Chapter 6 - The Betrayal at the Harbor
POP! POP! POP!
Silenced gunshots shattered the air above the screaming crowd!
"Down!" Marco yelled, drawing his weapon and firing two rapid shots toward the attackers!
Massimo reacted with lightning speed. Despite his healing legs, his combat instincts were flawless. He grabbed me around the waist, pulling me down behind a heavy mahogany bar as glass and plaster rained down around us!
"Marco! Cover the left corridor!" Massimo roared over the chaos!
"I've got them, Boss!" Marco shouted back, returning fire alongside two other Pascale guards!
Massimo looked at me in the dim emergency lighting. His hand cupped the back of my neck, pulling my face against his chest to protect me from flying debris.
"Listen to me, Tessa," Massimo whispered urgently into my ear. "There is a secure panic room behind the kitchen wine cellar. Marco knows the code. You are going to run there now."
"Not without you!" I gasped, clutching his dark tuxedo jacket.
"My place is here!" Massimo said fiercely. "If I run, my family loses everything tonight!"
Suddenly, a shadow loomed over the edge of the bar!
A masked gunman leveled a submachine gun directly at Massimo’s head!
"Massimo!" I screamed!
Without thinking, I grabbed a heavy glass decanter of scotch from the lower bar shelf and slammed it with all my strength into the side of the gunman’s knee!
CRACK!
The gunman let out a choked yell as his knee buckled!
Massimo surged upward! He swept his heavy black cane around like a broadsword, striking the gunman across the jaw with brutal force! The man crashed hard onto the marble floor, unconscious before he hit the ground!
Massimo dropped the broken cane, grabbing the attacker’s sidearm from the floor. He stood tall, propping his back against the mahogany bar, firing three precise shots down the service hallway!
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!
The remaining two attackers fell to the ground!
Silence descended over the ruined ballroom, broken only by the hum of the emergency sprinklers and the distant sound of police sirens wailing in the city streets.
Marco ran up, his weapon lowered, breathing heavily. "The floor is clear, Boss! City police are two blocks away! We have to clear out before the federal task force arrives!"
Massimo looked down at me. I was sitting on the floor, covered in scotch and dust, breathing wildly, but completely unhurt.
He dropped to one knee beside me, throwing his arms around me and pulling me tight against his chest. He buried his face in my hair, his chest heaving with violent, overwhelmed sobs of relief.
"You saved my life," Massimo whispered, his voice cracking with raw emotion. "You absolute, crazy, wonderful woman... you saved my life."
I wrapped my arms around his broad neck, holding him tight as the emergency lights flickered overhead.
"We're a team, Massimo," I whispered into his neck. "Remember?"
Ten minutes later, we were swept out through the hotel’s private subterranean tunnel in an armored convoy of dark SUVs.
The Commission meeting never took place. Don Donato was arrested three miles away trying to board a private jet at Logan Airport, his phone logs revealing his direct involvement in the hit on the hotel.
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With Donato in federal custody and his syndicate collapsing, Massimo’s control over the city’s logistics network became absolute, uncontested, and permanent.
The war was over.
