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The moment my boots connect with the concrete inside, the air shifts from stale silence to charged anticipation. My squad fans out behind me, a silent, deadly shadow that mirrors my every move.
The first guard rounds the corner, weapon raised, a split second too slow. My response is immediate, a bullet from my gun finds its home between his eyes before he can squeeze the trigger. His body hits the ground with a thud.
I don’t pause, moving deeper into the building. The corridor splits in front of me. I take the right with three men.
Another assailant leaps from the shadows, a desperate knife in hand, aiming for my throat. My arm moves on instinct, blocking his strike with one hand while my other brings the butt of my gun crashing down on his skull.
He crumples, a puppet with its strings cut, as I step over him, unrelenting.
Another appears from a side door. “Where is my wife?” I snarl, my gun pressed against his temple. The fear in his eyes tells me he knows he’s outmatched, but still, he remains silent.
A swift punch to his gut, a promise of pain, loosens his tongue. “Downstairs,” he gasps, “in the basement.”
I nod to my team, a silent command. We move as one, descending into the bowels of the building. Each step down feels heavier, the darkness clinging like a second skin. But it’s not enough to deter us, to deter me.
Jess is here, somewhere, and hell itself couldn’t keep me from her.
The basement door flies open under the force of my kick, revealing a final line of defense. Garibaldi’s men, the last barrier between me and Jess.
They’re ready, weapons trained, but readiness means nothing against the storm they’ve invited.
The room erupts into gunfire. I’m moving before they can adjust, a specter of vengeance. Two go down immediately, surprise etching their features even in death. The others return fire, but their shots are wide, panic replacing precision.
With practiced ease, I weave through their onslaught, returning fire with lethal accuracy. Each guard that falls brings me one step closer to her, fuels the fire that’s been burning since I found out she was in danger.
Finally, only silence remains, a heavy blanket over the aftermath of our invasion. Bodies litter the ground proof of the lengths I will go to protect what’s mine. My heart races, not from the battle, but from what comes next. Finding Jess, ensuring she’s safe.
I holster my gun, my gaze sweeping the dimly lit basement. It’s over, but the fight, the real fight, is just beginning. Now, I must find her, bring her back from this nightmare.
“Jess!” My voice echoes, a beacon of hope in the darkness, as I move forward, my team at my back, ready to face whatever lies ahead. Together, we’ve faced down death, but it’s love that drives us now, a love that will light our way through the darkest of nights.
The air hangs thick with the residue of gunfire, punctuated by the staccato rhythm of my heartbeat. A figure moves in the dark. “Jess,” I say but all I get in response is a laugh.
“Unpredictable little shit,” Garibaldi says, stepping into the open, a guard at either shoulder. “I bet her dad twenty bucks you’d turn up at the meeting point. How the fuck did you even find out she was here?”
“Lucky guess,” I say, my men by my side, waiting for the order to shoot.
“Shame. I had quite the treat waiting for you. Incendiary bomb wired to blow. You burned down my house. Poetic you should burn to death. But you had to come here instead. Now put the gun down and we’ll talk.”
“Let her go and I’ll let you live.”
“I hold all the cards, Alessandro. I know you love her. That’s why you lose. You’re weaker than me. You let a woman control you instead of controlling her. She makes you weak.”
I steady my gaze on him, my hand firm on my weapon. “She makes me strong,” I counter, my voice the calm in the eye of the storm. “I came here because I chose love over revenge.”
Garibaldi laughs, a sound as cold and dead as the air around us. “And that makes you vulnerable.”
“It makes me stronger,” I reply, each word a stone foundation of my newfound belief. “Strong enough to know when to fight, and what’s truly worth fighting for.”
His smirk widens, a predator enjoying the game. “A noble sentiment. But it will be of little comfort when she’s dead. Her dad has a heart monitor hooked up to me. My heart stops, she dies. You see the bind you’re in.”
The words hit me, a physical blow, but my response is measured, tempered by the battles I’ve fought—not just with him, but within myself. “Then I guess I’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
He sneers, the venom in his voice palpable. “What will you do, Alessandro? Kill me or save her? I know you. You can’t resist the path of violence. You’ll kill me. She’ll die. You’ll be alone. That’s the way it has to be. You can’t change your nature.”
It’s a moment suspended in time, a crossroads of who I was and who I’ve become. The old me would have shot him by now, but the man I am now, shaped by love and loss, knows there’s only one real choice.
He realizes at the same moment, fear etching across his face as I lift my gun.
