Chapter 9
The silence in the hallway was shattered by the deafening roar of automatic gunfire. The secondary strike team breached the corridor, their tactical lights cutting through the thick smoke. Sebastian moved with lethal precision, using the overturned marble pillars for cover. He fired methodically, each shot finding its mark.
"Flank him!" a mercenary shouted over the din.
Sebastian didn't give them the chance. He moved aggressively forward, closing the distance before they could coordinate. He grabbed the nearest mercenary by the tactical vest, using the man as a human shield as he fired three rounds into the men rushing him from the right. He dropped the body and dove behind a heavy walnut credenza just as the wall behind him was chewed to pieces by return fire.
"Boss! We're coming up the rear staircase!" Vincent's voice crackled over the radio clipped to Sebastian's belt.
"Pincer movement, Vincent," Sebastian ordered calmly, slamming a fresh magazine into his pistol. "Do not let a single one of them reach the safe room doors."
"Copy that, Boss."
Within seconds, the sound of heavy boots and shotgun blasts erupted from the far end of the hallway. The Vane mercenaries, caught completely off guard by the flanking maneuver, panicked. They were caught in a brutal crossfire between the syndicate's elite guards and the enraged mafia boss.
The firefight lasted for three agonizing, bloody minutes. When the final mercenary collapsed, the hallway was a ruin of shattered glass, broken marble, and bodies.
Sebastian stepped out from behind the credenza, his chest heaving. His tailored suit was torn at the shoulder, a superficial graze bleeding slowly onto his white shirt, but he was alive. He kept his weapon raised, sweeping the corridor to ensure there were no survivors.
"Clear!" Vincent shouted, stepping over the wreckage. "The perimeter is secure, Boss. The Vane family overplayed their hand. They sent a dozen men, and they're all dead."
"What of Celeste?" Sebastian asked, his voice a low rumble.
"Secured in the basement, sir. She hasn't stopped screaming," Vincent replied, looking at the blood on Sebastian's shoulder. "You need a medic."
"I need my family," Sebastian corrected him, holstering his weapon.
He walked down the ruined corridor, his polished leather shoes crunching over broken plaster and glass. He reached the heavy steel doors of the safe room and punched in the overriding access code.
The heavy bolts clicked, and the door swung open.
Lydia was sitting on the floor of the safe room, rocking Jamie gently in her arms. She looked up as the door opened, her puffy, exhausted eyes widening in terror before softening into absolute, overwhelming relief.
"Sebastian," Lydia gasped, scrambling to her feet, pulling Jamie up with her.
She rushed forward, throwing her arms around his neck, completely ignoring the blood on his shirt and the dust covering his suit. Sebastian caught her, his powerful arms wrapping securely around her slender waist. He buried his face in her unevenly cut hair, breathing in the scent of her, the adrenaline finally beginning to ebb from his veins.
"Are you unharmed?" Sebastian asked softly, pulling back just enough to look into her expressive eyes.
"I'm fine," Lydia promised, her tears falling freely now. "We're both fine."
Jamie hugged his father's leg tightly. "You beat the bad men, Daddy."
May you like
"I did, Jamie," Sebastian murmured, resting his tattooed hand gently on his son's head. He looked back at Lydia, a quiet, profound affection radiating from his dark eyes.
"The immediate threat is neutralized," Sebastian told her. "But the war with the Vane syndicate has only just begun."
