Chapter 7 - The Final Siege
I was wrong. It wasn't over.
Cornered animals are the most dangerous. Dominic Moretti knew that once those flash drives reached the federal prosecutor, his entire empire would be dismantled, and he and his father would spend the rest of their lives in a federal penitentiary.
He had nothing left to lose.
At 2:00 PM that afternoon, while I was at the Federal Courthouse completing my formal deposition with federal agents, my phone rang.
It was Viktor. His voice was filled with background gunfire and screaming!
"Julian! They're hitting the estate!" Viktor yelled over the deafening noise of automatic weapons! "Dominic brought two dozen men! They breached the southern ridge using explosives! We're pinned down in the courtyard!"
My blood ran completely cold. "Where is Elise?! Where are my daughters?!"
"They're locked in the panic room beneath the nursery!" Viktor shouted. "We're holding the main staircase, but they have heavy firepower! Get back here NOW!"
The line went dead.
"Cancel the deposition!" I screamed at the federal agents, slamming my fist onto the table. "I need every armed tactical unit you have at my estate immediately!"
I didn't wait for the federal marshals. I sprinted out of the courthouse, jumped into my armored SUV, and slammed my foot on the accelerator, tearing through the city streets at breakneck speeds.
Twenty minutes later, I roared up the winding mountain road toward my estate.
Smoke was rising into the blue sky over the trees. The front iron gates were blown off their hinges, twisted and charred from explosives.
I slammed my SUV through the wreckage, pulling up to the front driveway. Two of Moretti’s black SUVs were parked on the lawn, and the grand oak front doors of my mansion were shattered into splinters.
I pulled two handguns from the glove box, chambered rounds in both, and stepped out into the smoke.
The foyer was a war zone. Glass was shattered everywhere, priceless paintings were shredded by bullet holes, and several of Moretti's men lay incapacitated on the marble floor alongside two of my brave security guards.
From upstairs, I heard a loud, metallic screeching sound.
They were using a plasma blowtorch to cut through the reinforced steel door of the panic room.
A cold, unholy fury took complete control of my mind. I moved up the grand staircase like a ghost, my weapons raised, shooting three mercenary guards who were covering the hallway before they could even turn around to face me.
I rounded the corner to the nursery hallway.
Standing outside the panic room door was Dominic Moretti, holding a heavy blowtorch, his face covered in soot and sweat.
"MORETTI!" I roared.
Dominic spun around, pulling a shotgun from his sling, but I didn't give him a second to aim. I fired relentlessly, advancing down the hallway like an unstoppable force of nature.
Bullets struck Dominic’s shoulder and chest armor, forcing him back against the wall, dropping his shotgun to the floor!
He fell to his knees, bleeding profusely, gasping for air as I stepped up to him, pressing the smoking barrel of my Beretta directly against his forehead.
"Please..." Dominic choked out, his arrogance completely gone, replaced by pure, pathetic terror. "Julian... please... don't..."
"You threatened my daughters," I whispered, my finger tightening on the trigger. "You killed my wife. And you brought war into my home."
Before I could pull the trigger, the heavy steel door of the panic room unlatched, swinging open.
Elise stepped out.
She was holding Maisie and Rosie tightly against her chest, her body shaking, her eyes wide with fear. But when she saw me standing over Dominic, she didn't look at the blood or the gun. She looked straight into my eyes.
"Julian... no," Elise whispered, her voice cutting through the smoke and rage like a clear bell. "Don't do it. Don't let him turn you into a monster. Your girls need their father... clean."
I stood frozen, staring at her. My finger hovered on the trigger.
In the distance, the loud wail of federal marshal sirens echoed up the mountain road, getting closer by the second.
I looked at my daughters, who were reaching their tiny arms out toward me, crying soft, tearful whimpers: "Dada... Dada..."
I took a deep, shuddering breath. I lowered the gun, pulling my foot back and kicking Dominic hard across the jaw, knocking him unconscious onto the floor just as a squad of heavily armed federal marshals burst up the staircase, weapons raised.
"SECURE THE BUILDING!" the federal captain shouted. "HANDS UP!"
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I dropped my weapons to the floor, raising my hands, never taking my eyes off Elise.
She walked past the marshals, past the smoke and destruction, and stepped straight into my arms, burying her face into my chest while our daughters wrapped their tiny arms around my neck.
