Chapter 7 - The Siege of Long Island
"Stay here! Lock the door behind me!" Lorenzo commanded, pulling two fully automatic rifles from a hidden panel behind his bookshelf.
"Lorenzo, no!" I yelled, reaching for his arm. "They have heavy weapons out there!"
"They came to finish what Marco started," Lorenzo growled, racking the slide of his rifle with terrifying efficiency. "They think because my house is divided, I am weak. I am going to show them why this family rules New York."
He kissed me hard on the forehead, pushed me back into the safe room behind the study, and slammed the steel reinforced door shut.
Outside, the mansion erupted into a warzone.
The concussive blasts of grenades rattled the floorboards beneath my feet. I could hear the shattering of grand glass windows, the thundering roar of heavy caliber gunfire, and the screams of men fighting for their lives in the grand foyer three floors down.
Inside the safe room, I looked at the security monitors.
Four heavy armored SUVs had rammed through the front gates. Over twenty heavily armed mercenaries wearing black tactical gear were swarming the grounds, pinning down Lorenzo’s guards.
My eyes flicked to the nursery screen.
My blood turned to ice.
Two mercenaries had bypassed the main hall battle using fire escape ladders and were currently cutting through the glass window of Sophia’s second-floor bedroom!
"Sophia!" I gasped.
I didn't think. I didn't wait for Lorenzo.
I grabbed a heavy brass candlestick from the study desk, unlocked the safe room door, and sprinted down the smoky, bullet-riddled hallway toward the nursery.
I burst into Sophia’s room just as a heavy, masked mercenary stepped through the shattered window frame, his rifle raised toward Sophia’s bed!
Sophia was screaming, hiding under her blankets.
"Get away from her!" I shrieked.
I swung the heavy brass candlestick with every ounce of strength in my body, smashing it directly into the side of the mercenary's helmet. The metal cracked, and the man stumbled backward with a grunt of pain.
Before he could recover, I tackled him hard, shoving him back out through the shattered window frame. He lost his footing on the wet slate roof and tumbled two stories down into the courtyard below!
I rushed to Sophia’s bed, wrapping her trembling body in my arms. "I've got you, baby! I've got you!"
A second mercenary stepped through the window, raising his sidearm straight at my chest. "End of the line, nurse."
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three high-caliber rounds tore through the mercenary's chest from behind me. He collapsed onto the floorboards, dead before he hit the ground.
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Lorenzo stood in the doorway, his chest heaving, his dark suit soaked in rain and blood, holding a smoking pistol.
He dropped the gun, rushed across the room, and threw his arms around both of us, crushing us against his chest as the distant sound of police sirens began to echo over the stormy bay.
