Chapter 4 - Midnight Siege
By 10:00 p.m., a raging thunderstorm slammed into Chicago. Rain lashed violently against the glass walls of the penthouse, and thunder rattled the frame of the building.
The entire penthouse was on high alert. Marcus had posted six of my most trusted, battle-tested tactical guards throughout the estate. Downstairs in the basement garage, armored SUVs were idling, waiting to escort my children to a secure, undisclosed safe house in rural Wisconsin.
Inside the children's bedroom, I sat on the edge of Rosie’s bed.
Jack sat beside me, holding his sister's hand. On the nightstand sat Rosie’s stuffed rabbit, which Naomi had carefully retrieved from the trash, cleaned, and stitched back together with gentle precision.
"Dad?" Jack asked softly, his big brown eyes searching my face. "Are you mad at us?"
The question tore through my chest like a hot blade. I slid off the bed and dropped onto both knees in front of my children, taking both of their small hands in mine.
"Jack... Rosie... look at me," I said, my voice trembling with an emotion I hadn't allowed myself to feel since Isabella died. "I am not mad at you. I will never be mad at you for showing weakness or being scared. You are my children. You are the most important thing in my entire life."
Rosie’s little mouth quivered. "Camille said... she said you’d send us away if we weren't strong..."
"Camille lied," I said fiercely, pulling both of them into a tight, desperate embrace. "Camille was a cruel person, and she is gone. She will never, ever step foot in this house again. I am so sorry I didn't see what she was doing. I promise you, on your mother’s memory, I will protect you for the rest of my life."
Rosie buried her face in my shoulder, sobbing tears of immense relief, while Jack wrapped his arms around my neck, clinging to me as if his life depended on it.
Naomi stood quietly near the doorway, watching the scene with tears glistening in her own eyes.
Suddenly, the lights inside the penthouse flickered and died.
Emergency red backup lights clicked on, casting a blood-colored glow across the hallway. A second later, the sharp, deafening sound of suppressed gunfire echoed from the elevator lobby down the hall.
"Roman!" Marcus’s voice crackled over my earpiece. "Sloane’s strike team breached the private elevator shaft! They cut the main power and jammed the comms! We have four hostiles in the main gallery!"
Patrick Sloane had skipped running to the border. Knowing his empire was falling, the desperate crime lord had sent his personal hit squad to take my children hostage as leverage against the federal charges.
"Naomi! Take the kids into the panic room behind the library!" I ordered, jumping to my feet and drawing my custom 9mm pistol from my shoulder holster.
"What about you?!" Naomi shouted over the sound of breaking glass and shouting down the corridor.
"I’m ending this tonight," I said, my eyes blazing with the deadly fire of a father protecting his blood.
I escorted Naomi, Jack, and Rosie into the concealed steel panic room inside the library wall. Before I closed the heavy reinforced door, I looked at Jack.
"Keep your sister safe, son," I said firmly. "I'll be right back."
"I love you, Dad," Jack said.
"I love you too, son."
May you like
The steel door sealed shut with a heavy mechanical latch.
I turned back toward the dark gallery, raising my weapon as the shadows of Sloane's hitmen moved through my home.
