Chapter 6 - Betrayal at the Harbor
The victory at the gala was short-lived. Two weeks later, the storm finally hit.
It was a rainy Tuesday night. Massimo had made incredible progress—he could now stand with the aid of a cane for up to three minutes at a time, his strength returning rapidly thanks to our intensive therapy.
I was in the estate library, reviewing his medical charts, when the power cut out completely.
The house plunged into pitch darkness.
The emergency backup generators didn't turn on.
Alarm bells rang in my head. I pulled a flashlight from my bag and stepped out into the hallway. "Massimo?"
Silence.
Suddenly, a heavy hand grabbed me from behind, covering my mouth with a chemically scented rag. I thrashed, kicking wildly, but the sweet, heavy fumes of chloroform hit my lungs instantly. My vision blurred, the room spun, and I collapsed into the dark.
When I opened my eyes, I was tied to a wooden chair inside an abandoned, cold warehouse. The smell of salt water and diesel fuel was thick in the air. The Boston harbor waves crashed against the wooden pylons below the floorboards.
"Ah, she's awake," a familiar voice spoke.
I blinked through the dizziness. Dante Pascale stood in front of me, holding a silenced pistol. Beside him stood Dominic Rossi, a thick bandage wrapped around his hand.
"Dante..." I rasped, my throat raw. "You traitor."
"Traitor?" Dante laughed bitterly, pacing the floor. "Massimo was weak! He got shot, he got put in a chair, and instead of handing the syndicate over to me, he kept holding onto power! And then you showed up, fixing his legs, making him stronger!"
"He's your brother!" I spat.
"He's an obstacle," Rossi sneered, stepping up to me and raising his hand to slap my face. "And you're the bait that's going to bring him straight to his execution."
BOOM!
The heavy steel doors of the warehouse were ripped off their hinges as a high-powered SUV rammed through the entrance at full speed.
Headlights illuminated the dark warehouse, blinding Rossi's henchmen.
"PASCALE!" Rossi screamed, drawing his gun.
The driver’s side door opened. Massimo stepped out.
He wasn't in his wheelchair.
He stood on his own two feet, dressed in a long black trench coat, leaning heavily on a solid steel walking cane in his right hand. His face was a mask of death, his eyes fixed entirely on me tied to the chair.
"Massimo!" I cried. "It's a trap!"
"Shut up!" Rossi yelled, grabbing me by my hair and pressing his gun against my temple. "One move, Pascale, and I blow her brains all over the pier!"
Massimo stopped ten feet away. His body was trembling from the sheer physical toll of standing, his spine screaming in agony, but his grip on his cane was iron.
"Dante," Massimo said, his voice disturbingly calm. "You opened the gate. You cut the power. You touched my woman."
"You're a cripple, Massimo!" Dante screamed, his voice cracking with fear as he aimed his gun at his brother. "You can barely walk! You can't beat us!"
"I don't need to walk to kill you," Massimo said flatly.
In a movement so fast it defied his physical condition, Massimo swept his steel cane downward, striking Dante’s knee with lethal force.
CRACK!
Dante shrieked as his leg snapped backward, dropping his gun.
At the exact same moment, Massimo drew a hidden weapon from his coat and fired twice. The first bullet struck Rossi’s shoulder, knocking him away from me. The second bullet hit Rossi square between the eyes before he hit the ground.
Massimo’s security detail swarmed the warehouse, eliminating the remaining henchmen within seconds.
Massimo dropped his cane. He took three agonizing, uneven, unassisted steps forward, collapsing to his knees right in front of my chair.
With trembling, blood-stained fingers, he untied the ropes around my wrists.
"Tessa," he choked out, pulling me into his arms, crushing me against his chest as if he would die if he let go. "Are you hurt? Did he touch you?"
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"I'm okay," I sobbed, holding his face in my hands, kissing his cheeks, his forehead, his lips. "You walked, Massimo. You stood up."
"I would walk through hell for you, Tessa," he wept softly against my hair. "I would burn the world to keep you safe."
