Chapter 14 - The Phantom Strike
The trap was masterfully set at an abandoned, overgrown airstrip on the desolate outskirts of the city. Lorenzo and Marcus led a heavily armed, elite strike team, waiting patiently in the freezing shadows for Matteo to intercept the decoy convoy. Hannah remained back at the estate, heavily secured inside the reinforced underground panic room with Leo and Dr. Caldwell.
Hours ticked by in agonizing, suffocating silence. Hannah watched the glowing security monitors intently, a sickening, terrifying feeling of dread slowly twisting deep in her stomach. Something was fundamentally wrong. Matteo was infamous for his explosive, unpredictable violence, not his tactical patience.
Suddenly, the encrypted radios crackled to life, filled with the chaotic, deafening sounds of screaming metal and heavy automatic gunfire. But the assault wasn't happening at the isolated airstrip. It was happening at the downtown shipping ports, miles away from Lorenzo’s waiting strike team.
Matteo had completely ignored the bait. He didn't want to attack a heavily guarded convoy; he wanted to brutally cripple Lorenzo’s financial infrastructure. Massive, roaring fires erupted across the docks, destroying millions of dollars in imported goods and severely damaging Lorenzo’s reputation of invulnerability among the allied crime families.
Lorenzo returned to the estate just before dawn, his expensive suit covered in dark soot and his entire body boiling with unadulterated, lethal rage. He punched a hole straight through the thick plaster wall of the study, shattering his knuckles.
"He is playing a game with me," Lorenzo growled, his bleeding hands shaking with fury. "He wants me to helplessly watch my entire empire burn to ashes before he finally comes for my life."
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Hannah walked over to him, wrapping her arms securely around his waist from behind, pressing her pregnant belly against his rigid, tense back.
"Then we stop playing defense, Lorenzo," she whispered fiercely into his ear, her voice dripping with a terrifying new resolve. "We stop waiting in the dark. We hunt him down and we end this."
