Chapter 66 - Shadows Over the Water
The vibration that rattled the crystal flutes wasn't thunder. It was the synchronized underwater detonation of the villa's seawall sensors.
“Security breach at the private dock,” an operative announced, bursting through the banquet hall doors, his submachine gun raised. “Two patrol boats disabled. Perimeter cameras along the lakefront just went black!”
Chaos erupted instantly. The syndicate bosses rose from their chairs, their personal guards drawing sidearms, shouting in Italian, German, and French. Elena didn't flinch. Her face twisted into a mask of pure, murderous rage.
“Close the blast doors!” Elena commanded, her voice cutting through the panic like a whip. “Seal the upper floor! If Vance is on this property, hunt him down and bring me his head!”
Marcus, still disguised as the server, backed into the shadows of the banquet hall's pantry corridor. Before the guards could corral me, I snatched the water glass, slipped into the confusion of fleeing oligarchs, and cracked the waterproof capsule in the palm of my hand.
Inside was a single strip of paper with Dante’s handwriting, scrawled with charcoal:
*DOCK LEVEL THREE. FIVE MINUTES. I AM COMING FOR OUR SON.*
Tears spiked my eyes, but I forced them back. He was here. He was alive. He had crossed an ocean, broken through an impenetrable fortress, and brought the fire to their doorstep.
Gunfire suddenly erupted on the upper terrace—the sharp, distinct double-taps of high-caliber suppressed rifles. The lights in the banquet hall violently died, plunging the massive room into pitch darkness before emergency red auxiliary lights sputtered to life, casting demonic, crimson shadows across the walls.
“Laura!” Elena’s voice hissed through the gloom.
I turned and ran.
I didn't head for the exit; I sprinted straight toward the grand staircase leading to the nursery. Sirens wailed across the compound, deafening and disorienting. Armed mercenaries pushed past me, rushing toward the lower docks where secondary explosions were echoing against the cliffs.
I took the stairs three at a time, tearing off the heavy velvet hem of my gown so I could move faster. At the second-floor landing, two guards lay dead on the floor, taken down with clinical precision—shots to the central nervous system.
My heart soared with terror and hope. Dante was already moving through the house.
I reached the nursery doors. The heavy oak was cracked open. I burst inside, my voice caught in my throat: “Mateo!”
The room was empty.
The crib was overturned. Mateo’s blue blanket lay on the floor, trampled by combat boots.
A cold hand seized the back of my hair, yanking my head back with vicious force. A gun barrel pressed against my temple.
“Looking for your child, niece?”
Elena stepped around me, her emerald dress smeared with soot, her silver hair loose, her eyes completely unhinged. Behind her stood two hulking operatives. One of them held Mateo, who was gagged with a cloth strip, his eyes wide with utter terror, weeping silently.
“Let him go!” I choked out, fighting against the grip on my hair. “He’s a baby! Take me, do whatever you want with the ledger, just let him go!”
“You are going to complete the transfer right now,” Elena snarled, shoving me toward the private elevator hidden behind the nursery bookcase. “The Council has scattered like rats. Dante Vance thinks he can breach my home? By the time he clears the lower corridors, the transfer will be complete, and the vault’s self-destruct mechanism will bury this villa—and your husband—at the bottom of Lake Como.”
May you like
She shoved me inside the elevator. The doors slid shut, sealing out the sounds of the gunfire, descending rapidly into the subterranean dark beneath the earth.
***
