Chapter 4 - THE MORETTI RETALIATION
Carmela and I hurried out onto the second-floor gallery overlooking the grand foyer.
Down below, the double mahogany front doors had been breached. Standing in the center of the foyer was Antonio Moretti—Bianca’s father and the head of the powerful Moretti syndicate. He was surrounded by six armed men in dark leather coats.
Standing at the bottom of the grand staircase, entirely alone, was Dominic Rossi.
He didn't have a weapon drawn. He wore a simple dark grey suit, his hands tucked casually into his trouser pockets, looking down at the armed men as if they were nothing more than unwanted salesmen.
"Rossi!" Antonio Moretti roared, his face red with fury, his thick gold watch flashing under the foyer lights. "You humiliated my daughter! You threw her out into the street like trash and broke our business agreement!"
"Your daughter raised her hand against my mother, Antonio," Dominic said smoothly, his voice carrying effortlessly across the cavernous room. "She was treated with far more leniency than she deserved."
"I don't give a damn about your senile mother!" Antonio bellowed, drawing a heavy silver pistol from beneath his coat.
My heart stopped. I gasped out loud, gripping the wrought-iron railing of the balcony so hard my knuckles turned white.
Dominic’s eyes flicked upward toward the gallery for a split second. He caught sight of me standing beside his mother, and an icy transformation swept across his face.
"Put the gun away, Antonio," Dominic said, his voice dropping into a register that sent shivers down my spine. "You are standing inside my home. You have five seconds to lower your weapon before I make sure you never hold one again."
"You think you own this city, Dominic?!" Antonio screamed, cocking the slide of his pistol. "You're nothing without the Moretti alliance! I'll take your territory, I'll take your shipping lines, and I'll leave this mansion in ashes!"
Antonio raised the barrel of the gun directly toward Dominic's chest.
"Dominic!" I screamed without thinking, throwing my body over the railing, ready to run down the stairs.
In that fraction of a second, before Antonio could pull the trigger, three distinct tactical bursts echoed through the foyer.
THWIP. THWIP. THWIP.
Silenced rifle fire rained down from the upper concealed security perches hidden within the foyer ceiling. Antonio Moretti’s weapon clattered to the floor as a high-impact rubber round shattered his wrist, while his two lead bodyguards were instantly neutralized by shock-darts, collapsing like sacks of flour onto the rug.
Within three seconds, Frankie and a dozen Rossi tactical guards swarmed the foyer from the side entrances, pinning the remaining Moretti men to the marble floor with military precision.
The entire conflict was over before the echo of the gunshots even faded.
Dominic slowly stepped forward, casually kicking Antonio's fallen pistol away from his reaching fingers. He crouched down beside the groaning older man, his expression completely devoid of mercy.
"I warned you, Antonio," Dominic whispered, pulling a paper document from his inner coat pocket and tossing it onto Antonio’s chest. "That is an arrest warrant issued by the Federal District Attorney. Half an hour ago, my legal team handed over full audio and video recordings of Bianca’s confession, alongside ten years of your family's illegal extortion records in Albany."
Antonio’s eyes widened in sheer horror. "You... you went to the feds?"
"I don't play street games when my family is threatened," Dominic replied coldly. "You and your daughter are going to federal prison for a very long time."
Dominic stood up, gesturing for Frankie to clear the room. "Take them away. Hand them over to the marshals waiting at the outer gate."
As the guards dragged the screaming, cursing Moretti men out of the mansion, Dominic slowly looked up at the second-floor gallery.
May you like
His eyes found mine.
The cold, ruthless expression on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a deep, intense concern. He took the grand staircase two steps at a time, moving directly toward where I stood trembling against the wall.
