Chapter 91 – The Siege

Chapter 91 – The Siege
\# Chapter 91 – The Siege

"They're here."

Marcus runs into my office. His face is white. Blood on his shirt.

I look up from the papers on my desk. "How many?"

"Fifty. Maybe more. Marco brought everyone."

The explosions start before he finishes talking.

BOOM.

The whole house shakes. Windows break. My coffee cup falls off the desk and shatters on the floor.

BOOM. BOOM.

Two more explosions. Closer this time.

"The gates are gone," Marcus says. He's breathing hard. "They're coming fast."

I stand up slow. My hands don't shake. They never shake anymore.

"Get Sofia and the baby to the safe room," I tell him.

"Eve, you need to come too. We can't fight this many—"

"I said get them to safety." My voice cuts through his words like ice. "Now."

He nods and runs out.

I walk to my window. Look down at my estate. My beautiful home.

Smoke rises from the front gate. Or what used to be the front gate. Now it's just twisted metal and fire.

Men in black run across my lawn. They carry big guns. Their faces are covered.

Marco walks behind them. Even from here, I can see his smile. He thinks he's won already.

Wrong.

I open my desk drawer. Pull out my gun. Check the bullets. All there.

Then I walk to my closet. Push aside the dresses. Behind them is a hidden panel. Inside are more weapons than most armies have.

I take two more guns. A knife. Grenades.

Tonight, Marco learns why people fear the name Eve Rossi.

\---

The first floor is chaos.

My men fight everywhere. Gunshots echo through the halls. Someone screams. Glass breaks.

I move through it all like a ghost. Quick and quiet.

Two of Marco's men run around the corner. They see me and raise their guns.

Too slow.

I shoot them both before they can blink. They fall hard on my marble floors. Their blood spreads under them like spilled paint.

"Boss!" One of my men calls out. "They're everywhere!"

"Then we kill them everywhere," I say back.

More explosions shake the house. They're using grenades now. Trying to bring down the walls.

My beautiful chandelier crashes down. Thousands of pieces of glass scatter across the floor like diamonds.

I step over them. Keep moving.

The kitchen is on fire. Smoke fills the air. Makes it hard to breathe.

Three more men wait for me there. They think the smoke will hide them.

It doesn't.

I throw a grenade. Count to three. Duck behind the counter.

BOOM.

When the smoke clears, they're gone. Just pieces left.

"Eve!"

I turn. Raphael stands in the doorway. Marco's right hand. The man who helped plan this attack.

He's bigger than me. Stronger. Has scars all over his face from old fights.

But I'm not afraid.

"Hello, Raphael." I smile at him. Not a nice smile. "Come to finish what your boss started?"

"Marco wants you alive," he says. His voice is rough. Like rocks grinding together. "But he didn't say you had to be in one piece."

He charges at me.

I dodge to the side. His fist hits the wall where my head was. Leaves a hole in it.

I kick him in the knee. Hard. He stumbles but doesn't fall.

He grabs my arm. Throws me across the room. I hit the refrigerator. Pain shoots through my back.

I roll away just as his boot crashes down where I was.

We fight like animals. No rules. No mercy.

He's stronger, but I'm faster. Smarter.

I use the burning kitchen against him. Push him into the flames. He screams and jerks back.

That's when I strike.

My knife goes into his shoulder. Deep. He roars and swings at me.

His fist catches my jaw. Stars explode in my eyes. I taste blood.

But I don't fall.

I never fall.

I pull the knife out and stab again. This time his leg.

He drops to one knee.

"You always were too slow, Raphael," I say.

I raise the knife for the killing blow.

But he's not done. He grabs a piece of burning wood. Swings it at my head.

I duck, but not fast enough.

The fire hits my shoulder. My shirt catches. Pain like nothing I ever felt before.

I scream and roll on the ground. Try to put out the flames.

Raphael stands up. Limps toward me. His knife is out now.

"Goodbye, Eve."

He raises it high.

BANG.

The gunshot echoes through the kitchen.

Raphael stops. Looks down. Red spreads across his chest.

He falls forward. Hits the ground hard.

Behind him stands Dante.

My Dante. Blood on his face. His suit torn. But alive.

"Sorry I'm late," he says. His voice is calm. Like he just walked into a business meeting.

I stand up slow. My shoulder burns like hell. But I'm alive.

"The others?" I ask.

"Marcus has Sofia and the baby safe. But we need to go. This place won't hold much longer."

As if to prove his point, another explosion rocks the house. Bigger this time. Part of the ceiling falls down.

"No," I say.

"Eve, we have to leave—"

"No." I look around my burning kitchen. My destroyed home. "This is mine. All of it. And nobody takes what's mine."

More of my men run in. Their faces black with smoke.

"Boss, we can't hold them much longer," one says.

I nod. Walk to the window. Look out at my estate.

Marco stands on my front lawn. Still smiling. He thinks he's won.

I pick up one of the grenades from my belt.

"Boss, what are you doing?" Marcus asks.

I pull the pin. "Sending a message."

I throw it out the window.

It lands right next to Marco.

His smile disappears.

BOOM.

The explosion throws him twenty feet. When the smoke clears, he's not moving.

"Fall back," I tell my men. "Regroup at the safe house."

They nod and start moving. But I don't follow yet.

I walk through my burning home one more time. See the paintings destroyed. The furniture ruined. Years of building this empire. Gone in one night.

But I'm not sad.

I'm angry.

In the safe room, I find Sofia holding the baby. The child cries loud. Scared by all the noise.

"Shh," I whisper. I take the baby in my arms. "It's okay. Mama's here."

The baby stops crying. Looks at me with big eyes.

Sofia is shaking. "Eve, what happens now?"

I look out the window. My estate burns against the night sky. Orange flames reach up to the stars.

Everything I built. Everything I loved.

Gone.

But not forgotten.

"We leave," I say quiet. "Tonight."

"Where will we go?"

I smile. But it's not a nice smile. It's the smile of a queen who just lost her castle but not her crown.

"Somewhere safe. Until we're ready."

"Ready for what?"

I kiss the baby's forehead. Soft and gentle.

But my voice is hard as steel when I answer.

"To take it all back. Every inch. Every stone."

I look at the burning house one more time. Remember every room. Every memory.

"We will rebuild," I whisper to the baby. To Sofia. To myself. "And when we do, it will be written in blood."