Page 135 of Dark Breaker

Anger fills me, and I’m about to turn around when I’m struck by another idea.

“Rosa?” Massimo says. “Come on, what are you doing?”

“The armory,” I say.

“What?” he asks.

“The armory,” I hiss, not wanting to raise my voice too loud and give us away to any goons below. “It’s not far. If we can make it there, we’ll never run out of ammunition. We can clean up this entire warehouse.”

“There’s still no guarantee we’ll actually succeed in doing so,” Massimo replies. “Without losses.”

“Fine, go then,” I tell him. “Save your hide. I’m staying and fighting for my husband. Some ally you turned out to be.”

“I’m staying, too,” Nicolo says. “I won’t let my brother die.”

Massimo sighs. “Fine, take us to this armory.”

I try to visualize the layout of the hallway below, then I turn left, using the ceiling air vents as guideposts. We pass an area where the gunfire is loudest and then it slowly recedes behind us.

When I’m confident I’m above the armory, I remove one of the ceiling tiles next to me and peer down. Yup, it’s the armory. And there are currently zero goons inside it.

Wait, scratch that. As I watch, one of the Jackal’s men races inside to grab some magazines and grenades, and then exits.

“It’s empty,” I tell my brothers. “For now.”

“Stay here,” Massimo says, shoving past me. He lowers himself into the room, followed by Luciano and Nicolo.

They arm themselves and throw several grenades into the hallway before opening fire. I hear shouts and screams from the goons beyond.

I want to join my brothers. Want to help them. But I’m not much of a markswoman.

I decide I can be more useful somewhere else.

I retreat through the crawlspace, heading back toward Fabio’s room. I hear explosions and the tiles shudder underneath me. As I pass over where I guess the majority of the enemy is located, I’m very careful to restrict my weight to the metal grids. Now would be a bad time to fall through.

I reach Fabio’s room, by my reckoning. I hear voices coming from somewhere below. I quickly remove a ceiling tile.

Several feet ahead of me, the Jackal is standing over Fabio, who’s on his knees and unarmed before the man. I can’t make out what they’re saying.

I crawl forward as fast as I can until I’m directly above them—or I hope I am, anyway—then remove another ceiling tile.

“If I’m going to die, you’re coming with me,” the Jackal says.

He raises his pistol to my husband’s head.

Not hesitating, I throw myself through the opening and land on the Jackal. He drops to the floor and I pound his head with my fists.

“Leave— my— husband— alone!” I say with each punch.

The Jackal rolls me over so that he’s on top, then points the handgun at my face.

Before he can fire Fabio throws himself at the Jackal and tears him off me. The Jackal loses his handgun as they wrestle on the floor.

The Jackal hits Fabio’s swollen cheek and my husband grunts in pain. The Jackal slides out from under Fabio’s now weakened grip and puts my husband in a chokehold. Fabio struggles to break free. His face is beet red: he can’t breathe.

I leap at the Jackal, trying to pull him off; he releases Fabio and shoves me against the wall. The Jackal scoops up the pistol he dropped earlier and presses it against my husband’s temple before Fabio can recover.

The Jackal grins at me. “Now you watch him die.”