CHAPTER 3 — The Hit Before Midnight
CHAPTER 3 — The Hit Before Midnight
The command center fell silent.
No one spoke.
The words on the contract seemed to drain the air from the room.
BOTH TARGETS MUST DIE BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
Alina stared at the page until the letters blurred together.
"My father..." she whispered. "He signed this?"
Marco nodded grimly.
"Not just him."
He slid another photograph across the table.
Garrett Mosley.
Richard Whitmore.
Anthony DeLuca—the city's police commissioner.
Three men shaking hands in a private dining room.
A timestamp in the corner showed it had been taken two nights before the wedding.
Spencer's expression hardened.
"So they've decided to stop pretending."
The security chief rushed into the command center.
"Boss."
Everyone turned.
"We just lost Camera Twelve."
Another voice crackled through Spencer's earpiece.
"Camera Nine is down too."
Marco immediately reached for his sidearm.
"They're inside the perimeter."
Mrs. Doyle looked toward Alina.
"Come with me."
"No."
Alina surprised even herself.
Her fear was still there.
But something else had appeared beside it.
Anger.
"I'm tired of running."
Spencer looked directly at her.
"You don't have to prove anything tonight."
"I'm not."
She met his eyes.
"I'm deciding."
For the first time in her life, the decision was hers.
Spencer gave a small nod.
"Stay behind me."
Outside, rain hammered the estate.
Three black SUVs rolled silently through the woods beyond the property.
Their headlights stayed off.
Professional.
Disciplined.
Inside the lead vehicle, a man adjusted a suppressor onto his rifle.
"Orders?"
The voice in his earpiece answered immediately.
"Kill Castellano."
A pause.
"The girl?"
"Make it look like she died protecting him."
The assassin smiled.
"Understood."
Inside the mansion, every hallway light suddenly went dark.
Emergency generators kicked in a second later.
Red security lights flooded the corridors.
The mansion transformed from a home into a fortress.
Marco spoke into his radio.
"Lockdown."
Steel shutters slammed over every first-floor window.
Heavy doors sealed automatically.
Alina jumped.
Spencer calmly handed her a small flashlight.
"Stay close."
"You planned for this."
"I planned for worse."
A gunshot shattered the silence.
One of the front entrance cameras exploded.
Then another.
Then another.
The attack had begun.
Marco looked at the monitor.
"Six men."
Another guard corrected him.
"Eight."
A third voice interrupted.
"Twelve."
Spencer narrowed his eyes.
"No."
He zoomed the thermal camera.
"There are fourteen."
The room became still.
This wasn't intimidation.
It was an execution squad.
Outside, explosions rocked the eastern fence.
The attackers weren't trying to sneak in anymore.
They were forcing Spencer to split his defenses.
Marco issued orders rapidly.
"North team move."
"South roof cover."
"No one leaves the panic corridor."
Gunfire erupted across the grounds.
Alina flinched at every shot.
Spencer didn't.
He listened.
Counting.
Measuring.
Predicting.
"Three rifles."
"Two shotguns."
"Suppressed pistols."
Marco blinked.
"You can tell?"
"I know their rhythm."
Suddenly—
The mansion lights went completely black.
Someone had cut the main generator.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then—
A child's voice echoed through the hallway.
"Help..."
Alina froze.
Someone was crying.
A little girl.
"Please..."
Mrs. Doyle's face changed instantly.
"There are no children in this house."
Spencer grabbed Alina's wrist.
"Don't move."
The crying came again.
Closer.
"Mom..."
Alina's heart twisted.
"It sounds real."
"It isn't."
Spencer's voice was cold.
"It's a recording."
A second later the hallway exploded in gunfire.
Bullets tore through the exact place where Alina had almost stepped.
She gasped.
The recording had been bait.
Marco fired twice.
One attacker fell.
Another disappeared behind a marble column.
Glass shattered upstairs.
"They're in!"
The west wing had been breached.
Spencer immediately changed direction.
"They're herding us."
"Toward what?"
He looked toward the ballroom.
"The kill zone."
The ballroom.
The same room where the wedding reception was supposed to take place tomorrow evening.
Spencer stopped.
Slowly looked upward.
Crystal chandeliers.
Fresh floral decorations.
Temporary lighting.
Gas heaters.
His eyes narrowed.
"Everyone out."
Marco frowned.
"Why?"
Spencer pointed.
"The ceiling."
Tiny blinking lights.
Not decorative.
Detonators.
"Bomb!"
The shout echoed through the mansion.
Everyone ran.
A deafening explosion ripped through the ballroom seconds later.
The entire ceiling collapsed.
Crystal shattered like rain.
Fire erupted across polished marble floors.
The blast wave threw Alina against Spencer.
He wrapped one arm around her before she struck the wall.
Dust filled the corridor.
Heat rolled through the mansion.
Mrs. Doyle coughed violently.
Marco looked back.
"If we'd been thirty seconds slower..."
No one finished the sentence.
Outside, the assassins began retreating.
Their mission had failed.
One SUV sped toward the main gate.
Another vanished into the forest.
Spencer didn't chase them.
"Let them run."
Marco looked confused.
"We can catch them."
"I don't want soldiers."
He stared into the flames consuming the ballroom.
"I want whoever hired them."
An hour later...
Firefighters finished extinguishing the blaze.
Police arrived.
So did the media.
Spencer watched from an upstairs window.
"There they are."
Alina followed his gaze.
Police Commissioner Anthony DeLuca stepped from his vehicle.
Perfect uniform.
Perfect smile.
Perfect timing.
He hadn't come to investigate.
He'd come to confirm the bodies.
Instead—
He saw Spencer and Alina standing alive behind the glass.
For the first time in years...
The commissioner looked afraid.
That same night...
Across Manhattan...
Richard Whitmore poured himself a drink with shaking hands.
Mosley stood beside the fireplace.
"They survived."
Richard whispered,
"How?"
Mosley looked toward the city skyline.
"Because we underestimated him."
He slowly turned.
"And we underestimated her."
Richard frowned.
"Her?"
Mosley smiled coldly.
"A frightened daughter becomes a dangerous witness."
May you like
He picked up his phone.
"Phase Two."
