Chapter 80 - The Sanctuary of the Viper
The beam of white light swept across the centuries-old frescoes of the church, illuminating the cracked faces of weeping saints. I dragged Vincent down between the front seats, my hand gently pressing over Maya's mouth as she buried her face in my shoulder.
Footsteps crunched on the gravel outside. Two men, their boots heavy, whispering in rapid Sicilian dialect.
"The car pulled off here somewhere. Check the tree line."
"Valerie said bring the girl alive. The woman and Vincent are kill-on-sight."
My heart hammered against my ribs so loudly I feared they would hear it. Vincent stirred weakly, his eyelids fluttering open. Even through the fog of the neurotoxin, his instincts kicked in; his hand reached for the empty gun at his hip, but I caught his wrist, shaking my head fiercely.
*No weapons left. No fight left in him.*
I looked up at the fractured stone altar at the front of the nave. Behind the altar lay a narrow crypt opening, partially covered by a collapsed marble slab. It was an impossible squeeze for an adult, but for a five-year-old child...
I leaned close to Vincent's ear. "Stay awake. Please, Vincent. Look at me."
His dark eyes, usually so sharp and calculated, struggled to focus on mine. "Clara... take her... run through the crypt..."
"I'm not leaving you," I whispered fiercely. "Julian told me you were the only one with a soul. Don't you dare prove him wrong by dying in this dirt."
I slipped out of the vehicle, staying low beneath the broken window line, and pulled Maya with me. We crawled through the damp shadows until we reached the altar. I pulled aside the rotted velvet cloth, revealing an iron ring set into the floor—an old maintenance hatch leading to the underground aqueducts that fed the valley’s vineyards.
"Maya," I whispered, holding her tiny face between my hands. "Listen to Mommy very carefully. Do you remember the game we played in Switzerland? The mouse in the wall?"
She nodded bravely, tears brimming in her large, intelligent eyes—eyes that Vincent now knew belonged to the brother he had loved and lost. "Stay quiet until you count to one hundred?"
"Yes, my brave girl. But this time, you take this." I pressed the silver key and medallion into her small palm, closing her fingers tightly around it. "If Mommy doesn't open this hatch in ten minutes, you crawl down that pipe until you see the water. You follow the water to the road. You find a policeman, and you give them this key. Can you do that for me?"
"No, Mommy! Don't leave me!" she whimpered, clinging to my sleeves.
"I am not leaving you, baby. I am drawing the wolves away."
A shadow fell across the broken stained glass at the church entrance. One of the hunters had stepped inside, raising a tactical flashlight mounted on an automatic rifle.
I shoved Maya gently into the dark recess beneath the altar, sliding a piece of decayed wood over the gap. Then, taking a deep, shuddering breath, I stood upright in the center of the nave.
"Looking for me?" I called out, my voice ringing clear and steady off the vaulted stone ceiling.
The gunman spun around, leveling his rifle directly at my chest. A cruel smile spread across his face as he tapped his tactical headset. "Found the woman. Near the altar. Moving in to—"
A deafening crack shattered the air.
The gunman's head snapped back, a spray of dark fluid painting the stone pillar behind him, and he collapsed forward onto the gravel.
Behind him stood Valerie, lowering a silenced pistol, the barrel smoking faintly in the cold morning light creeping through the arches.
I froze, terror locking my joints.
May you like
Valerie stepped over the dead body of her own mercenary, her designer trench coat immaculate, her expression a chilling mask of sociopathic calm.
"Good girl, Clara," Valerie said, raising her weapon and pointing it straight between my eyes. "You saved me the trouble of paying his contract. Now, tell me where you put Julian’s bastard, or I will peel you apart layer by layer before Vincent’s dying eyes."
