Chapter 5 - The Midnight Exodus
"We can't stay here," Aleandro said, his voice cutting through the ringing silence of the bullet-riddled apartment. He holstered his weapon and knelt down beside the table, keeping his movements slow and deliberate so as not to frighten the child.
Annie blinked her large brown eyes, looking past him at the lifeless body sprawled across the kitchen floor. She didn't scream. She didn't cry. She simply reached out a tiny hand and gripped the lapel of Aleandro's jacket, exactly as she had done in the rain hours earlier.
"Are we going home, sir?" she asked, her voice impossibly small.
Aleandro felt something inside his chest crack open—a vault he had kept sealed for thirty-odd years. He gently scooped her into his arms, feeling how light she was, how fragile, and yet how completely he was now bound to her existence.
"Yes, Annie," he murmured, his voice softening around the edges in a way none of his lieutenants had ever heard. "We're going home."
He looked up at Ruth, who was struggling to her feet, clutching her side. "You're coming with us, too. My estate has a full medical wing, and nobody will ever touch either of you again."
"And your captains?" Ruth asked, her eyes sharp despite her weakness. "Marco has half the syndicate behind him if he made a move while you were out here."
A dark, lethal smile touched Aleandro’s lips. "Let Marco think he's won. Let him sit at my desk and admire the crown. When I take it back, there won't be enough left of him to bury."
Ten minutes later, an armored convoy of three matte-black SUVs pulled up to the dilapidated Brooklyn building. Vance stepped out into the rain, personally opening the rear door of the lead vehicle for his boss. When Vance saw Aleandro carrying a three-year-old child wrapped in a blood-stained designer coat, followed by an elderly woman, the hardened enforcer’s jaw dropped.
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"Boss... what is—"
"Not a word, Vance," Aleandro interrupted, sliding into the leather-lined interior and settling Annie safely in his lap. "Secure the perimeter, burn the apartment so there’s no trace left behind, and reroute our convoy to the Hudson River safehouse. Marco thinks he just staged a coup. We're going to show him what a real war looks like."
