Chapter 9 - The Long Night
The bedroom door creaked open.
A tall, lean assassin dressed in black tactical gear stepped into the darkened room. In his hand, he held a silenced pistol. He scanned the bed, his eyes locking on the small, sleeping form under the duvet.
He raised the weapon, stepping closer.
Before he could pull the trigger, a shadow detached itself from the wall behind the door.
With a desperate, primal scream, Sophia swung the heavy silver fire poker with all her strength.
CLANG!
The iron struck the assassin squarely in the back of his head. He gasped, stumbling forward, his gun discharging into the floor with a muffled thud. He didn't fall, but he was disoriented, blood beginning to seep from his scalp.
He spun around, his face contorted in rage, and lunged at Sophia.
Sophia didn't back down. She swung again, but this time, the assassin caught the iron rod, twisting it out of her hands and throwing her violently to the floor.
"You little bitch," he hissed, nursing his bleeding head. He raised his pistol, pointing it directly at her chest.
Emma woke up from the noise. She sat up in the massive bed, her small eyes filling with tears as she saw her mother pinned to the floor.
"Mommy!" Emma cried out.
The assassin’s gaze shifted to the little girl. A cold, cruel sneer crossed his face. "First the mother. Then the brat."
He turned the gun toward Emma.
"NO!" Sophia screamed, scrambling forward to throw her body over her daughter.
BANG!
The sound of the explosion was deafening. But it didn't come from the assassin’s silenced weapon.
The heavy mahogany door of the bedroom was blown completely off its hinges, flying across the room and crushing the assassin against the bedpost.
Alessandro stood in the doorway.
He was breathing heavily, his hair wet from the rain, his eyes ablaze with a terrifying, unholy fire. In his hand, he held a smoking Desert Eagle.
Without a word, he strode across the room, grabbed the groaning assassin by his tactical vest, and threw him through the glass balcony doors. The glass shattered into a million glittering pieces as the assassin plummeted three stories down to the stone courtyard below.
Alessandro didn't even look over the edge.
He immediately spun around and dropped to his knees beside Sophia, who was cradling Emma in her arms, both of them shaking violently.
"Are you hurt?" Alessandro asked, his voice cracked with an emotion he had never shown to anyone in his life. His hands, usually so steady and cold, were trembling as he reached out to touch Sophia’s face.
"We... we're okay," Sophia sobbed, burying her face in his chest. "You came back. You came back for us."
May you like
Alessandro wrapped his powerful arms around both of them, pulling them close against his chest. For the first time in his life, the cold, empty void inside him was filled with a blinding, protective warmth.
"I will always come back," he whispered into Sophia's hair. "I swear it."
