Chapter 8 - THE MEN IN THE KITCHENNorah couldn’t sleep.
She went downstairs for water.
At 1:17 a.m., something struck the reinforced kitchen door.
Then the glass exploded inward.
Three men entered wearing tactical gear.
Suppressors.
Masks.
Professional movement.
Norah understood immediately.
This was not intimidation.
It was an execution.
The lead gunman saw her.
Raised his pistol.
Norah froze.
A hand caught the back of her sweater and pulled her behind the marble island.
Three bullets struck steel where she had stood.
Gabriel.
Barefoot.
Black T-shirt.
No weapon.
“Stay down.”
He grabbed a cast-iron pan from the stove.
Threw it.
It struck the first attacker and knocked him backward.
The second gunman fired.
Tile shattered.
One round struck Gabriel near the ribs.
His body twisted.
“Gabriel!”
He didn’t stop.
Security alarms screamed through the estate.
Gabriel closed distance on the second attacker before he could fire again.
They crashed into the refrigerator.
Norah stayed low.
She heard fighting.
Metal.
Breathing.
A body hitting the floor.
The third attacker moved toward the island.
Toward her.
He raised his weapon.
Gabriel grabbed a fallen pistol.
Three shots thundered.
The attacker collapsed.
Then silence.
Norah crawled out.
Gabriel was sitting against the refrigerator, one hand pressed to his side.
Blood soaked through his shirt.
She dropped beside him.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Nora.”
“Don’t talk.”
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Check.”
“I’m fine!”
Gabriel caught her wrist.
“Check.”
She ran both hands over herself.
No blood.
“No.”
His shoulders lowered.
Only then did his face show pain.
Norah pressed a towel against his wound.
“Stay awake.”
“I’m trying.”
“You do not get to die.”
A faint smile.
“Demanding.”
“You paid two years of my rent. I need time to repay you.”
His eyes closed.
“Terrible investment.”
“Gabriel.”
He opened them again.
“Good.”
Vincent and the security team stormed into the kitchen.
Dr. Aris arrived fourteen minutes later.
The bullet had cracked a rib but missed Gabriel’s lung.
He would live.
By dawn, Vincent had identified the attackers.
All three worked for men loyal to Leo Rinaldi.
Norah sat outside the safe-room medical suite with Gabriel’s blood dried beneath her fingernails.
She should have been terrified of Gabriel’s world.
Instead, one thought repeated.
The bullet had been meant for her.
May you like
And Gabriel had moved toward it.
That realization frightened her for an entirely different reason.
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