Chapter 7 - The Ambush at the Gate
The convoy did not make it to the main road.
Gabriel’s SUV had just cleared the inner courtyard, approaching the massive iron security gates that led to the estate's private road, when the night exploded.
A deafening blast shattered the silence as a RPG rocket struck the lead vehicle in the convoy, flipping it onto its side in a ball of flame and twisted metal.
"Ambush!" Lucian roared from the driver’s seat of Gabriel’s vehicle, slamming his foot on the brake as the SUV skidded across the icy asphalt.
Automatic gunfire rained down from the dense tree line surrounding the estate perimeter. Bullets pinged against the armored glass and heavy plating of Gabriel’s SUV like heavy hail.
"It’s Moretti’s men!" Lucian shouted, drawing his sidearm. "They didn't wait for us to come to them! They brought the fight here!"
Gabriel’s eyes went dark with absolute fury. They hadn't just attacked him; they had attacked his home. They had brought explosives and automatic weapons to the place where Maren and Nora were currently sitting in the nursery.
"Counter-attack," Gabriel ordered, his voice terrifyingly calm amid the chaos. He unholstered his custom dark steel pistol, racked the slide, and kicked his door open into the freezing night.
The battle at the gates was brief, brutal, and chaotic. Gabriel moved through the muzzle flashes and smoke like a phantom, his shots precise, calculated, and fatal. His estate security forces, trained ex-military professionals, quickly established a defensive perimeter, suppressing the attackers in the tree line.
Within seven minutes, six of Moretti’s men lay dead in the snow, and two others were disarmed and forced to their knees on the red-stained asphalt.
Gabriel walked toward the surviving attackers, his boots crunching on the frozen ground and shattered glass. Lucian was standing over them, a bloody cut on his forehead.
"Who ordered this?" Gabriel asked, his gun pointed directly at the head of the lead gunman.
The man spat blood onto Gabriel’s boot. "Julian... Julian said... if we took the gate... we could take the house. We could take the girl... use her to make you surrender..."
Gabriel froze. The blood in his veins turned to liquid nitrogen.
"What did you say?" Gabriel whispered.
"Julian... sent a second team," the man wheezed, grinning through bloody teeth. "Through the eastern wall. While you were busy at the gate..."
Gabriel didn't wait for him to finish. He pulled the trigger, stepped over the body, and broke into a full sprint back toward the main mansion, shouting into his radio headset.
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"All units! Perimeter breach on the eastern wall! Secure the main house! Secure Mrs. Cole and the child immediately!"
The radio crackled back with static, followed by the terrifying sound of gunshots echoing from inside the mansion's rear conservatories.
