Chapter 7 - Siege on Topanga Canyon
"Dario! Get the car now!" Ricardo barked into his lapel mic, ignoring the shocked gasps of the high-society guests as he grabbed Elena by the wrist and marched her out of the ballroom.
"What's happening?" Elena cried out as they sprinted through the gilded lobby toward the valet drive.
"Vance used the gala as a distraction," Ricardo growled, shoving open the heavy glass doors into the night air. "His main mercenary unit didn't hit us at the hotel—they went straight for the kids!"
Elena's blood turned to ice. "No... nononono!"
The black armored limousine tore out of the parking bay, its tires screeching against the asphalt. Ricardo and Elena dove into the back seat, and the vehicle launched forward, running red lights as it roared toward the canyon highway at ninety miles an hour.
Inside the Topanga Canyon estate, darkness had descended once again.
The heavy iron front doors had been breached by a tactical explosive, leaving a jagged, smoking crater in the foyer. Rain slammed through the shattered entrance, blowing cold mist across the black marble floors.
In the second-floor security hub, Leo sat at his console, his hands flying across three backup keyboards while Mateo, Dante, and Valentina stood behind him.
"Primary perimeter is gone," Leo reported, his voice high and tight with adrenaline. "They have eight men inside the ground floor. Two moving up the west stairwell!"
"We use the traps," Mateo said, a dark, wicked grin cutting across his pale face. He pulled a small remote detonator from his pocket—a modification he had secretly wired into the estate’s secondary sprinkler lines.
"Wait until they reach the landing," Dante ordered, hefting a heavy steel baseball bat he had taken from his closet. "Valentina, stay behind us."
"I'm not hiding," Valentina said firmly. In her small hands, she held a heavy brass candleholder she had grabbed from the hall table. "Elena said we don't run away."
Down in the west hallway, two mercenaries clad in black tactical gear moved cautiously up the mahogany stairs, their suppressed rifles raised.
"Clear left," the lead mercenary whispered into his radio.
Click.
Above them on the landing, Mateo pressed the red button on his remote.
Instead of water, the high-pressure ceiling sprinklers burst open, showering the two mercenaries in a thick, sticky mixture of industrial liquid soap and slippery floor wax that Mateo had poured into the main reservoir three days earlier.
The mercenaries lost their footing instantly, their heavy tactical boots slipping wildly as they tumbled backward down the fifteen-foot staircase, crashing into the marble floor below with heavy, agonizing thuds.
"Now, Dante!" Leo yelled.
Dante sprinted to the top of the stairs and rolled two heavy twenty-pound bowling balls down the polished wood steps. They slammed directly into the chest and legs of the struggling mercenaries, knocking them out cold.
"Two down!" Mateo cheered. "Six to go!"
But from the shattered main foyer below, six more heavy armed men poured into the house, led by Vance’s ruthless chief enforcer, a hulking murderer named Gregor.
"Find the kids!" Gregor roared, raising a heavy shotgun. "Vance wants them brought to the docks alive!"
"They're moving toward the central hall!" Leo panicked, looking at his camera feeds. "They're gonna breach the doors!"
Suddenly, the roaring engine of a heavy vehicle echoed from outside.
CRASH!
The reinforced glass windows of the grand living room exploded inward in a shower of brilliant, sharp rain as Ricardo's heavy armored SUV plowed directly through the wall, smashing into the center of the foyer!
The vehicle doors flew open.
Ricardo Flores stepped out into the ruined foyer like a demon unleashed from hell. His tuxedo jacket was gone, his dark shirt unbuttoned, two heavy handguns blazing in his hands.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Muzzle flashes strobed through the ruined house. Vance’s mercenaries fell where they stood, completely overwhelmed by the terrifying, precision marksmanship of the Don.
Gregor spun around, raising his shotgun toward Ricardo, but a slender figure darted out from behind the SUV.
Elena, her emerald velvet dress ruined and torn at the hem, grabbed a heavy bronze statue from an end table and slammed it with all her strength against the back of Gregor’s knees!
Gregor screamed, buckling to his knees on the slick marble floor.
Before he could turn, Ricardo stepped up, drove his heavy boot into Gregor’s chest, pinning him to the floor, and pressed the hot barrel of his handgun directly between Gregor’s eyes.
"Where is Vance?" Ricardo hissed, his voice vibrating with apocalyptic wrath.
Gregor choked on his own blood, gasping for air. "The... the North Docks... Pier 9... he's waiting for the cargo ship..."
Ricardo didn't waste another word. He pulled the trigger, ending the enforcer instantly.
Silence fell over the destroyed foyer.
From the top of the stairs, four small heads poked over the banister.
"Dad?" Valentina whispered.
May you like
Ricardo looked up. The terrifying, murderous rage vanished from his face instantly, replaced by a raw, desperate relief. He dropped his weapons, sprinted up the grand staircase four steps at a time, and dropped to his knees, pulling all four of his children into his arms.
Elena stood below in the ruined foyer, tears streaming down her dirty face, her heart soaring as she watched the family she had learned to love hold each other in the dark.
