Chapter 8 - The Tactical Retaliation
"You thought I came alone?" Alessandro said, his voice dropping into a lethal calm as he walked forward through the dust. "I am a Duca, Beatrice. We don't negotiate with exiles."
Beatrice panicked, firing her weapon wildly toward Alessandro. A bullet tore through his shoulder, but he didn't even slow down. The tactical team on the ridge opened fire with precision precision. The two mercenaries holding Sophia were dropped instantly, their weapons clattering against the stones.
Caleb slid down the steep gravel slope of the quarry, his rifle firing in rapid succession, neutralizing the remaining guards before they could touch the plastic bottle of toxin.
Alessandro closed the distance between himself and his aunt. Beatrice tried to reload her pistol with trembling hands, but Alessandro grabbed her wrist, twisting it until she dropped the weapon with a sharp cry of pain.
He didn't hit her. He simply looked down at her with a profound, freezing contempt. "You spent twenty years plotting to take this family away from me. And in the end, you were defeated by the innocence of a three-year-old girl."
"You... you can't kill me, Alessandro," Beatrice wheezed, her aristocratic pride cracking. "We are the same blood!"
"That is the only reason you are going to live, Beatrice," Alessandro said, releasing her wrist so roughly she fell into the limestone dust. "But you will spend the rest of your days in a maximum-security psychiatric facility in the Swiss Alps. You will never see the sun without bars in front of it again."
Caleb hurried over, helping Sophia and Emma up from the ground. Emma looked up through her tears, seeing the blood soaking through Alessandro’s shoulder jacket.
May you like
She ran forward, wrapping her tiny arms around his uninjured leg. "Sir! You're hurt! The bad people hurt you."
Alessandro knelt down in the dust, ignoring the sharp pain in his shoulder. He picked up the little girl, holding her securely against his chest. "I'm okay, Emma. The bad dreams are over now. No one is ever going to make your family afraid again."
