Chapter 7 - Trials of Loyalty
At the townhouse, the power suddenly went out.
Carmen stood in the dark kitchen, a sudden wave of dread washing over her. The streetlamps outside were dead too. "Isabella," she called out, keeping her voice low. "Come here to me, sweetie."
Isabella walked out of her bedroom, holding her phone’s flashlight. "Mama, what happened to the lights?"
Before Carmen could answer, the heavy wooden front door was violently kicked off its hinges. The sound shattered the silence of the night.
"Search the house! Find the girl!" a harsh voice shouted from the hallway.
Carmen’s maternal instincts overrode her terror. She grabbed Isabella, shoving her into the small kitchen pantry—a bittersweet echo of where their story had began. "Stay here, Isabella. Do not make a sound, no matter what you hear. Do you understand me?"
"Mama, no—" Isabella whimpered, but Carmen closed the door, locking it from the outside just as two armed men burst into the kitchen.
"Where is the kid?" one of the men barked, grabbing Carmen by the arm and spinning her around.
"I don't know what you're talking about! There's no kid here!" Carmen screamed, fighting back with a fierce bravery she didn't know she possessed. She scratched at the man's face, drawing blood.
"Fierce b****," the man growled, raising his hand to strike her.
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But before his fist could land, the glass window behind them shattered into a thousand pieces. A heavy-caliber bullet tore through the air, hitting the attacker squarely in the chest. He collapsed to the floor.
Vincent Torino stepped through the broken window frame, his coat billowing around him, a smoking gun held firmly in his hand. His eyes were entirely devoid of humanity. He looked like the angel of death.
