Chapter 7 - Ambush at the Perimeter
The roar of the explosion echoed through the canyon, followed instantly by the blare of heavy security sirens.
Wail! Wail! Wail!
Luca was on his feet instantly, pulling Elena behind his back with one arm while drawing a sleek black semi-automatic pistol from his shoulder holster with the other.
"Marco!" Luca barked into his lapel microphone. "Status!"
“Boss!” Marco’s voice crackled through the comms over the sound of heavy gunfire. “North gate has been breached! Three armored vans! It’s Moretti’s men!”
"Chloe!" Elena screamed, panic seizing her chest. "She's in her bedroom!"
"Stay behind me!" Luca commanded, grabbing Elena’s arm and moving with terrifying, fluid speed back into the west wing.
The house was no longer a peaceful sanctuary. Emergency red lights strobed through the long hallways, and heavy steel security shutters began descending over the high windows with loud pneumatic thuds.
They reached Chloe’s room just as the young girl burst out into the hallway, crying, clutching her sketchpad to her chest.
"Mom!" Chloe gasped, running into Elena's arms.
"I've got you, baby, I've got you," Elena wept, pulling her daughter close.
Luca knelt down in front of Chloe, his face calm, commanding, and absolute. "Chloe, look at me."
The twelve-year-old looked into his dark eyes, her trembling slowing slightly.
"You remember the safe room beneath the library?" Luca asked her softly. "The one with the heavy iron door?"
Chloe nodded fast. "Yes."
"I need you to take your mother there right now," Luca said, handing Marco’s secondary keycard to Elena. "Press the green button on the panel inside. Lock the door. Do not open it for anyone except me or Marco. Do you understand?"
"What about you?" Elena cried, grabbing his arm. "Luca, don't go out there!"
Luca stood up, his dark eyes fixing on hers with a fierce, burning promise. "They stepped onto my land, Elena. They threatened my family. I am going to end this tonight."
He leaned down, kissed her deeply on the mouth—a hard, fiery kiss that tasted of iron and vow—and pushed them toward the private service elevator.
"Go!" he roared.
Elena pulled Chloe into the elevator, swiping the keycard just as heavy glass shattered in the main grand foyer down the hall.
In the grand foyer, smoke rolled across the polished black marble.
Eight of Moretti’s heavily armed mercenaries, clad in dark tactical gear, stepped through the shattered glass doors, their assault rifles raised.
"Clear the ground floor!" the lead mercenary barked. "Find the woman and the kid! Moretti wants them alive!"
"Moretti is going to be disappointed," a voice echoed from the top of the grand marble staircase.
The mercenaries spun around, raising their weapons.
Luca Marino stood at the top of the stairs. He wore no tactical armor, no helmet—just his dark suit, two high-caliber handguns in his hands, and the cold, apocalyptic wrath of a boss whose sanctuary had been violated.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Muzzle flashes strobed through the smoky hall.
Luca moved like a phantom. Before the mercenaries could fire a single coordinated burst, three of them crumpled to the floor, shot with surgical precision through the chest and head.
Marco and four estate security guards flanked the upper balcony, raining down heavy suppression fire from above. The foyer turned into a warzone of ricocheting lead, breaking chandeliers, and roaring gunfire.
"Fall back! Fall back!" the remaining mercenaries screamed, completely overwhelmed by the brutal, lethal response of the Marino security detail.
Luca descended the marble stairs three steps at a time, firing continuously, stepping over falling bodies without losing his stride.
He reached the lead mercenary, who was crawling toward the ruined entrance, bleeding heavily from a gut wound.
Luca drove his heavy boot onto the man's chest, pinning him to the shattered floor. He ejected a spent magazine and slapped a fresh one into his pistol with a crisp clack.
"Who gave the order?" Luca growled, aiming the barrel directly at the man's forehead.
"M-Moretti..." the mercenary choked out, coughing blood. "He... he took the dive bar guy... Vance... he knows about the maid..."
Luca’s eyes went deadly cold.
He pulled the trigger.
He stood up in the smoking, silent foyer, looking out at the rainy drive where two remaining mercenary vans were speeding away into the night.
Marco ran down the stairs, his weapon lowered, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Boss! The perimeter is clear. We took down eleven of them. Three escaped."
"Call the family commanders," Luca ordered, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying register that made even Marco shudder. "Mobilize every soldier in the Chicago outfit."
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"Boss?" Marco asked, wide-eyed. "Full mobilization?"
"Don Lorenzo Moretti thinks he can use my family against me," Luca whispered, looking down at his blood-stained hands. "Tonight, the Moretti family ceases to exist."
