Chapter 6 - The Viper in the Nest
The compound was placed on complete lockdown.
Steel shutters slammed down over the French doors. Armed sentries in tactical gear patrolled the perimeter every thirty seconds. The idyllic peace of the botanical garden felt like a lifetime ago.
That night, an emergency summit of the Five Families was called at an upscale private club in Manhattan to prevent an all-out bloodbath on the streets. Rico had to attend.
“You don't leave this room,” Rico instructed me in the nursery, strapping a shoulder holster beneath his tailored tuxedo jacket. “Dante and four men will be posted right outside your door. The panic room is behind the wardrobe—three turns of the brass sconce to the left. If you hear gunfire, you take Leo inside and you lock it from the inside. Do you understand?”
I held Leo on my hip, my heart pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird. “Rico, please be careful.”
He stopped adjusting his cufflinks. He walked over to me, his dark eyes intense, burning through the dim light of the nursery.
“Nothing in this city can kill me, Clara,” he said, raising a hand to cup the back of my neck. His grip was firm, electric, pulling me an inch closer. “Because now I have a family to come home to.”
He leaned down and pressed a fierce, lingering kiss against my forehead. His lips were hot against my skin.
“Watch over my son,” he whispered.
“With my life,” I promised.
He turned and strode out, his black trench coat billowing behind him like the wings of a raven.
By midnight, the mansion was dead silent except for the driving rain lashing against the reinforced glass windows. Leo was asleep in his crib, clutching his favorite plush bear.
I couldn't sleep. The tension was making my bones ache.
I walked out into the corridor to get a glass of water from the second-floor kitchenette. Dante was standing guard near the stairwell, his hands folded in front of his tactical vest.
“Everything quiet, Dante?” I asked quietly.
“Quiet as a tomb, Miss Clara,” Dante replied with a nod of respect. “Boss should be wrapping up the summit within the hour. No incidents reported.”
Relief washed over me. I poured a glass of ice water and stepped toward the grand mezzanine overlooking the dark foyer below.
That was when I heard the low, hushed voices coming from the library.
*“...the east gate cameras are already looped,”* a harsh whisper murmured. *“The signal jammer will hit the perimeter in five minutes. Marcone’s vans are two blocks away. When the breach happens, shoot Dante first. Leave the boy and the girl to Marcone. Understood?”*
My breath hitched in my throat.
I peered over the mahogany railing. Standing near the dark entrance of the study was Marco—Rico’s head of security, the man who had worked for the Moretti family for over a decade. He was holding a burner phone, sliding a silenced Beretta into his waistband.
There was a mole inside the house.
My blood turned to pure ice. I backed away from the railing, my sneakers silent against the carpet. I had to tell Dante. I had to get Leo into the panic room.
I took two hurried steps toward the nursery hallway—
*Click.*
The cold, round barrel of a firearm pressed firmly against the base of my skull.
“You have a habit of walking where you don't belong, little waitress,” Marco’s venomous voice purred behind my ear.
“Marco,” I breathed, keeping my hands raised, my mind racing. “He trusted you. Rico treated you like a brother.”
“Rico went soft the moment he hired you,” Marco spat quietly. “A mafia boss playing house with a broke nanny and a mute brat. Marcone offered me five million and Rico’s territory in North Brooklyn. It’s business, sweetheart.”
“You’ll never get out of here alive,” I said, my voice steady despite the terror threatening to crush my lungs. “Rico will hunt you to the ends of the earth.”
“Rico won't find anything left of this house to bury,” Marco chuckled darkly.
In that split second, I didn't think about my late rent, or the mob war, or my own survival. I only thought about the three-year-old boy sleeping fifty feet away in a crib.
I drove the heavy heel of my shoe directly down onto Marco’s foot, throwing my entire body backward into his chest.
*BANG.*
The silenced gunshot went wild, tearing a chunk out of the plaster ceiling. Marco grunted in pain, stumbling back.
“DANTE!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “AMBUSH! THE GATES ARE COMPROMISED!”
Marco lunged forward, his heavy fist clipping my jaw. Pain exploded behind my eyes, sending me crashing to the polished wood floor. But my scream had shattered the silence.
Dante sprinted around the corner, his assault rifle raised. “What the—”
Marco fired twice. Dante took a bullet to the shoulder, crying out in pain as he dropped to one knee, returning fire. The deafening roar of automatic gunfire ripped through the corridor.
Marco turned and fled down the back service stairs, hitting the release switch on his radio.
Instantly, the estate’s power cut out completely.
The entire mansion plunged into pitch-black darkness.
May you like
And then, outside the front gates, the explosive boom of a breaching charge shattered the night.
***
