Chapter 9 - The Return of the King
The shadow moved through the lingering white smoke of the living room like a phantom.
Aleandro.
He was covered in dirt, soot, and dark stains across his black vest. His coat was gone, his dark hair disheveled, his jaw set in a mask of pure, murderous rage.
He looked around the destroyed cabin—at the three dead Russian mercenaries on the floor, at Frank, who was sitting against the sofa bleeding from a shoulder wound but alive, and finally at the kitchen counter.
"Emma!" he roared, his voice cracking with a terrifying panic I had never heard in him before.
"I'm here..." I choked out, my voice barely a whisper.
Aleandro sprinted across the room, sliding on his knees onto the kitchen floor beside me.
He grabbed me, pulling me into his arms with such desperate force that my breath left my lungs. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, his chest heaving, his entire body trembling violently.
"God... thank God... thank God..." he rasped over and over, his hands moving frantically over my arms, my hair, my face, checking every inch of me for injuries. "I saw the secondary team’s convoy on the highway... I drove like a madman..."
He saw the smoking silver gun still clutched in my hand, and the dead mercenary lying five feet away.
Aleandro stopped.
He looked at the dead man, then down at me.
"You protected yourself," he whispered, his dark eyes filled with a mixture of profound awe, fierce pride, and overwhelming love.
"You told me to shoot," I sobbed, finally dropping the gun onto the floor and burying my face into his blood-stained vest. "I didn't want him to take me away from you!"
Aleandro wrapped his arms around me, lifting me completely off the glass-littered floor and cradling me against his chest like something priceless and fragile.
"Nobody will ever take you from me again, Emma," he swore, his lips pressing against my hairline, my forehead, my cheeks, kissing away my tears. "It’s over. Marco is gone. His crew is crushed. The city is clean."
He carried me out of the ruined cabin into the warm, late-afternoon sunlight.
May you like
The forest was quiet now.
The storm had passed.
