Chapter 5 - The War Room
The panic room was outfitted like a high-tech military command center. Screens flickered across the back wall, displaying live feeds from forty different security cameras positioned around the mansion and its extensive grounds.
Dante stood before the main console, his fingers flying across the dual keyboards as he patched into an encrypted satellite link.
"DeMarco," Dante barked into the comms headset. "Report."
A gravelly, breathless voice crackled back through the speakers. “Boss, we neutralized the vanguard squad in the east hallway. Three dead, two captured. But Cruz deployed a secondary diversion unit near the perimeter gate. They’ve cut our landline communications, and our fiber-optic internet line has been severed.”
"They're trying to blind us before a full-scale breach," Dante analyzed coldly, his jaw tight. "How many men do we have left on the estate grounds?"
“Fourteen active guards in the defensive perimeter. The heavy reinforcement team from Brooklyn is twenty minutes out, but Cruz’s blockade on the highway bridge is going to slow them down.”
Twenty minutes. In a gunfight, twenty minutes was an eternity.
I stood near the corner of the secure room, wrapping my arms around myself as I watched Dante coordinate the defense of his empire with terrifying, surgical precision. The man who had been a quiet, brooding father twenty minutes ago had vanished, replaced entirely by the ruthless crime lord the underworld feared.
"Daddy?"
A small, sleepy voice piped up from the cot built into the corner of the panic room.
Dante spun around instantly, all tactical commands evaporating from his mind. He crossed the room in two strides and dropped to his knees beside the cot where Lily was rubbing her eyes, clutching a stuffed rabbit.
"I'm right here, piccola," Dante said, his voice dropping into that gentle, broken-down register meant only for her.
"Are those loud noises the bad men again?" Lily asked, her lower lip trembling.
"Yes, sweetheart," Dante gently stroked her curls. "But don't you ever worry. Daddy is going to make sure the bad men go away forever. And Ms. Maya is right here with us, too."
Lily turned her head, fixing her big, dark eyes on me. She reached out a small hand from beneath the blanket. "Maya... don't go."
I walked over, kneeling beside Dante, and took her small, warm hand in mine. "I'm not going anywhere, Lily. I promised I'd stay with you, didn't I?"
A weak, relieved smile touched her lips, and within seconds, exhaustion pulled her back into a deep, healing sleep.
Dante stood up slowly, looking down at his daughter before turning his gaze back to me. The harsh, fluorescent light of the command center reflected off the dark circles forming beneath his eyes.
"You should have run when I gave you the check, Maya," Dante said softly, his voice carrying a heavy, unexpected weight of regret. "You had a window to walk out those gates before Cruz's men locked down the estate."
"And leave a sick six-year-old child to get caught in the crossfire?" I asked, my voice steady, surprising even myself. "I might not belong in your world, Mr. Moretti, but I know right from wrong. I'm not running."
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Dante stared at me for a long, lingering moment. Something shifted in his expression—a crack in the impenetrable armor of a man who trusted no one.
"DeMarco," Dante tapped his headset again, his voice snapping back into cold steel. "Prepare the armory cache in the basement. We're not waiting for them to breach the doors. We're taking the fight to the courtyard."
