Chapter 8 - The Abandoned Shipyard
The freezing winter wind howled through the rusted steel beams of the abandoned Brooklyn shipyard.
I stood completely alone in the center of the massive, empty warehouse, trembling from both the cold and absolute terror.
The burner phone in my pocket felt as heavy as a brick.
I had called Dante exactly as Victor instructed, demanding a meeting to negotiate my surrender in exchange for Lily's safety.
Dante had eagerly agreed, smelling blood in the water.
Victor was hidden somewhere in the dark catwalks high above me, nursing his wounded shoulder and holding a high-powered sniper rifle.
The heavy metal doors of the warehouse suddenly groaned open, screeching violently against the concrete floor.
Three large black SUVs rolled into the warehouse, their blinding headlights illuminating my small, trembling figure.
A dozen heavily armed men stepped out of the vehicles, forming a protective wall of tactical gear and automatic weapons.
Finally, the back door of the center SUV opened, and Dante Falcone stepped out into the harsh light.
He was an older man, dressed in an immaculate white cashmere coat, leaning on a silver-tipped cane.
He looked exactly like the old photographs I had found hidden in my mother's secret shoebox years ago.
"Hannah," Dante called out, his voice dripping with fake, sickening affection.
"You look so much like my dear sister Elena, it completely breaks my heart."
"You don't have a heart, Dante," I spat back, channeling all my fear into raw, unfiltered anger.
Dante chuckled, walking slowly toward me while his men kept their weapons trained on my chest.
"Where is the child?" Dante demanded, his smile completely vanishing.
"She is safe, far away from your filthy hands," I replied, lifting my chin stubbornly.
"You will never find her."
Dante sighed, shaking his head as if deeply disappointed by my defiance.
"You are a foolish girl, just like your mother was," Dante sneered, stopping ten feet away from me.
"She thought she could run away from our blood, but the mafia always collects its debts eventually."
He gestured to one of his massive guards, who immediately raised a handgun and pointed it at my face.
"I will torture the location out of you, Hannah," Dante promised coldly.
"And then I will erase every last trace of Elena Rossi from this earth."
"I don't think you will," a deep, booming voice echoed from the shadows above.
Dante's head snapped up just as Victor stepped out from behind a steel pillar on the catwalk.
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"Kill him!" Dante screamed, diving behind the armored door of his SUV.
Before Dante's men could even raise their rifles toward the catwalk, the warehouse erupted into absolute chaos.
