Chapter 5 - The Snake Unmasked
By three in the morning, the storm over Lake Michigan had reached its violent peak.
Back at the Moretti estate, the atmosphere was suffocating. Dante had placed the entire compound on Level-One lockdown. Fifty heavily armed enforcers lined the stone walls, high-caliber sniper rifles mounted on the roof parapets.
Inside the grand study, fire crackled in the massive stone hearth.
Cassidy stood by the window, wearing one of Dante’s soft black silk shirts that hung down to her knees. Her legs were bare, her dark hair wet from a hot shower. She held a crystal glass of bourbon, watching the lightning flash across the dark waters of the lake.
Dante walked up behind her. He had removed his tie and unbuttoned his collar, looking exhausted but fiercely focused. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back against his chest.
"My team traced Blackwood’s private satellite network," Dante whispered, resting his chin on her head. "He’s operating out of a decommissioned military bunker forty miles north of the city. He’s got thirty elite black-ops mercenaries with him."
"They're not just mercenaries, Dante," Cassidy said quietly, leaning back against his warmth. "They’re my former brothers-in-arms. Men I trained. Men who think I betrayed the country because Blackwood altered my service record."
"Then we set the record straight," Dante said, turning her around in his arms so she was forced to look into his dark, intense eyes. "I’m bringing my entire syndicate. We hit the bunker at dawn."
"No," Cassidy placed her hand against his chest, feeling the steady, powerful rhythm of his heart beneath her palm. "If you bring a mob army, it will turn into a slaughterhouse. Blackwood expects a frontal assault. He doesn't expect me to walk through his front door."
Dante’s jaw tightened dangerously. "I am not using you as bait, Cassidy."
"It’s not bait if I’m the one holding the blade, Dante," she argued fiercely. "I know that bunker’s blueprints. I helped design its security measures when I was with the Division. I can disable their internal comms and open the main blast doors from the inside."
Dante stared down at her, his dark eyes swirling with a mixture of intense fear for her safety and profound pride in her courage. He leaned down, capturing her lips in a deep, desperate, possessive kiss that consumed her completely.
Cassidy gasped into his mouth, her arms wrapping around his neck, pulling him closer as she kissed him back with equal intensity. The fear, the pain of her past, the blood of the night—it all melted away into the pure, electric heat of their connection.
When he finally pulled back, both of them were breathing heavily.
"If anything happens to you," Dante growled softly, his fingers tangled in her dark hair, "I will burn this entire country to the ground."
"Nothing will happen to me," she promised, her fingers stroking his cheekbone. "Because I have a home to come back to now."
Before Dante could answer, a knock sounded on the heavy study door.
Leo Vance stepped inside, holding a secure tablet. "Don Moretti... we have a situation. Gabriel broke his silence in the basement. He swore on your mother’s grave that he didn't deal with Krell directly."
Dante’s eyes narrowed. "What are you saying, Leo?"
"Gabriel said he gave the schedule to someone else in this house," Leo said, his voice dropping into a deadly, hushed tone. "Someone who guaranteed that Gabriel would be made Don without spilling blood."
Cassidy stepped forward, her tactical mind instantly analyzing the room. "Where is the secondary server room for the estate’s security cameras, Leo?"
"It’s in the east wing basement," Leo replied, confused.
"Dante," Cassidy snapped, her eyes widening. "Someone deleted the perimeter footage from three hours ago! Look at the monitor behind your desk!"
Dante turned. The digital wall display showed a two-second loop on camera seven.
A shadow moved from behind the bookshelf in the corner of the study.
"Dante, move!" Cassidy screamed.
A suppressed gunshot coughed softly in the quiet room—PLINK.
Leo Vance let out a sharp gasp, staggering backward as a bullet struck him directly in the shoulder. He collapsed onto the rug.
Dante drew his sidearm instantly, shoving Cassidy behind his back as he pointed his weapon toward the shadow.
Stepping out from behind the secret passage behind the bookcase was a man holding a sleek, suppressed tactical pistol.
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It was Marco—Dante’s chief of security. The man who had guarded the estate for ten years.
"I’m sorry, Don Moretti," Marco said coldly, his weapon pointed directly at Dante’s chest. "Colonel Blackwood pays in gold, not promise notes. And he offered me fifty million dollars for the girl's head."
