Chapter 7 - The Safe Room
We found her cowering behind the marble island.
Glass shattered around her as bullets tore through the kitchen windows.
"Emma!" I yelled.
She looked up, terrified, covering her ears.
Luke provided cover fire, dropping two of Rossi's thugs who stepped into the doorway.
I rolled up to her, grabbing her wrist.
"Stay low. Keep behind my chair. It's armored."
We moved as a unit.
Through the corridors, past the smoke and the screaming.
We finally reached the safe room beneath the library.
Heavy steel doors locked behind us.
The silence inside was deafening.
Emma slid down the wall, gasping for air, clutching her knees.
I locked my wheelchair wheels and looked at her.
"Are you hit?" I asked roughly.
She shook her head. "I don't think so."
Then she looked at me, her eyes wide. "They came to kill you."
"They try every few years. Occupational hazard."
She let out a broken sob.
"Hey," I said, my voice softer than I thought possible.
I unbuckled myself and managed to slide off my chair, dropping onto the floor beside her.
It was clumsy. It lacked dignity.
But I needed to be on her level.
I pulled her into my arms.
She buried her face in my chest and cried.
As we sat on the cold floor of the bunker, listening to the muffled gunfire above, I realized something terrifying.
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I had built this fortress to protect my empire.
But now, the only thing I cared about protecting was her.
