Chapter 7 – THE HOSTAGE IN THE DARK

Pain flared across my scalp as Andrew dragged me backward. I kicked and fought, but his grip was like iron.

“Drop the gun, Luca!” Andrew screamed into the darkness, pressing the barrel of his pistol against my temple. “The jammer might stop the bomb, but it won’t stop a bullet! Drop it, or she dies right now!”

The basement was suffocatingly dark, the only light coming from the faint moonlight filtering through a high, barred window.

I heard the heavy thud of a metal gun hitting the concrete floor.

Luca had dropped his weapon.

“Kick it away,” Andrew ordered, breathing heavily.

I heard the scrape of the gun sliding across the floor.

“Let her go, Andrew,” Luca’s voice came from the shadows, calm and utterly fearless. “You’ve lost. The jammer is active. My men are clearing your thugs off the lawn as we speak. You have no way out.”

“I have her,” Andrew sneered, his arm wrapped tight around my throat, choking off my air. “And I’m walking out the back door with her. If anyone follows, I put a bullet in her skull.”

He started dragging me toward the rear exit of the basement. I clawed at his arm, struggling to breathe.

“Mommy?”

The small, terrified voice echoed from the top of the basement stairs.

My heart stopped.

Sophie.

The power outage had disabled the electronic lock on the panic room door. She had wandered out in the dark, looking for me.

“Sophie, run!” I managed to scream before Andrew tightened his grip.

Andrew laughed. It was a cold, soulless sound. “Well, look at that. My little insurance policy came right to me.”

“Don’t touch her!” Luca roared, lunging from the shadows.

Andrew fired blindly.

The muzzle flash illuminated the room for a fraction of a second. I saw Luca stumble, a sharp grunt escaping his lips as he hit the ground.

“Luca!” I screamed.

Andrew didn’t waste time. He shoved me violently to the floor. My head cracked against the concrete, dazing me.

Through blurred vision, I saw Andrew sprint up the stairs toward Sophie.

“Come here, you little brat!” Andrew yelled, grabbing her by the wrist.

Sophie screamed, a high-pitched sound of pure terror. She kicked and bit at his hand, but he just slapped her hard across the face.

Rage, primal and white-hot, exploded in my chest.

I didn’t care about the gun. I didn’t care about the danger.

I scrambled to my feet, my hand blindly sweeping the floor until my fingers brushed against cold metal.

Luca’s gun.

I picked it up. It was heavier than I expected.

I aimed up the stairs at the silhouette of the man dragging my screaming daughter.

“Andrew!” I screamed.

He turned, raising his weapon to shoot me.

I didn’t think. I didn’t hesitate.

I pulled the trigger.

The recoil threw me backward, the deafening crack echoing in the tight stairwell.

Andrew froze. His grip on Sophie’s wrist went slack. The gun slipped from his fingers, clattering down the steps.

He looked down at his chest in the darkness, let out a wet gasp, and collapsed backward down the stairs, landing in a heap at the bottom.

The basement was silent except for my ragged breathing and Sophie’s quiet sobs.

I dropped the gun and ran up the stairs, pulling my daughter into my arms, sobbing into her hair. “I’ve got you. Mommy’s got you.”

Suddenly, the backup generators kicked in. The basement flooded with bright, harsh light.

I looked down to the floor, terrified of what I would see.

Luca was sitting up against a concrete pillar, clutching his left shoulder. Blood soaked through his tailored shirt, but he was looking at me, a faint, proud smile on his lips.

“You’re a terrible shot, Emily,” Luca rasped, wincing in pain. “But your timing is impeccable.”

I laughed, a hysterical sound mixed with tears.

We had survived.

But as I looked down at Andrew’s body, I saw something slip from his coat pocket and roll across the floor, stopping at Luca’s boots.

It was a black velvet ring box.

Luca reached down with his good arm and flipped it open. Inside sat a massive diamond ring.

But it wasn’t an engagement ring.

It was a signet ring. With the Moretti family crest.

“Where did he get this?” I whispered.

Luca’s face went completely pale. “This is my brother’s ring. My brother who supposedly died in a car crash ten years ago.”