Chapter 14 - Echoes in the Dark
The underground wine tunnel was a remnant of an eighteenth-century smuggling route, carved through the limestone cliffs down toward a private cove on the Amalfi coast. It was cold, damp, and smelled of salt water and rotting timber.
Behind us, the villa above echoed with heavy explosions and the rhythmic chatter of automatic weapons. Julian Moretti’s strike team had breached the upper floors.
"Move quickly, cara," Adrien urged, his hand firmly clasped around mine as he guided me through the dark, uneven corridor. Marco led the way with a tactical flashlight, weapon raised.
My pregnant belly made navigating the steep, slippery incline agonizingly difficult. Sharp cramps tugged at my lower abdomen, a warning sign from my body that the stress was pushing me to the brink. I bit my lip, refusing to slow us down.
At the end of the three-hundred-yard tunnel, a heavy wooden hatch opened out into a natural sea cave. Waiting on the rocky ledge inside the cavern was an unmarked, high-powered black tactical speedboat, bobbing gently on the dark turquoise waves.
"Marco, get the engines running," Adrien commanded, scanning the mouth of the cave that opened to the open sea. "Set coordinates for the safe port in Livorno. We meet my contact there."
"Right away, Boss," Marco said, leaping onto the vessel and powering on the muffled twin engines.
Adrien turned to help me down onto the boat's teak deck. But before my foot could touch the boat, a cold, mocking voice drifted down from the rocky ledge above the tunnel exit.
"Leaving so soon, Adrien? Without even introducing me to the glowing mother-to-be?"
My heart plummeted into my stomach.
Standing on the rocky outcrop ten feet above us, silhouetted against the moonlight spilling into the cave mouth, was Vanessa Cole.
She looked terrifyingly alive. Her blonde hair was cut short, dyed dark brown, and a jagged scar ran down the left side of her jawline—a souvenir from the Hudson estate fire. She wore a tailored black combat coat, and resting casually in her gloved hands was a submachine gun pointed directly at my chest.
Behind her, emerging from the cavern shadows, stood a tall, heavily built man with cruel, predatory eyes and slicked-back hair. Julian Moretti.
Adrien instantly shifted his body, completely covering me with his frame. His gun was drawn and leveled at Julian’s head before Vanessa could even finish her sentence.
"You should have stayed dead, Vanessa," Adrien said, his voice so dangerously quiet it chilled the humid cave air. "Dying once was a tragedy. Having to kill you myself will be a pleasure."
Vanessa laughed—a bitter, hollow sound that echoed off the damp cavern walls. "You always were a romantic, Adrien. But look around you. The estate above is burning. Your loyal little guards are bleeding out on your precious Italian marble. And you’re trapped in a cave like a rat."
Julian Moretti stepped forward, resting a hand on Vanessa’s shoulder. His sneer revealed a gold tooth. "Adrien Hudson. The prodigal Don who threw away an empire for a schoolteacher. Do you know how pathetic you look? Begging for an exit while your woman shakes like a leaf?"
"Julian," Adrien said, not blinking. "You touch one hair on her head, and I will dismantle every member of your bloodline while you watch, limb by limb."
"You don't have the leverage anymore, Hudson," Julian snapped. "Drop your weapon. Step away from the girl, or Vanessa puts a burst through her belly. Let’s see what dies first: your legacy, or your pride."
I grabbed the back of Adrien's shirt, my knuckles turning white. "Adrien..." I whispered.
"I won't let them touch you," he whispered back, his voice an unbreakable shield.
"Three seconds, Adrien!" Vanessa shouted, her finger tightening on the trigger, her scarred face twisting with manic jealousy. "One... two—"
Suddenly, the deafening roar of an engine shattered the tension.
Marco, who had remained hidden beneath the boat's console, opened up with the vessel’s mounted high-caliber deck gun. A storm of heavy rounds tore into the rock ledge above us.
"Down!" Adrien roared, tackling me onto the deck of the boat, sheltering my body with his entire weight as chunks of limestone and ricocheting bullets showered over us.
Screams of rage and pain echoed above. Julian stumbled backward, dragging a bleeding Vanessa behind the rock outcropping as stone shards tore into them.
"Go, Marco! Hit it!" Adrien yelled, never letting go of me.
May you like
Marco slammed the dual throttles forward. The speedboat leaped out of the cavern like a missile, tearing across the moonlit surface of the Tyrrhenian Sea, leaving the burning villa and our pursuers in our wake.
***
