Part 5
"Adrian!"
Emma screamed his name, disregarding every rule of survival in this house.
She ran to the heavy oak door of the nursery and pounded on it.
The guard outside instantly threw the door open, his weapon raised. "What's wrong?"
"Get Adrian! Now! Tell him it's about his son!"
Within thirty seconds, Adrian Romano appeared in the doorway. He looked exhausted, his suit jacket gone, his sleeves rolled up to reveal muscular forearms covered in old scar tissue.
"What happened?" he demanded, stepping into the room.
"Look at the humidifier," Emma said, her voice frantic as she retreated to the balcony doors, trying to get Leo as far away from the mist as possible. "Turn it off. Don't breathe it in."
Adrian didn't ask questions.
He marched over to the silver machine and ripped the cord from the wall.
He unscrewed the top and sniffed the liquid inside. His expression darkened instantly.
"What is it?" Adrian asked.
"It’s an aerosolized irritant," Emma explained, her breath coming fast. "Probably a synthetic compound. It attacks the respiratory tract and causes severe abdominal cramping in infants. It mimics the symptoms of acute colic, but if exposed for more than a few hours... it causes pulmonary edema. His lungs would have filled with fluid."
Adrian’s face turned an unnatural shade of white.
"She wasn't trying to distract me," Adrian whispered, the horror finally cracking his mask. "She was trying to kill him."
"If we hadn't left for the restaurant tonight," Emma said, the realization hitting her too, "he would have been in this room all evening. He wouldn't have survived the night."
The Volkov syndicate didn't just want Adrian's money.
They wanted his legacy.
They wanted to destroy his soul.
Adrian looked at Emma.
In that moment, the power dynamic between them shifted.
She wasn't a hostage anymore.
She wasn't a random waitress he had dragged into his nightmare.
She was the only shield his son had left.
"You saved his life," Adrian said, his voice thick with an emotion he hadn't felt in years.
"I just noticed what was in front of me," Emma replied softly, looking down at Leo, who was starting to stir, squirming against his blanket.
"No," Adrian said, walking over to her. He placed a hand gently on the back of Leo's head, his touch surprisingly tender for a man who ordered executions. "My people are trained to look for bombs and bullets. They missed the poison in the air. You didn't."
Suddenly, the lights in the nursery flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then, the entire mansion plunged into total, pitch-black darkness.
The quiet humming of the house died.
The security monitors in the hallway shut off.
"Boss!" Marco’s voice shouted from the hallway. "The main backup generator just blew! Someone cut the fuel lines!"
From the grounds below, the unmistakable, rapid thud of suppressed automatic gunfire echoed through the night.
May you like
The enemy hadn't left.
They were clearing the house.
