Chapter 1 - The Click of the Hammer
The unmistakable click of a gun being cocked echoed through my own kitchen.
I didn't turn around. In my world, turning meant dying.
"Drop it, Vale," a familiar voice rasped.
It was Marcus. My right-hand man. The lieutenant who was supposed to be securing the perimeter, not aiming a Glock at the back of my skull.
"Marcus," I kept my voice dead level. "You have ten seconds to explain why you're in my house, pointing a weapon at my spine."
"The Miami deal was a setup, boss," Marcus said, his breathing shallow. "You're bad for business. The Italians want you gone. I'm just the messenger."
Ava gasped, clutching her bleeding leg.
Emma squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face into the maid’s blood-stained apron.
Claire didn't flinch.
Her eyes, cold and calculating, shifted from my face to the reflection in the stainless-steel refrigerator behind me.
Without warning, Claire’s hand snapped upward.
The heavy steel surgical forceps, still slick with my daughter's blood, spun through the air.
A sickening crunch echoed as the heavy metal struck Marcus squarely in the wrist.
The gun discharged, firing a bullet harmlessly into the ceiling plaster.
I spun on my heel, drawing my pistol in a fraction of a second, but Marcus was already scrambling backward.
He clutched his shattered wrist, his face pale with shock.
"This isn't over, Vale!" Marcus yelled, diving through the shattered glass of the patio door.
May you like
I took a step to pursue him, but a soft, commanding voice stopped me.
"Let him go. Your daughter is losing blood, and his friends will be here in three minutes."
