Chapter 6
I locked us in the safe room.
Damian had shown it to me three days ago.
Said if anything ever happened, this was where we went.
Steel door.
Bulletproof everything.
Its own air supply.
Food and water for a month.
Monitors showing every camera on the property.
I sat on the floor.
Milo in my lap.
Shaking.
He was crying quietly.
Too scared to make noise.
I rocked him.
Sang to him.
Watched the monitors.
Men in masks.
Dozens of them.
Shooting their way through the gates.
The guards were fighting back.
But there were too many.
They were getting closer.
To the house.
To us.
Then I saw him.
Walking through the front door like he owned the place.
Marcus.
He wasn’t at the farm.
He was here.
And he had an army.
I felt sick.
Damian was gone.
There was no one to save us.
Just me.
And my son.
And a steel door that would only hold for so long.
“Mommy,” Milo whispered.
“I want Daddy.”
“I know, baby,” I said, kissing his head.
“I know.”
I watched the monitors.
Marcus was walking through the house.
Smashing things.
Shooting at the walls.
Yelling.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
But I could read his lips.
Elena.
Milo.
Brother.
He was looking for us.
He got to the third floor.
Our floor.
Stopped right outside the safe room.
I held my breath.
Grabbed the gun Damian had left in the lockbox.
Cocked it.
Held it behind my back.
Marcus kicked the wall.
Once.
Twice.
Then I heard his voice through the steel.
Muffled.
But clear enough.
“I know you’re in there, Elena!
You can’t hide forever!
Send the boy out and I might make it quick!”
Milo whimpered.
I held him tighter.
“Shhh,” I whispered.
“Be very quiet, baby.
He can’t get in.
The door is too strong.”
Marcus laughed.
It was a horrible sound.
“You think that door will stop me?
I brought C4, you stupid bitch!
I’ll blow this whole fucking house up before I let my brother have what’s mine!”
Mine.
The word sent chills down my spine.
Marcus had always thought everything belonged to him.
The business.
The money.
The power.
And now… my son.
I looked at the monitors.
More men were coming up the stairs.
They were carrying something.
Big.
Brown.
Rectangular.
Bombs.
They were going to blow the door.
I stood up.
Put Milo behind me.
Held the gun out in front of me.
My hands were shaking so bad I could barely hold it.
But I held it.
Because I was his mother.
And no one was taking my son.
Not while I was still breathing.
Then I heard it.
From the monitors.
Another sound.
Engines.
Lots of them.
Coming up the driveway.
Fast.
I looked at the gate camera.
Black SUVs.
Dozens of them.
Crashing through the broken gates.
Men in tactical gear pouring out.
Damian.
He was back.
And he’d brought every man he owned.
The fight was over in five minutes.
Marcus’s men were outnumbered.
Outgunned.
Outmatched.
I watched on the monitors as they were cut down.
One by one.
Then I saw Damian.
He walked through the front door.
Dual pistols in his hands.
Death in his eyes.
He moved through the house.
Fast.
Precise.
Every man he saw… didn’t get back up.
He got to the third floor.
Marcus was standing in the hall.
Alone now.
His men were all dead or dying.
He had a detonator in one hand.
A gun in the other.
The two brothers faced each other.
Damian didn’t say anything.
He just raised his gun.
“Wait!” Marcus screamed.
“Wait, Damian!
Don’t shoot!
I’m your brother!”
“You stopped being my brother when you put a gun to my pregnant girlfriend,” Damian said.
His voice was cold.
Empty.
“You stopped being my brother when you threatened to cut my son out of her.
You stopped being my brother when you broke into my house and tried to kill my family.”
He took a step closer.
“I gave you a chance, Marcus.
I sent you to the farm.
I let you live.
And you threw it back in my face.”
“I was angry!” Marcus cried.
“You got everything!
Dad loved you more!
The men respected you more!
It wasn’t fair!”
“Life isn’t fair,” Damian said.
“And you made yours the moment you decided to hurt Elena.”
Marcus looked at the detonator.
Smiled that horrible smile again.
“If I’m going down… I’m taking the safe room with me.
Say goodbye to your son, Damian.”
His thumb moved toward the button.
Two shots.
Loud.
Final.
Marcus dropped the detonator.
Looked down at the two holes in his chest.
Looked back up at Damian.
“Bastard,” he whispered.
Then he fell.
Dead.
Damian didn’t even look at him.
He ran to the safe room door.
Banged on it.
“Elena!
Milo!
Are you okay?
Open the door!
It’s me!”
I ran to the keypad.
Fingers fumbling.
Put in the code.
The door clicked.
I wrenched it open.
Damian stood there.
Covered in blood.
Not his.
His eyes were wild.
Scared.
I threw myself into his arms.
He held me so tight I could barely breathe.
Then he pulled back.
Looked at Milo.
Milo was still crying.
Terrified.
Damian knelt down.
Opened his arms.
“Come here, buddy,” he said, his voice breaking.
“It’s okay.
Daddy’s here.
You’re safe now.”
Milo ran to him.
Buried his face in his neck.
Damian held him.
Rocked him.
Cried with him.
I stood there.
Watching the two of them.
The most feared man in the city.
And his five-year-old son.
Both of them broken.
Both of them alive.
May you like
And I knew.
Nothing would ever be the same again.
