Daniella snatched the package to her chest with one arm while the other swept blindly for the handgun. Her fingers closed around the grip a fraction of a second before his reached the bundle. She raised the weapon, pointing it straight at his center mass.
He froze.
Not from terror, but from cold calculation, the same instinct that told him a desperate woman with a gun was still a gun.
Before he could recover, Daniella stepped forward and slammed the butt of the handgun hard into his chest, forcing him back a step. The impact wasn't powerful, but it didn't need to be. The message was clear: she was done being passive.
"You want it by force?" she said, voice tight and low, each word forced through clenched teeth. No tears. No tremor in her tone beyond the strain of holding herself together. "Then come and take it."
