Chapter 28 - Reclaimed from the Cold
The shock lasted only a second before the survival instincts of a mafia Don took over.
Adrien didn't waste another breath on Vanessa. With a cold, brutal jerk of his arms, he snapped her neck. Her body went limp, collapsing onto the Persian rug like a discarded rag doll. The ghost of her vendetta was finally silenced, but the nightmare had just mutated into something infinitely worse.
Adrien spun around, rushing to Elena’s side. He dropped to his knees, his large, blood-stained hands trembling as he touched Aurelia’s tiny, soft cheek.
The infant had quieted down, nestled safely against Elena’s warmth, large dark eyes blinking up at her parents through the settling dust.
"Is she hurt?" Adrien demanded, his voice cracking with emotion. "Elena, check her—is she injured?"
"She’s whole. She’s unharmed," Elena sobbed, leaning her head against Adrien’s chest. For the first time in forty-eight hours, she allowed herself to crumble, the suffocating terror giving way to waves of relief. "We have her, Adrien. We have our baby."
Adrien wrapped his massive arms around both of them, pulling them into a tight, desperate embrace. He buried his face in Elena’s hair, his broad shoulders shaking once with a silent, suppressed heave of raw gratitude. "Forgive me," he murmured into her skin. "I swore I would protect you both. I failed."
"You came for us," Elena whispered fiercely, pulling back to look into his tormented eyes. "You tore through an army to reach us. You never failed."
Suddenly, the floor beneath them shuddered.
"Boss!" Keller’s voice screamed through the earpiece. "The bunker’s self-destruct sequence was triggered remotely from the outside! You have three minutes before the structural charges collapse the mountain! Get out of there now!"
Adrien stood immediately, pulling Elena to her feet. He took off his heavy winter coat, wrapping it securely around Elena and the baby, creating a protective cocoon.
"Can you run?" he asked, his eyes sharp and lethal once more.
"With her?" Elena looked down at Aurelia. "I can run through hell."
They raced through the blasted breach in the rear wall, emerging onto a narrow, snowy ledge perched over a thousand-foot ravine. The sub-zero wind screamed around them, tearing at their clothes.
Fifty yards away on the cliffside helipad, a black stealth transport helicopter was touching down, its twin rotors whipping the snow into a blinding white vortex.
Behind them, the bunker began to cave in. Explosions ripped through the rock walls, sending geysers of fire and shattered concrete launching into the night sky.
"Move!" Adrien shouted, shielding Elena and Aurelia with his body as falling debris clattered against his armor.
They sprinted across the icy tarmac. The helicopter’s side door slid open. Marco leaned out, extending a hand. "Get in! Hurry!"
Adrien pushed Elena and the baby inside first. Just as he lunged to pull himself aboard, a sniper round cracked through the blizzard, striking the helicopter’s landing strut inches from his boot.
Adrien hauled himself inside, slamming the sliding door shut. "Lift off! Now!"
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The helicopter banked sharply, diving over the edge of the cliff just as the entire subterranean Soviet fortress collapsed in a colossal, apocalyptic roar of fire and rock, sliding down the mountain into oblivion.
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