Chapter 9 - The Price of Treason
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The deafening crack of Falcone’s pistol echoed through the vast foyer, silencing the entire room.
Vanessa let out a bloodcurdling scream as the bullet tore through her shoulder, sending her crashing onto the bloody marble floor.
She rolled onto her side, clutching her bleeding wound, staring at Falcone with disbelieving, horrified eyes.
"You... you shot me," she whimpered, choking on her own tears as her designer dreams dissolved in agony.
"Consider it a lesson in loyalty, little girl," Falcone said coldly, not even looking down as he stepped right over her writhing body.
"In my world, tools that break their promises are discarded like garbage."
Up on the mezzanine, Luca did not flinch; he simply watched his treacherous wife receive the poetic justice she had earned.
"Now, Luca," Falcone shouted, raising his pistol toward the balcony where the young boss stood.
"Drop your weapons, or my men will systematically burn this entire estate down with your precious mother inside it!"
Luca’s jaw clenched so hard the muscles jumped beneath his skin.
"My mother is beyond your reach, Falcone," Luca retorted, his voice steady as iron.
"Is she?" Falcone mocked with a cruel grin.
"I know all about the panic bunker beneath the master suite, Luca; your lovely wife gave me the blueprints weeks ago."
Down in the underground room, my blood ran cold as Falcone’s words came through the speaker.
Rosa looked at me, her face pale but her eyes burning with an unexpected, fierce determination.
"He is lying to break Luca's focus," Rosa said firmly, squeezing my hand with surprising strength.
"He doesn't have the codes, Claire."
Above us, Falcone snapped his fingers, and his remaining four mercenaries raised their assault weapons toward the mezzanine stairs.
"Kill him," Falcone ordered coldly.
"Bring me his head, and find the old woman so I can finish what I started twenty years ago."
The mercenaries surged up the grand double staircase, firing a coordinated barrage of lead into the marble balustrades.
Luca didn't retreat; instead, he vaulted over the balcony railing, dropping twelve feet straight down into the center of the foyer.
He landed in a tight combat roll, coming up with both handguns blazing before the mercenaries could even comprehend his move.
Two of Falcone’s gunmen collapsed instantly, their weapons clattering against the marble floor.
Dante, having recovered from the grenade blast, leaned over the upper railing and took out the third mercenary with a sniper shot.
The final mercenary panicked, turning his weapon toward Luca, but Luca closed the distance in a heartbeat.
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With a brutal sweep of his arm, Luca shattered the man's jaw with the steel butt of his weapon, dropping him cold.
Now, only Falcone and Luca remained standing in the ruined, bloodstained grand entrance of the Moretti estate.
