Chapter 12 - The King Returns
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The panic room was a suffocating concrete box, equipped with emergency lighting, a radio, and a rack of heavy weapons I had no idea how to use.
I held Lily against my chest, sitting on the cold floor, listening to the muffled thuds of the mercenaries tearing the study apart outside the steel door. They knew we were in here.
Suddenly, a loud, metallic banging echoed through the room. They were trying to attach breaching charges to the door.
“Cover your ears, baby,” I whispered, burying Lily’s face into my shoulder and squeezing my eyes shut, preparing for the explosive shockwave.
But the explosion never came.
Instead, the muffled sound of heavy, automatic gunfire erupted outside the door. Screams of agony penetrated the thick steel, followed by the terrifying, chaotic noise of brutal, close-quarters combat.
The battle raged for what felt like an eternity.
Then, silence. Absolute, heavy silence.
I held my breath, terrified that the mercenaries had won and were preparing to blow the door.
A heavy hand slammed against the steel from the outside.
“Nora!” a voice roared through the metal. It was raw, desperate, and filled with a terror I had never heard before.
It was Damian.
“Nora, open the door! It’s me!”
I scrambled to my feet, my hands shaking so violently I could barely hit the release button. The heavy steel door hissed and swung open.
Damian stood in the ruined study. He looked like a god of war. His tuxedo was shredded, his white shirt soaked in blood that wasn't his own. He held a smoking assault rifle in one hand, his chest heaving with exhaustion and adrenaline.
The bodies of four heavily armed mercenaries littered the floor around him.
He dropped the rifle. It clattered against the hardwood.
He didn't ask if we were okay. He fell to his knees right there in the doorway, pulling both me and Lily into a crushing, desperate embrace. He buried his face into my neck, his broad shoulders shaking.
“I thought I lost you,” Damian breathed, his voice cracking with an emotion that completely shattered the walls of the ruthless mafia boss. “I thought I was too late.”
“We’re okay,” I sobbed, clinging to his blood-soaked shirt, finally letting the terror break over me. “We’re okay, Damian.”
He pulled back, his dark eyes searching my face, checking me for injuries.
“You remembered the code,” he whispered, realizing how I had gotten inside.
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“I guessed,” I said, offering a weak, watery smile.
Damian looked at me, a profound, overwhelming devotion burning in his eyes. “You are the smartest, bravest woman I have ever known.”
