Chapter 6 - The Fortress Breached
"My mother isn't dead, Sofia," I said coldly, watching two of Rocco’s armed guards step out from the terrace behind her, blocking her escape route. "And she never signed anything."
Sofia laughed—a sharp, unhinged sound that echoed off the glass ceiling of the conservatory.
"Doesn't matter if her heart is still beating right now!" she sneered, raising her hands slowly as the guards aimed their rifles at her back. "By the time you prove the death certificate is forged, the Zurich transfer will clear into forty shell companies across the Cayman Islands, and my brother will have liquidated Duca Enterprises' shipping fleet!"
Suddenly, the heavy chandeliers above us flickered and went dark.
A low, guttural hum vibrated through the marble floorboards, followed two seconds later by the muffled BOOM of C4 plastic explosives detonating at the front wrought-iron gates of the estate.
Alarms began wailing across the fifty-acre grounds.
Elena gasped, dropping to her knees to shield Mia with her body.
"What the hell was that?!" Rocco barked into his tactical radio. "Team Alpha, report! Front gate status!"
Static crackled over his shoulder mic, followed by gunfire and shouting. "Boss! Three armored SUVs just rammed the main gate! Twelve armed contractors in tactical gear, heavy weapons! They cut the main power line!"
Sofia’s lips curled into a triumphant, bloodthirsty smile.
"You really thought Matteo was going to Manhattan?" she taunted as gunfire echoed closer down the gravel driveway. "My brother doesn't care about a boardroom, Lorenzo! He came here to finish what your father started in Marseille—and burn this mansion to the ground with all of you inside!"
I didn't waste a second panicking. I grabbed Sofia roughly by the arm, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from Rocco’s belt and snapping one cuff around her wrist.
"Rocco, take twenty men and hold the front courtyard! Funnel them toward the fountain where they have no cover!" I ordered sharply. "I'm taking Elena, Mia, and this snake up to my mother’s suite—the second-floor bedroom has ballistic steel shutters!"
"On it, Boss!" Rocco chambered a round into his assault rifle and sprinted toward the grand foyer.
I scooped Mia up into my left arm, grabbed Sofia’s handcuffed wrist with my right hand, and looked at Elena.
"Stay right behind me, Elena! Do not look back!"
We sprinted up the grand marble staircase just as the massive oak front doors below us splintered inward under a hail of automatic gunfire. Bullets chipped the marble balusters inches from our feet, showering us in white stone dust.
Mia buried her face into my neck, trembling violently, but she didn't scream. She just wrapped her tiny arms around my collar and held on with everything she had.
"I've got you, piccola," I growled over the roar of gunfire below. "Close your eyes!"
We burst into my mother’s bedroom on the second floor. Sister Agnes and two of my personal bodyguards were already inside, weapons drawn.
I hit the emergency red lockdown button on the wall beside my mother’s bed.
Instantly, three-inch-thick reinforced titanium shutters slammed down over all four bedroom windows, sealing us inside a bulletproof vault, and the heavy steel core inside the oak doorframe engaged with a loud clank.
I handcuffed Sofia to the heavy iron radiator in the corner, then turned to help Elena lift my mother from the hospital bed onto a mobile emergency gurney.
"Lorenzo," Sister Agnes said, pointing at the security monitor mounted above the fireplace.
The multi-screen display showed my men exchanging heavy fire with Matteo’s mercenaries on the front lawn. My guards were pinning the first two SUVs down by the fountain.
Wait. Where was the third SUV?
I leaned closer to the screen, scanning the thermal perimeter cameras behind the mansion.
My blood ran cold.
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A six-man strike team led by a tall man in a trench coat wasn't attacking the front door at all. They were scaling the ivy trellis on the back terrace, carrying military-grade thermite charges aimed directly at the ventilation shaft connected to my mother’s locked bedroom.
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