Chapter 4 - THE BROKEN APARTMENT
"Stop the car!" I screamed.
The driver slammed on the brakes.
The SUV slid to a halt thirty yards from the front porch.
Through the rain, I saw wood splinters hanging from the doorframe.
The front entrance was smashed inward.
"My boys!" I clawed at the door handle.
Adrien’s arm wrapped around my waist, hauling me back into the seat.
"Stay inside," he commanded.
"They're in there, Adrien! Let me go!"
"Clare, look at them!"
He pointed through the windshield.
The three men on the porch weren't local street thugs.
They moved with military precision.
Short haircuts.
Earpieces.
Trench coats concealing submachine guns.
One of them stood guard at the street level, scanning the rooftops.
The other two stepped into the dark stairwell.
"Frank," Adrien spoke to the driver without looking away from the house. "Clear the porch."
The driver reached under the dashboard.
He pulled out a suppressed handgun.
"Sir, there are three active targets," Frank said.
"Then fire four rounds," Adrien replied coldly.
Adrien reached beneath his own seat.
He clicked a release lever.
A custom tactical rifle slide out of a hidden compartment.
He loaded a magazine with a crisp, terrifying snap.
"Adrien, please," my voice was a strangled sob. "Don't let them hurt my babies."
He grabbed the back of my neck.
He pulled my forehead to his.
His gray eyes burned into mine.
"Nobody touches my family, Clare. Not five years ago. Not today. Stay in this vehicle until I come back for you."
"Adrien—"
"Trust me once," he whispered against my lips. "Just once."
He kicked open the door.
Rain blasted into the car.
Adrien leaped into the storm.
Frank was already moving along the brick wall of the adjoining building.
I sat in the passenger seat, my fingernails digging into my palms until blood welled.
A sharp, muffled phut-phut echoed over the sound of rain.
The sentry on the sidewalk collapsed into the gutter.
He didn't get back up.
Adrien took the front steps two at a time.
He vanished into the dark entrance of my building.
A second later, gunfire rattled from the second floor.
Muffled thuds.
The sound of drywall splintering.
A man screamed—a short, brutal sound that was suddenly cut off.
I couldn't stay in the car.
I couldn't sit there while my children were upstairs.
I threw the passenger door open.
The icy rain drenched my clothes in two seconds.
I ran across the street, dodging the body lying in the gutter.
The stairwell smelled of ozone, cordite, and wet wool.
Spent shell casings rattled under my sneakers as I climbed the steps.
On the second-floor landing, a man lay facedown in a pool of dark blood.
A shattered brass lamp lay beside him.
The door to apartment 2B was hanging from a single hinge.
I shoved it open.
"Julian! Noah!" I screamed.
The living room was destroyed.
The sofa was overturned.
The cushions were slashed open, stuffing scattered across the floor like fake snow.
My drawing of the boys' handprints was torn in half on the rug.
Frank stood near the kitchen doorway, weapon lowered.
"Clear," he called softly.
I pushed past him into the kitchen.
Mrs. Higgins sat on a chair, sobbing into her apron.
Her arm was bruised, but she was alive.
"They kicked the door, Clare," she weeped. "They asked for the Moretti brats. They were tearing the closets apart!"
"Where are they?" I grabbed her shoulders. "Mrs. Higgins, where are my boys?"
"I... I put them where you said..."
Adrien was already kneeling by the narrow pantry at the back of the kitchen.
The pantry door was locked with a small slide bolt.
He tapped gently on the wood.
Two short taps.
Then three.
"Julian?" Adrien’s voice was softer than I had ever heard it. "Noah?"
Silence.
Then, from inside the dark pantry, a child's voice spoke.
It wasn't scared.
It was sharp.
"Who are you? My mom has a baseball bat behind the door."
A ragged laugh escaped Adrien’s chest.
It sounded like a sob trapped halfway up his throat.
"I'm a friend of your mother," Adrien said softly. "Clare? Come here."
I dropped to my knees beside him on the linoleum.
"Julian! Noah! It’s Mommy! It’s safe!"
The slide bolt clicked.
The door squeaked open an inch.
Two pairs of wide, terrified eyes peered through the crack.
Julian pushed the door open first.
He was holding a heavy cast-iron skillet with both small hands.
His little chest was puffed out, trying to shield his brother.
Behind him, Noah sat clutching a worn teddy bear, tears streaming silently down his cheeks.
Julian saw me and dropped the skillet.
The iron clattered against the floor.
"Mommy!"
Both boys threw themselves into my arms.
I buried my face in their curls, inhaling the scent of baby shampoo, dust, and fear.
I held them so tightly I could feel their little hearts hammering against my chest like trapped birds.
"I've got you," I cried, rocking them back and forth. "I've got you. Mommy is here."
Julian pulled back, wiping his nose with his sleeve.
"Two bad men had guns, Mom," he whispered. "They had badges on their shirts. Like the harbor cranes."
Adrien froze.
He knelt down beside Julian.
Julian looked at him.
The resemblance was so stark it took the breath from the room.
The same high cheekbones.
The same straight, stubborn nose.
The same stormy gray eyes.
Julian squinted at Adrien’s face.
"You look like the man on Mommy’s locked box," the little boy said plainly.
Adrien reached out with trembling fingers.
He gently touched Julian’s chin.
Tears spilled over Adrien’s lower eyelids, cutting clean tracks through the soot on his cheeks.
"I'm your father, Julian," Adrien choked out.
Julian looked at him, unimpressed, his guard still up.
"Where's Leo?" Julian asked. "Did you fix him?"
Before Adrien could answer, Frank stepped back into the kitchen from the hallway.
His face was grim.
"Mr. Moretti," Frank said, holding a tactical radio taken from the dead man outside.
The speaker crackled to life with a familiar, aristocratic voice.
Victor Moretti’s voice.
May you like
Team Bravo, report, the voice demanded. Did you secure the brats? Victor wants the heirs disposed of before Adrien leaves the hospital.
================================================================================
