Chapter 74 Chapter 74
Hailey’s POV
“Marco!” Benita screamed, rushing toward him, but she stopped short when she saw the extent of his injuries.
Blood soaked through his shirt in multiple places his shoulder, his side, his leg. He was pale, swaying slightly on his feet, but his expression was fierce and determined.
“We need to move,” he said, his voice strained but steady. “Now.”
“You’re hurt,” Benita sobbed, reaching for him. “You need medical attention. You need…”
“I’ll be fine,” Marco interrupted, though we could all see that was a lie. “Your mother,” he said, turning to me. “I got her to a secured room. She’s safe. Now it’s your turn.”
Relief flooded through me so intensely I nearly collapsed. My mother was alive. She was safe.
“Grandmother,” Sophia said suddenly, her voice breaking. “Where’s my grandmother? Is she…”
“I don’t know where Isabella is,” Marco admitted, and I saw guilt flash across his face. “I had to make a choice. I secured Barbara first, then came for you.”
He looked at Sophia then, and his expression hardened. “But I know this is your fault,” he said quietly. “This attack. The Morellis getting inside. All of it traces back to you and your schemes.”
Sophia’s face crumpled, tears streaming down her cheeks, but she didn’t deny it.
“We can deal with that later,” Marco said, already moving toward the door. “Right now, we run.”
He led us through the chaos, moving quickly despite his injuries. We passed through rooms I’d never seen before, hidden passages and corridors that I hadn’t known existed.
Behind us, I could hear gunfire and shouting. The Morellis were still searching, still hunting.
Finally, Marco stopped at what looked like a blank wall. He pressed his hand against a hidden panel, and a door swung open silently, revealing another safe room.
This one was larger than the first, with more supplies and what looked like emergency communication equipment.
“Get inside,” Marco ordered, ushering us through. “Lock it behind you. Don’t open it for anyone except your father or Kai.”
“Come with us,” Benita pleaded, grabbing his arm. “Please, Marco. You’re hurt. You need to rest.”
“I can’t,” Marco said, gently pulling his arm free. “I have to find Isabella. She’s still out there somewhere, and I can’t leave her.”
“She’s probably safe,” Benita argued desperately. “She knows this house better than anyone. She probably has her own hiding place. You don’t need to…”
“I do,” Marco interrupted firmly. “It’s my duty. My responsibility.”
“Your duty?” Benita’s voice rose with hysteria. “What about your duty to me? To us? You’re going to get yourself killed!”
Marco cupped her face in his hands, and I saw such tenderness in his eyes it made my chest ache.
“I love you,” he said softly. “More than anything. But I have to do this. I have to make sure she’s safe.”
Then he pulled her into a fierce kiss, desperate and passionate and final. Benita clung to him, sobbing against his mouth, and when they finally broke apart, both had tears streaming down their faces.
Marco turned to me and bowed his head slightly. “Take care of each other,” he said. “And tell the boss… tell him I did my duty.”
“Marco, please…” I started, but he was already backing toward the door.
That’s when we heard a whistle, choing down the hallway.
Marco’s expression shifted instantly from tender to deadly. He knew that sound. We all did.
Luca.
“Get inside,” Marco hissed urgently. “Now!”
He shoved us through the doorway, and I grabbed Benita as she tried to rush back to him.
“Marco!” she screamed. “No! Don’t leave us!”
But Marco was already swinging the door shut, his eyes meeting Benita’s one last time.
“I love you,” he mouthed.
The door sealed with a heavy metallic thud, and we heard the locks engage automatically.
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then the gunfire erupted.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Rapid, continuous, the sound so loud even through the reinforced walls.
And then Marco’s voice, a terrible, agonized groan that turned into a scream of pain.
“MARCO!” Benita shrieked, throwing herself at the door. “MARCO! NO!”
She pounded on the metal with her fists, screaming his name over and over, her voice raw and broken.
I collapsed to my knees, my hands pressed over my mouth, tears streaming down my face as I listened to more gunshots, more groaning, the sounds of Marco being executed just feet away from us.
And there was nothing we could do.
Nothing but listen as the man who’d saved our lives gave his own.
My mother appeared from deeper in the safe room, rushing toward us. She grabbed Benita, pulling her away from the door before she could hurt herself on the unyielding metal.
“No!” Benita sobbed, fighting against Barbara’s hold. “Let me go! I have to help him! I have to…”
“You can’t,” my mother said firmly, wrapping her arms around Benita and holding her tight. “Baby, you can’t. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Benita collapsed in my mother’s arms, her screams turning to broken, keening wails that tore at my heart.
I stayed on my knees, my hands still covering my mouth, trying to hold in my own sobs.
Marco was dead. Marco, who’d protected us, who’d been loyal to a fault, who’d loved Benita with everything he had.
Dead because he’d chosen duty over survival.
Dead because of Sophia’s schemes that had brought the Morellis to our doorstep.
I looked up at Sophia, who stood frozen near the wall, her face white as a sheet, her eyes wide and horrified.
“This is your fault,” I said, my voice hoarse. “He’s dead because of you.”
Sophia’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. She just stood there, staring at the door, at the barrier between us and Marco’s body.
Outside, the gunfire had stopped.
All we could hear now was Benita’s broken sobbing and the distant sounds of destruction as the Morellis continued their rampage through the compound.