Chapter 3 - Safeguarding the Bloodline
The extraction of Lucas and Sophia had to be flawless. Any sudden movement within the estate would tip off Victoria, who was currently sleeping peacefully in the master suite, dreaming of the empire she was about to inherit.
At 2:45 AM, Dominic entered his children’s bedroom. The room was dark, save for the faint glow of a Mickey Mouse nightlight near the baseboard. Lucas was awake. He sat upright the moment the door clicked, his small body immediately moving to position himself between the door and his little sister, who was curled into a ball beneath a pink comforter.
"Lucas," Dominic whispered, dropping to his knees and opening his arms.
The boy stared at him for a second, his eyes darting to the shadows behind his father, looking for the monster that had terrorized his world for ninety days. When he saw only his father’s face, softened by an expression of pure, unadulterated devotion, the stoic mask of the seven-year-old soldier finally broke. He threw himself into Dominic’s chest, his tiny fists gripping the fabric of his father's shirt so hard his knuckles popped.
"I didn't tell her anything, Dad," Lucas sobbed into Dominic’s neck, his voice a frantic, terrified whisper. "She said she’d hurt Sophia. She said she made Mommy go away and she’d make you go away too. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn't tell you."
"Shh," Dominic choked out, his eyes burning as he held his son against his heart, his hand reaching out to pull a waking Sophia into the embrace. "You did perfectly, Lucas. You saved your sister. You saved me. But the lesson is over now, do you hear me? The bad people are finished."
Elena stepped into the room, carrying two heavy tactical duffel bags. She didn't say a word. She knelt beside Sophia, gently sliding a pair of thick, warm shoes onto the little girl’s feet while Dominic wrapped Lucas in a dark jacket.
They did not use the main grand staircase or the service elevators. Elena led them back through the master closet, down into the hidden tactical suite, and through a narrow, concrete staircase that descended forty feet beneath the estate’s foundations—an old Prohibition-era bootlegging tunnel that led directly to a nondescript commercial garage two blocks away.
A matte-black, armored Suburban was waiting inside the dark garage, its engine idling silently. At the wheel was a man Dominic recognized instantly—Gabriel "The Ghost" Vance, Elena’s brother and a legendary tactical driver who had survived three deployments in the special forces before vanishing into the shadow intelligence world.
"Where are they going?" Dominic asked as he buckled Sophia into a reinforced car seat in the rear cabin.
"To a black site in Northern Wisconsin," Elena said, checking the chamber of her customized Sig Sauer rifle before tossing it into the passenger seat. "The property is wrapped in counter-surveillance grids and manned by six former Tier-1 operators. The Sovereigns couldn't find them if they deployed a satellite network. They are safe, Dominic. For the first time in three months, they are completely out of the line of fire."
Dominic leaned into the back of the vehicle, pressing his forehead against Lucas’s. "Listen to Elena’s brother, okay? I will be there before the sun goes down tomorrow night. And when you see me next, this house will be clean."
Lucas nodded, his eyes no longer wide with fear, but steady with the ancient, resilient blood of the Moretti line. "Kill the monster, Dad."
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"With my bare hands," Dominic whispered.
The garage door lifted an inch, just enough for the Suburban to slide out into the rainy Chicago night, vanishing into the darkness without a single flash of brake lights. Dominic stood in the empty garage, the cold wind whipping through the open space, his hands resting on his sides. The father had done his job. Now, the executioner had to go to work.
