Chapter 6 - Into the Dark
The heavy steel door locked with a final, echoing thud, sealing Ava and me inside the underground concrete tunnel.
"Daddy!" Ava cried out, hammering her small fists against the door. "Daddy, don't leave us!"
"Ava, listen to me!" I pulled her away from the door, cupping her face in my hands. "Your daddy is a very strong man. He is protecting us. We have to keep moving to the boathouse like he told us. Can you be brave for me?"
Ava wiped her tears with the back of her sleeve, looking into my eyes. She nodded slowly. "I'll be brave."
I grabbed a flashlight from a wall bracket and took Ava’s hand. We sprinted down the damp, cold subterranean tunnel. The sound of distant gunfire and muffled explosions vibrated through the thick concrete walls above us, making dust fall from the ceiling.
After five minutes of frantic running, the tunnel sloped upward, ending at a reinforced wooden hatch.
I pushed the hatch open. Cool, wet night air rushed over us as we emerged inside the dark interior of the estate’s private boathouse. The dark waters of Lake Michigan lapped gently against the wooden piers below.
Docked inside was a sleek, black high-speed boat.
"Emily! Over here!" a voice hissed from the dark.
Marco stepped out from behind a stack of crates, holding an assault rifle, blood trickling down his forearm. "Thank God you made it. Where is Dominic?"
"He stayed behind to face Romanov," I panted, setting Ava down inside the boat cabin.
Marco swore under his breath. "Crazy bastard... he's fighting an entire squad alone!"
Suddenly, the wooden doors at the rear entrance of the boathouse were kicked open with a loud splintering crash.
"Found them!" a voice shouted in Russian.
Three heavy mercenaries burst into the boathouse, opening fire instantly.
Marco returned fire, dropping the first attacker, but a burst of bullets struck Marco in the chest. He collapsed onto the wooden pier with a painful groan.
"MARCO!" I screamed.
The remaining two mercenaries stepped over Marco’s body, their rifles trained directly on me and Ava.
The leader—a tall man with a severe scar across his eye—smirked cruelly, racking his rifle slide. "Dimitri said to bring the child alive... but the waitress is expendable."
I stepped in front of Ava, lifting a heavy iron boat cleat from the deck, ready to fight to my last breath. "Touch her and I'll kill you."
The mercenary chuckled, raising his rifle to my forehead. "Brave girl. Good night—"
BANG! BANG!
Two heavy gunshots echoed through the boathouse.
The mercenary’s eyes went wide with shock as two holes appeared in his chest. He collapsed sideways into the dark water. The second mercenary turned, but a shadowy figure lunged out from the tunnel entrance, grabbing the mercenary's rifle, twisting his arm back with a sickening crack, and driving a tactical blade into his throat.
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The attacker dropped dead.
Standing in the dim light, covered in soot, rain, and blood—none of it his own—was Dominic Moretti.
