Chapter 10 - TICKING CLOCK
"You think I worked alone?" Marcus wheezed, blood pooling beneath his shattered knee.
His thumb hovered over the red button of the wireless detonator.
"If I die, this entire mansion goes up in flames with all of us inside."
Luca didn't flinch.
He stepped closer.
"Try it."
"Luca, no!" I screamed from behind the pillar, shielding Leo's eyes.
Marcus's thumb twitched.
Sal moved faster than a man half his age.
He lunged forward, kicking the detonator out of Marcus's hand.
It skidded across the polished wood floor.
Luca fired his pistol once.
Marcus went limp, collapsing unconscious onto the floor.
Luca didn't waste a second.
He scooped up the small wireless detonator from the floor.
The LED screen was blinking rapidly in red: ARMED - 03:42.
Three minutes and forty-two seconds until total detonation.
"Everyone out. Now!" Luca roared.
He sprinted down the corridor toward us.
He grabbed Leo from my arms, holding the boy tight against his chest.
"Sal, Emma, move!"
We bolted down the grand staircase as sirens wailed in the distance.
The house systems were failing.
Emergency lockdown doors were beginning to slide shut across the exits.
"The side exit is blocked!" Sal shouted, pointing ahead.
Heavy steel fire doors were descending rapidly.
"We won't make it through the hall!" I yelled over the blaring alarms.
Luca didn't hesitate.
He kicked open a side window leading out into the conservatory.
Shattering glass rained down.
"Out through the glass! Go!" Luca ordered.
Sal crawled through first, clearing the jagged edges.
I scrambled through right behind him, scraping my palms on the sill.
Luca climbed out last, clutching six-year-old Leo securely in his arms.
We hit the wet grass of the lawn just as the conservatory windows blew outward.
A massive shockwave rippled through the air.
Flames erupted from the second-floor windows.
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Our home—the grand Moretti mansion—was engulfed in a raging inferno.
[CLIFFHANGER: As we stood panting on the lawn, a fleet of black SUVs surrounded the property—and out stepped federal agents led by the one man Luca trusted least.]
