CHAPTER 53: CHAPTER 53 ATTACK

There were five cars trailing behind Leonardo’s vehicle, all with tinted windows and suspicious movements. The moment he noticed, his jaw tightened.

Of course, he always had hidden backup vehicles shadowing him, a trained convoy that never left him alone. But something was off tonight.

Too off.

All his backup cars had gone silent.

Vanished from the tracker.

That wasn’t just coincidence.

Leonardo’s eyes narrowed. He leaned forward slightly, speaking low into the secure device built into the armrest.

"Code Shadow. Respond."

Static.

Silence.

His face darkened.

He took out his personal phone and called his elite guards directly. "We’ve got a tail—five vehicles. The backup convoy is missing. Get location coordinates. Now."

Isabella, who had been quiet the whole ride, felt the shift in the air like a slap. It was subtle at first, Leonardo’s hand tensing on his knee, the way he kept checking the rearview mirror, the sudden change in how fast the car was moving.

But now, she felt it clearly.

Something was wrong.

The city lights had slowly faded, and before she realized it, they were driving through a long stretch of isolated road, both sides thick with dark forest.

No streetlights. No other cars. Only the headlights cutting through the eerie night and casting long shadows on the trees.

The kind of place where no one would hear you scream.

Isabella instinctively clutched her tablet to her chest, her breath shallow. She turned to look at Leonardo, who still hadn’t said anything to her. He was too focused. But his hands were calm, deadly calm.

A moment later, he pulled open the compartment beside him and revealed something that made her eyes go wide—

A gun.

With quiet, practiced ease, Leonardo picked it up and loaded it.

The click of metal echoed in the car like a death sentence.

Her voice came out shaky.

"W-What’s going on...?"

He didn’t glance at her.

"Stay down. Don’t move unless I say so."

That cold, emotionless voice it was different from when he was being sarcastic or distant.

This was the real Leonardo.

Isabella’s heart was racing, but she nodded quickly, swallowing hard.

Outside, the sound of tires grew louder. The cars behind were getting closer. The engine of one car roared louder than the others as it began speeding toward them.

Suddenly, Leonardo’s instincts kicked in.

Without a second thought, he grabbed Isabella’s arm and yanked her down against the seat.

"Get down!" he ordered sharply.

Just a split second later, a loud crack echoed—

A bullet pierced the car window, shattering the glass where Isabella had been sitting.

The sharp edges sparkled like evil glitter in the night air, and a hole burned through the rear glass, sending a gust of cold wind rushing inside.

Isabella’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes flew open in terror, and she looked at the shattered glass in disbelief.

She would’ve been shot.

Her ears rang from the sound of the gunfire, and her heart pounded so hard, she could feel it in her throat. She looked at Leonardo, her lips trembling, but no words came out.

He was already on high alert, crouched with one hand on her back, pushing her down to shield her, the other gripping his gun tightly.

His expression was pure steel. No fear. No panic. Just deadly calculation.

"Are you hurt?" he asked without looking at her.

She shook her head slowly, her body trembling. "N-No..."

Leonardo didn’t say anything back, but just the fact that he had pulled her down, just the way he had protected her without hesitation made her chest tighten in a strange way.

The next bullet didn’t come.

But the car jolted.

Someone had rammed them from behind.

Leonardo cursed under his breath and tapped his comm. "Where the hell is my team?!"

More bullets hit the side of the vehicle.

Leonardo looked at her again, this time meeting her wide, scared eyes. His voice was lower now, urgent but less Colder. "Bella... listen to me. If I tell you to run, you run, okay? Don’t ask where. Just run. Don’t look back."

She shook her head instantly, tears forming. "No—I-I won’t leave you—"

"Isabella," he said firmly, "this is not the time to argue."

Another loud crash hit the side of the car.

She flinched, but clung to him now hiding against his chest like a frightened kitten.

Leonardo held her tightly for just a second, long enough to make her feel a heartbeat that wasn’t hers.

Then, slowly rolling the windows down, he leaned out, narrowed his eyes, and placed his finger on the trigger.

Outside, one of the black cars pulled up beside them, ready to fire again.

But this time Leonardo fired first.

"You stay in the car," Leonardo said in a low, firm tone as he opened the door, gun in hand, eyes scanning the dark forest ahead.

Isabella quickly nodded, fear tightening around her chest—but before he could step out, her trembling hand shot forward and clutched his wrist tightly.

He paused.

Her eyes were wide, brimming with fear but also something else, the need to know.

"W-Who are they?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Leonardo looked at her, his eyes unreadable in the dim light. "Enemy mafia."

"Name?" she pressed, biting her lower lip, hoping—begging he would answer this time.

He hesitated just a second. Then, in a voice that carried both warning and truth, he said, "Pablo. Mexican Mafia."

And with that, he pulled his hand away and slipped out into the darkness like a shadow.

Isabella stared at the door he left through. Her body trembled. Her hands shook.

But her mind was moving faster than her fear.

She was thankful she had brought her tablet.

Her eyes snapped to the driver’s seat.

The driver was still there, frozen, stiff with panic, hands gripping the wheel so tight they had turned white.

He wasn’t going to help.

Her fingers moved fast now.

She unlocked the tablet and slid open the holographic keyboard. She hated doing this.

She hated digging into the dark web and searching through dangerous networks.

But this wasn’t about money.

This was about him.

The one who saved her from a bullet. The one who didn’t flinch while holding her. The one who walked out to face a mafia alone.

"I can’t just sit," she mumbled, her voice tight.

She tapped into her old channels. A few hidden programs opened, her fingers moving fast and precise, muscle memory kicking in from her secret hacker days.

She traced the Pablo Mexican Mafia across encrypted arms deals, traced names, weapons, vehicles...

She bit her lip hard, her fingers flying over the tablet screen. Her pupils narrowed with focus as line after line of code scrolled before her eyes.

Hack into Pablo’s mafia system? Done.

Bypass the core firewall? Done.

Locate the control server? Found.

Destroy their entire internal base core?

She hesitated for only a second then tapped the final command.

Within seconds, the entire screen blinked once.

Then twice.

Then...

[REMOTE SERVER DOWN]

[CORE SYSTEM FAILURE]

[NETWORK DESTROYED]

She stared at the message, her chest thudding wildly. Their database, their secret weapon locations, their encrypted messages, all gone.

No trace left behind.

No way to track her.

No way to know who did it.

And yet, her hands were still shaking.

She shut the tablet and clutched it to her chest, her eyes now fixed outside the shattered car window.

What if he’s hurt?

Her heart dropped at the thought.

A strange fear clung to her chest, not the fear of death or mafia retaliation, but the cold, painful fear that Leonardo might not return.

She looked down at her hands.

"Please be okay..." she whispered, hugging the tablet tight.

She didn’t know when she started caring so much.

The moment Isabella heard the first gunshot echo through the forest, her whole body jolted. Her heart skipped a beat. For a second, she couldn’t breathe. Her hand clenched around the car door handle as panic flooded her chest.

What if Leonardo gets shot? What if he dies right now?

That terrifying thought pushed her over the edge. She couldn’t sit and wait. Not anymore.

Without thinking, she kicked off her heels, flung the car door open, and stepped out barefoot onto the cold, rough road. Her knees trembled but her fear of losing him was stronger. She ran forward, hiding behind a broken tree near the road, just close enough to see.

And what she saw made her freeze.

Leonardo was standing alone his figure tall and broad, dressed in black, like a phantom in the dark.

Surrounded.

At least seven armed men had circled him. The moonlight glinted off their guns, and laughter echoed around.

One of them, a big guy with snake tattoos crawling up his neck laughed loudly, pointing at Leonardo. "Ohhh look at this!" he mocked, voice filled with scorn.

"The mighty cold devil... standing here without any backup! No one to save you today!" He grinned as the others chuckled and loaded their weapons slowly, enjoying the moment.

Another guy smirked, "Come on, bro. You’re scary in the news, not in real life. Why don’t you kneel now, maybe we’ll let you live."

Leonardo didn’t move. His eyes were cold. His jaw was tight and the gun in his hand never wavered.

"Move closer," he said in a low voice.

But they didn’t listen. They mocked again.

"You don’t even have bullets left, do you?"

"Your guards are gone!"

"Let’s kill him and take the girl next."

Isabella’s breath hitched.

They saw me?!

She ducked behind the tree again, clutching her chest. But then she remembered something.

She had destroyed their core systems.

They had no communications left.

No GPS.

No backup.

They didn’t know that. But Leonardo didn’t know either.

She pulled out her tablet again, fingers trembling. One more time. One last strike.

Should she create a loud diversion? Set off the stolen siren files? Or send a fake GPS signal to scare them?

Or... maybe send a threatening voice message in their own language, pretending to be their Mafia boss?