Chapter 8 - The Siege of the Romano Estate
While Marcus and I dealt with Dominic, Salvatore made his final, desperate mistake.
Believing the Romano estate was understaffed due to the raid on our Gary depot, Salvatore launched an all-out assault. Four vans filled with heavily armed mercenaries breached the iron gates at midnight, storming the mansion with automatic weapons blazing.
They expected chaos. They expected a panicked household.
Instead, they walked into a slaughterhouse.
The Romano guards—elite operatives trained in urban warfare—fell back methodically, drawing the attackers into the cavernous central foyer before opening fire from the second-floor balconies. Glass shattered, plaster rained down, and the air filled with the deafening roar of gunfire.
Upstairs in the fourth-floor safe room, Elena held Lily tight against her chest, her eyes wide with terror as the distant sounds of war echoed through the walls.
"Mommy, what's that noise?" Lily whispered, trembling.
"It's just fireworks, sweetheart," Elena lied, tears streaming down her face as she prayed to a God she hadn't spoken to in years. "Just fireworks."
Meanwhile, I stood at the main gates of Salvatore’s North Side compound, having bypassed his outer defenses like a scythe through wheat.
My men breached the front doors of Salvatore’s mansion just as the smoke cleared at my own estate.
Don Salvatore sat behind his massive mahogany desk, his hand shaking as he tried to raise a golden revolver.
I kicked his office doors open so hard they splintered off their hinges.
"Salvatore," I said, walking into the room with unhurried, terrifying calm.
"Adrian..." the old man wheezed, his face pale, realizing his men had failed. "You can't... the council will never allow—"
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"The council is dead, Salvatore," I interrupted, raising my pistol and aiming it squarely between his eyes. "You sent men to my home. You threatened a child who had nothing to do with this world. And for that, your name dies tonight."
The gunshot echoed through the North Side mansion, silencing the old world forever.
