Chicago’s ruthless ruler.
"Tell me what to do," he repeated.
"I will give you anything."
I turned my head just enough to look at him over my shoulder.
"Die," I whispered.
The word cut through the heavy air.
"Or let me walk through this door."
His face paled beneath his dark stubble.
His amber eyes flared with sudden, suffocating panic.
"You can't survive out there alone, Sofia."
"The streets are watching."
"My enemies know your face."
"Then let them come," I said.
"They are less dangerous than the man sleeping beside me."
I pulled the heavy front door open.
The October rain struck my face like needles of ice.
Cold wind tore through my silk blouse.
I stepped onto the front terrace.
I gripped my small leather bag in my right hand.
My left hand felt strangely light.
Bare.
The skin beneath my wedding ring was pale and smooth.
Fourteen years of gold.
Erased in thirty seconds.
The stone steps were slick with freezing rain.
I took the first step down.
Behind me, Alessandro shouted my name again.
He lunged across the threshold onto the wet terrace.
Then the night exploded.
CRACK.
A high-velocity rifle round shattered the limestone balustrade beside my knee.
Stone fragments sliced through my trousers.
Blood bloomed across my calf.
CRACK.
CRACK.
Two more bullets punched into the heavy oak door frame.
"DOWN!" Alessandro roared.
He did not hesitate.
He did not stop to think of his own skin.
His heavy body collided with mine from behind.
We hit the wet flagstones together.
The impact drove the breath from my lungs in a sharp gasp.
He rolled over, taking the brunt of the wet stone.
His arms locked around my torso like bands of forged steel.
He pinned me beneath his chest, shielding my head with his arms.
A fourth round tore through the fabric of his left shoulder.
I heard the wet, sickening sound of tearing flesh.
Alessandro grunted through clenched teeth.
Hot, metallic blood dripped from his arm onto my cheek.
"Alessandro!" I cried out.
My hands pressed against his chest instinctively.
"Stay down," he growled into my hair.
His breath was ragged.
His heartbeat thundered against my cheek like an iron drum.
"Sniper on the gatehouse roof!" he shouted into his radio.
"Return fire! Code Black!"
From the shadows of the estate grounds, automatic gunfire erupted.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the rain like violent lightning.
His private guards moved with lethal, synchronized precision.
"They aren't shooting at me, Sofia," Alessandro whispered against my ear.
His voice was laced with pure, terrifying venom.
"The rifle was calibrated to your height."
My stomach dropped into a freezing abyss.
"What?"
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"They came here to kill my wife," he said.
"And they knew exactly what door you would walk through."
