Chapter 13 - Blood in the Nursery
"Leo!" Clara gasped, pulling away from Ricardo with pure panic in her eyes.
"Stay behind me!" Ricardo drew two handguns from under his jacket, his entire demeanor shifting instantly into that of a lethal apex predator. "We move together. We get Leo, and we lock down the vault."
The hallway was already thick with gray smoke and the acrid stench of burning explosives.
Ricardo led the way, firing with terrifying accuracy through the haze. Two masked mercenaries in tactical gear rounded the corner from the gallery; Ricardo put two rounds through each of their chests before they could even raise their weapons.
They reached the nursery just as the heavy doors were being kicked open from the opposite hallway.
Mrs. Gable was huddled in the corner, clutching a fireplace poker, shielding Leo behind her body. The little boy was screaming in absolute terror as bullets shredded the wooden bookshelves and shattered the toy chests.
"Clara! Take him to the master vault!" Ricardo bellowed, stepping into the nursery doorway and laying down a relentless wall of suppressing fire against four incoming gunmen. "Code is 1-0-1-4! Go! Now!"
Clara sprinted across the nursery floor, sliding on the debris. She scooped Leo into her arms, grabbing Mrs. Gable by the elbow. "Move, Mrs. Gable! To the bedroom!"
They ran down the secondary service corridor toward the master suite, where a reinforced steel vault was concealed behind the walk-in wardrobe.
Behind them, a mercenary stepped out from the utility closet, raising a submachine gun directly at Leo’s back.
"Look out!" Mrs. Gable shrieked.
Clara didn't think. She didn't calculate.
She spun her entire body around, pulling Leo tightly against her stomach and hunching her back to shield him completely.
Crack-crack-crack!
A white-hot spike of agony tore through Clara’s left shoulder.
The impact slammed her against the wall, but she refused to drop the boy. A ragged scream tore from her throat as blood immediately soaked through the fabric of her dress, warm and sticky.
The mercenary raised his weapon to finish them, but a deafening roar shook the corridor.
Ricardo appeared like an avenging demon from the smoke. He tackled the shooter to the ground, disarming him in a single fluid motion, and drove the butt of his pistol into the man's skull with sickening force.
He scrambled to Clara’s side, his hands instantly pressing hard against the bleeding wound on her shoulder.
"No, no, no... Clara, look at me!" Ricardo begged, his voice cracking with a terror that no rival cartel had ever been able to inflict upon him. "Keep your eyes on me!"
"Leo..." Clara gasped, her vision blurring at the edges as she leaned against the wall. "Is Leo... okay?"
"He's safe. He doesn't have a scratch," Ricardo choked out, tears finally breaking free from his eyes, dripping onto her pale cheek. "You saved him again. Now hold on to me. Don't you dare close your eyes!"
"Papa!" Leo’s voice cut through the chaos, clear, loud, and terrified. The boy threw his small arms around Clara’s neck, weeping against her uninjured shoulder. "Cara! Wake up! Papa, fix Cara!"
"I will, son. I swear to you, I will," Ricardo vowed.
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He scooped Clara into his arms, ignoring the blood covering his own clothes, and kicked open the vault door, pushing Mrs. Gable and Leo inside. "Lock it from the inside! Marco is outside with reinforcements! I will end this!"
He sealed the heavy vault door, locked the electronic deadbolts, and turned back toward the smoke-filled penthouse, a man possessed by pure, unyielding vengeance.
