Chapter 9 - The Ultimatum of the OutfitThe peace in our empire lasted exactly two months.
It was a humid Tuesday night when the red emergency alarms throughout the Russo Tower began to wail, flashing strobes of crimson light across the steel-and-glass corridors.
I was in the private suite with Victor, reviewing our quarterly European asset distribution, when the secure intercom crackled to life.
"Boss!" a frantic voice shouted over the static. "It’s a coordinated assault! The Chicago Outfit has breached the perimeter gates with armored trucks. They’ve cut the power grid, and there are dozens of heavily armed mercenaries flooding the lower levels!"
Victor didn't flinch. His expression hardened into absolute, lethal ice. He turned to the biometric cabinet behind his desk, popped open the heavy steel door, and pulled out an assault rifle and a tactical vest.
"They're coming for us," Victor said flatly, tossing the vest to me. "Don the gear, Elena."
"How did they get past our codes?" I asked, pulling the heavy tactical vest over my silk shirt and snapping the buckles into place. "Marcus was dead. The leaks were plugged."
"They didn't hack our codes," a voice echoed from the open doorway.
We both spun around.
Standing in the doorway, casually holding a silenced pistol pointed directly at my chest, was Dr. Hayes.
The blood drained from my face. Dr. Hayes—the brilliant physician who had cared for Tommy, the woman I had trusted implicitly—smiled coldly, her eyes flashing with betrayal.
"Dr. Hayes," Victor snarled, his grip tightening on his rifle. "I should have known. The medical wing was the only terminal I didn't personally sanitize."
"You were too busy falling in love with your maid, Victor," Dr. Hayes laughed bitterly. "The Chicago Outfit offered me ten million dollars to let your precious medical center’s security firewall drop for five minutes. And while you were busy playing mob kingpin, I uploaded the entire Russo syndicate database to their servers."
She cocked her gun, aiming straight between my eyes.
"Say goodbye, Elena. You were a fun experiment, but the house always wins."
Bang.
The silenced gunshot tore through the air.
I didn't feel pain. Instead, I watched in absolute slow motion as Dr. Hayes’s eyes widened in sheer shock. A red blossom bloomed across the center of her white lab coat, and she collapsed heavily to the floor, dropping her weapon.
Standing behind her in the doorway, lowering a smoking pistol with an expression of icy calm, was Tommy.
My brother.
He was wearing a casual hospital hoodie, looking a little pale, but his hands were steady as a rock, holding the gun he must have grabbed from one of Victor’s fallen guards downstairs.
"Nobody touches my sister," Tommy said coldly, his voice echoing in the dead silence of the room.
Victor stared at Tommy, then looked at me, a profound look of respect flashing in his dark eyes.
May you like
"Looks like protection runs in the family," Victor murmured.
"We don't have time for family bonding," I snapped, grabbing my rifle and sliding a fresh magazine into place. "The Outfit is in our lobby. Let's go take our empire back."
