Chapter 4 - The Rossi Retaliation
"Get Maria and Emma to the panic room behind the wine cellar!" Allessandro ordered as he pulled a heavy semi-automatic handgun from his coat holster. "Now, Marco!"
"Come with me, fast!" Marco yelled, grabbing Maria by the arm and herding Emma toward the back corridors.
Outside, the quiet morning air was shattered by the sharp roar of heavy engines and the terrifying crackle of automatic gunfire. SUV tires screeched across the brick driveway.
Don Donato Rossi—Isabella’s ruthless father—had received the news that his daughter was being held captive. He hadn't waited for negotiations. He had sent a hit squad to annihilate the Romano estate.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Glass shattered in the grand foyer. The priceless crystal chandelier exploded, showering the marble staircase in thousands of glittery shards. Romano security guards returned fire from behind grand pillars, the thunderous booms of handguns and shotguns filling the mansion with deafening noise and gunsmoke.
Allessandro ducked behind the heavy oak desk in his office, racking the slide of his weapon.
"Allessandro!" a loud, gravelly voice yelled through a megaphone from the front yard. It was Donato Rossi himself. "Give me my daughter, you traitorous scum! Give her back, or I will burn this mansion to ashes with you inside!"
Allessandro leaned out from his cover and fired three precise shots through the blown-out window, sending the shooters behind the front gates scrambling for cover.
"You sent your daughter to poison my bread, Donato!" Allessandro shouted back, his voice cutting through the smoke. "The treaty is void! The alliance is dead!"
"Then you die today!" Donato screamed back.
A grenade thundered at the heavy front doors, blowing the double oak entrances off their hinges in a ball of orange fire and black smoke. Three heavily armed Rossi hitmen charged into the lobby, spraying bullets wildly.
Allessandro moved with cold, lethal precision. He stepped out, fired two rounds into the chest of the first gunman, dropped to one knee to dodge a spray of lead, and took down the second with a shot through the neck. The third assassin aimed at Allessandro's chest—
BANG!
The third gunman collapsed, shot from behind.
Marco stood at the end of the hallway, smoke curling from his weapon. "The heavy steel doors to the safe room are locked, Boss! Maria and the kid are safe!"
"Good!" Allessandro wiped blood from a small glass cut on his forehead. "Where is Donato?"
"He's retreating to his armored sedan! He realizes he didn't bring enough men to breach the core of the house!" Marco barked. "What do we do with Isabella down in the basement?"
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Allessandro stepped over the fallen bodies, his boots crunching on broken crystal. His eyes were cold, calculated, and filled with dark resolve.
"Isabella is our leverage," Allessandro said coldly. "Donato wants a war? We will give him one. But we do it on my terms."
