Chapter 15 - The Taste of Steel
Chaos erupted. The kitchen was filled with coughing, shouting, and the blind firing of weapons. Mara dropped to the floor instantly, the suppressed pistol Dante had given her now heavy in her hand.
She crawled forward, using the stainless steel islands as cover. She knew the layout from the blueprints Dante had memorized with her. The guest wing. Third door on the left. That’s where they would keep a high-value hostage like Lena.
A guard stumbled through the smoke near her. Mara didn't hesitate; she swung the heavy metal base of a professional blender she grabbed from the counter, striking him square in the kneecap. The man yelled, collapsing, and Mara scrambled past him, bursting through the kitchen doors into the main hallway.
The estate’s emergency red lights were flashing, casting an eerie, bloody glow over the marble corridors. From outside, the distant sound of explosions echoed—Dante’s team was breaching the front gates.
Mara ran up the grand staircase, her lungs burning, her heart hammering like a trapped bird. She reached the guest wing.
"Lena!" she shouted, throwing open the first door. Empty.
The second door. A storage room.
She reached the third door. It was locked. Mara didn't have time to pick it. She stepped back, raised the pistol, and fired three shots into the lock mechanism, just as Dante had shown her during their brief, tense training sessions. She kicked the door open.
Lena was tied to a chair in the corner, a piece of cloth tied around her mouth, her eyes wide with terror.
"Mommy!" Lena muffled through the cloth as Mara rushed forward, using the kitchen knife she had snatched from the counter to cut the ropes.
"I’ve got you, baby, I’ve got you," Mara cried, pulling the cloth from Lena’s mouth and hugging her tightly. "We have to go. Now."
As they turned to leave the room, a figure blocked the doorway. Luciana stood there, a small, elegant pearl-handled revolver pointed directly at Mara’s head. Her silk robe was stained with soot, her eyes crazed with the realization that her empire was collapsing around her.
"You think you won?" Luciana hissed, her finger tightening on the trigger. "If I lose my family's legacy, Dante loses his. Say goodbye to your daughter, baker."
A heavy, deafening blast echoed through the hallway. The wall behind Luciana exploded inward in a shower of brick and mortar. A massive hand reached through the dust, grabbing Luciana’s wrist and twisting it until the revolver clattered to the floor.
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Dante stepped through the ruined wall, covered in dust, his face a mask of primal fury. He threw Luciana to the ground, stepping over her as if she were nothing more than a broken crumb. He didn't look back at her. He looked at Mara and Lena.
"I told you," Dante said, his voice shaking with raw emotion. "We are going home."
