Chapter 6 - The Attack on the Estate
"Stay down!" Matteo barked, shoving Liana and the crib toward the walk-in safe room built behind the master bedroom’s wardrobe.
The sound of automatic gunfire echoed from the front courtyard. Richard Sterling, realizing Beatrice’s plot had failed and that Matteo was coming for them, had launched a desperate, full-scale assault on the Varric estate using mercenary forces.
"Matteo, no!" Liana cried out, grabbing his arm as he pulled a pair of heavy handguns from a hidden bedside drawer.
"Get inside the safe room, Liana!" Matteo commanded, his eyes burning with tactical focus. "The door is reinforced steel. Keycode is 0-4-1-2. Do not open it for anyone except me or Hayes!"
"Don't die!" Liana shouted over the deafening noise of shattering windows and shouting men downstairs.
Matteo paused, looking back at her. A rare, fierce smile touched his lips. "I have a family to protect now, Liana. I'm not dying today."
He slammed the vault door shut, locking Liana and Nico inside the reinforced sanctuary.
Outside the bedroom, the mansion had turned into a warzone. Sterling’s mercenaries had breached the front foyer, aiming to eliminate Matteo and secure the infant to frame the attack as a rival gang hit.
But Matteo Varric was not known as the Don of the East Coast for nothing.
Moving through the marble hallways like a shadow, Matteo intercepted the first strike team at the top of the grand staircase. Two precise shots neutralized the lead gunner. Using the marble pillars for cover, Matteo systematically dismantled the invading force with terrifying precision.
"Varric!" a voice yelled from the foyer below. Richard Sterling himself stood near the entrance, flanked by four heavily armed guards. "Give up the child and sign over the docks! You’re finished, Matteo! Beatrice has already sold her shares to my company!"
"You made a mistake coming into my home, Sterling," Matteo’s voice echoed from the darkness of the second-floor balcony.
"Your home?" Sterling laughed maniacally. "Your wife died a liar, your baby was a corpse, and that infant upstairs belongs to a nobody maid! You have nothing!"
Matteo pulled a tactical grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, and dropped it straight down into the center of the foyer.
"I have everything," Matteo growled.
The explosion blew out the front entrance, sending Sterling’s guards flying. Matteo leaped over the balcony railing, landing gracefully on the marble floor amidst the smoke and debris. Before Sterling could raise his weapon, Matteo was upon him, disarming the politician with a brutal twist of his arm and pinning him to the floor with a heavy boot to his chest.
"It’s over, Richard," Matteo said, aiming his sidearm directly between Sterling’s eyes. "The police precinct you bought off? My captains just delivered the recorded confession of Dr. Vance and Victoria to the Federal Prosecutor. You’re spending the rest of your life in a supermax facility."
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Sterling spat blood onto the floor, his eyes filled with rage. "You think you’ve won? Beatrice is already on a private jet to Zurich!"
"She was," Matteo replied coldly. "Until my men intercepted her runway ten minutes ago."
