Chapter 3 - Flames of Betrayal
The sharp THWACK of a suppressed sniper bullet biting into the earth inches from Alessandro’s head shattered the silence of the woods.
"AMBUSH! GET THE COVER!" Gideon roared, drawing his automatic pistol and returning fire toward the tree line!
Sparks flew from the rusted iron fence as heavy automatic gunfire rained down upon the churchyard. The darkness erupted into violent flashes of muzzle light.
"MARA!" Alessandro yelled, scrambling up the muddy wall of the trench.
Three Moretti mercenaries in dark tactical gear were surging through the ruined stone archway, their weapons trained on Mara. But Alessandro’s guards were already moving. Two Romano soldiers threw themselves in front of Mara, firing their submachine guns in controlled bursts that cut down the leading attacker.
Victoria, still handcuffed, tried to take advantage of the chaos. She scrambled through the mud toward the woods, screaming at the top of her lungs, "FATHER! I’M HERE! KILL THEM ALL!"
"Grab her!" Alessandro commanded.
Gideon lunged out of the trench, catching Victoria by her hair and dragging her back behind the stone altar just as a volley of bullets tore through the willow tree above them.
"They had a tracker on her!" Gideon yelled over the deafening roar of gunfire, his face covered in mud and blood. "Don Vincent knew we were coming here!"
"It doesn't matter!" Alessandro growled. He reached into the iron chest, grabbed the leather-bound ledger and the digital drive, and shoved them deep inside his inner coat pocket. Then, with a look of profound, solemn respect, he snapped the heavy iron lid of the chest shut to protect his mother’s remains. "We hold this position! Nobody touches this grave!"
From the edge of the treeline, a line of four black armored SUVs slammed through the wooden perimeter fence, their high beams blinding Alessandro’s men.
The passenger door of the lead vehicle opened. Out stepped a tall, silver-haired man wearing an immaculate charcoal suit over a bulletproof vest. He carried a silver-handled cane, his face twisted into an expression of ruthless authority.
Don Vincent Moretti. Victoria’s father. The supreme patriarch of the Moretti crime family.
"ALESSANDRO!" Vincent’s booming voice echoed across the rain-swept graveyard through a megaphone. "You’ve gone too far, boy! You broke the engagement, you abducted my daughter, and now you’re digging up old dirt that doesn't belong to you!"
Alessandro stepped out from behind the stone pillar, completely unbothered by the red sniper dots scanning his chest. He held his hand up, signaling his guards to hold their fire.
"You buried my mother alive, Vincent!" Alessandro shouted back, his voice cutting through the storm like a thunderclap. "You stole eighteen years of my life! You put your parasite of a daughter in my home to keep watch over me!"
Vincent let out a cold, raspy laugh. "Isabella was a threat to the syndicate! She wanted your father to abandon the drug trade! She was weak, Alessandro! Just like your father was before I had him removed!"
Alessandro’s eyes went completely black with rage. "You killed my father too."
"Of course I did!" Vincent sneered, stepping closer under the protection of five heavily armed mercenaries holding ballistic shields. "Your father was going to hand the Romano empire over to the police! He was soft! I saved this syndicate, and I built it into an empire! Now, hand over the ledger and my daughter, and I might let you die with a bullet instead of fire!"
Alessandro looked down at Mara, who was crouched beside him, her hands trembling but her eyes filled with absolute trust in her brother.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small tactical transmitter.
"You made one mistake, Vincent," Alessandro said, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet tone that carried across the open ground.
Vincent paused. "What mistake?"
"You thought I came here to dig up a grave," Alessandro replied, a terrifying, dark smile spreading across his face. "I came here to set a trap."
Alessandro slammed his thumb down on the transmitter button.
KABOOM!
The entire treeline behind Vincent’s vehicles erupted into a blinding wall of fire! High-grade C4 charges, planted by Gideon’s vanguard team three hours before they ever brought Victoria to the site, detonated simultaneously!
The shockwave threw Vincent’s mercenaries off their feet. Two of the armored SUVs flipped onto their sides, engulfed in towering orange flames!
"NOW! SUPPRESSIVE FIRE!" Gideon bellowed.
Alessandro’s remaining guards unleashed a hail of lead into the disoriented Moretti hit squad. Alessandro drew his custom gold-embossed pistol, stepping out into the open rain with terrifying calm, dropping three mercenaries with precise shots to the head before they could even raise their weapons.
"Father! Help me!" Victoria shrieked from behind the altar.
Vincent, his face blackened by soot and his silver hair singed by the explosion, stumbled back toward his remaining working SUV, blood streaming from his ear. He looked at his screaming daughter, then at Alessandro advancing on him like a angel of death through the smoke.
Without a second thought, Vincent scrambled into the passenger seat of the SUV. "DRIVE! GET US OUT OF HERE!"
"FATHER! NO!" Victoria screamed in absolute agony as her father abandoned her, the SUV spinning its wheels in the deep mud and tearing away down the dark road, leaving her behind in the burning ruins.
The gunfire quickly died down as the surviving Moretti mercenaries were hunted down and neutralized by Gideon’s men.
Silence returned to the graveyard, broken only by the crackle of burning vehicle wrecks and the steady fall of rain.
Victoria collapsed into the mud, weeping hysterically, her spirit entirely broken.
Alessandro walked up to her, pointing the smoking barrel of his gun directly at her forehead.
"He left you," Alessandro said coldly. "Just like you left my mother."
"Please..." Victoria sobbed, pressing her hands together in prayer. "Please, Alessandro... don't kill me... I'll tell you everything... I'll tell you where his safehouses are... I'll help you ruin him!"
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Alessandro looked down at her with pure disgust. He lowered his weapon and turned to Gideon.
"Throw her in the trunk," Alessandro ordered. "We’re going back to the mansion. It’s time to read what my mother died for."
