Chapter 9 - The Tigress
My brain didn't calculate the odds. It didn't factor in that I was an unarmed five-foot-five woman facing a trained operative twice my size.
All I saw was Leo.
I grabbed a heavy bronze statue of an eagle from the corridor display table, kicked open the study door, and charged.
"Let him go!" I screamed.
The man turned, surprised, but wasn't fast enough. I swung the heavy bronze statue with all the momentum of my body, smashing it directly into the side of his head.
The metal struck bone with a sickening crack.
The man grunted, stumbling backward and dropping Leo onto the carpet. Blood poured down his temple, but he didn't go down. He lunged at me with a snarl, his fist catching me across the jaw.
The blow sent me crashing into the bookshelf, stars exploding across my vision. Pain flared through my skull, but as the man drew a silenced pistol from his waistband, I didn't hesitate. I kicked out with both feet, striking his injured knee.
He buckled with a roar of fury.
"Leo, run!" I screamed, scrambling toward the desk to grab a heavy glass paperweight.
The man grabbed my hair, pulling my head back, the cold muzzle of the gun pressing hard against my temple. "Bitch—"
*BANG.*
The sound was deafening inside the enclosed room.
The man holding me went completely rigid. A small, dark hole appeared in the center of his forehead. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor beside me.
I fell to my hands and knees, gasping for air, trembling violently.
Standing in the doorway was Dominic Moretti.
His tuxedo jacket was torn, his gun was raised, smoke curling from the barrel, and his eyes were burning with a terrifying, apocalyptic rage. Behind him stood three armed guards, weapons drawn.
Leo was sobbing in the corner. Dominic took one look at the dead man on the floor, then at the bruised cut blooming across my cheekbone, and finally at his trembling son.
"Secure the perimeter. Kill anyone who doesn't have an invitation," Dominic ordered coldly to his men.
He holstered his gun, crossed the room in two strides, and fell to his knees in front of me.
"Isabella," he breathed, his large hands cupping my face with unbelievable tenderness. His thumbs brushed the blood from my lip, his fingers shaking. "Look at me. Look at me, Bella."
"Leo..." I choked out, tears spilling down my face as shock set in. "He's safe... I kept him safe..."
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"You saved my son," Dominic whispered, his voice cracking with an emotion so deep it shook his entire body. He pulled me into his chest, holding me against his heart as if I were the most precious thing in the world. "You saved us both."
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