Chapter 8 - Through the Wall of Fire
|
The heat inside the subterranean brick vault spiked instantly, sucking the oxygen from the air as black smoke billowed against the arched ceiling.
"The lock is green! Go!" Rico coughed, slamming his shoulder against the heavy steel blast door as the electronic solenoid finally clicked open.
Clara didn't hesitate. She scooped Lily up under one arm, grabbed the back of the wounded guard’s tactical vest with her other hand to help support his bleeding leg, and lunged through the heavy steel doorway into the humid, sunlit expanse of the estate’s glass greenhouse, slamming the iron fire door shut behind them to block the roaring flames.
Wait—the greenhouse garage where the armored Range Rover was parked was forty yards away at the far end of the botanical conservatory, past rows of towering tropical ferns and stone fountains.
And before they had limped ten yards down the central flagstone path, the exterior glass double doors on the east patio shattered inward!
Marcus Gallo and Genevieve hadn't stayed in the burning wine tunnel—they had backed out through the upper maintenance hatch and cut straight across the courtyard lawn to intercept them from the outside!
Marcus leveled his Beretta at Rico’s chest from twenty feet away, blood soaking the front of his trench coat. "Drop the gun, kid, or you’re dead where you stand!"
With Rico half-carrying his own weight on one leg and Clara holding Lily in her left arm, neither of them could bring their weapons up before Marcus fired.
Instead of firing at Marcus, Clara dove sideways behind the three-foot marble basin of the central koi fountain, shielding Lily’s small body beneath hers on the wet stone floor as bullets chipped marble dust above their heads and shattered the glass roof panels overhead.
Rico went down behind a massive terracotta planter, returning fire until his slide locked back empty.
"Out of ammo, Miss Clara!" Rico shouted grimly, reaching for a combat knife at his ankle.
Genevieve stepped through the broken patio doors behind Marcus, her black silk mourning dress smeared with soot and gasoline, a cruel, triumphant smile twisting her painted mouth as she raised her silver automatic toward the marble fountain where Clara and Lily were pinned down.
"Six years of hiding in plain sight, Clara," Genevieve purred, stepping around the edge of the fountain basin until she had a clear angle down at Clara’s back. "And nobody is coming to save you this time."
Clara twisted around on the wet tiles, keeping her body between the gun barrel and Lily, and raised the compact Glock 43 with her trembling, bandaged right hand.
Both women had their guns pointed dead at each other’s chests from eight feet away.
"If you shoot me," Clara said, her voice ice-cold, "my finger pulls this trigger before my body hits the floor. Are you ready to die for my father-in-law’s money, Genevieve?"
Genevieve hesitated for a split second, her eyes flicking nervously to the muzzle of Clara’s Glock—and then she glanced at Marcus. "Marcus, shoot the child first! Make her drop it!"
Marcus swung his bloody arm toward the fountain where Lily’s white rabbit peeked out from beneath Clara’s elbow.
BANG! BANG!
The shots didn't come from Marcus’s gun.
Thirty yards away, on the elevated iron catwalk where the indoor balcony exited the main mansion into the top of the greenhouse atrium, stood Lorenzo Bellini and Vittorio Drago.
Smoke curled from the barrel of Lorenzo’s MP5 and Drago’s heavy .45 Colt.
Marcus Gallo pitched face-first into the tropical fern bed, dead before he hit the dirt.
May you like
Before Genevieve could even turn her head toward the catwalk, a third single shot from Lorenzo’s gun shattered the silver pistol right out of her manicured hand, taking two of her fingers with it.
Genevieve let out a bloodcurdling scream, dropping to her knees on the flagstones and clutching her mangled right hand against her soot-stained black silk dress as Lorenzo came vaulting down the iron spiral staircase like wrath incarnate.
