Chapter 5 - The Siege of Hudson Valley
In the pitch black, Alessandro didn't hesitate. He dropped to one knee, relying on his memory of the study’s layout.
CRACK.
A bullet shattered the glass of the window behind him. The shooters were outside on the terrace.
Alessandro fired twice into the darkness toward the window, rewarded by a sharp grunt and the sound of a heavy body crashing through the shrubbery below.
"Marco!" Alessandro called out, but he heard only the sound of scurrying footsteps. Marco had used the darkness to escape into the hallway.
Alessandro crawled toward the desk, reaching for the emergency drawer. He pulled out a pair of night-vision goggles and slipped them over his eyes. The world turned a sharp, glowing green.
He checked his weapon. Six rounds left in the magazine. He pulled a spare clip from his belt and slammed it home.
He had to get to the basement. He had to protect Elena and Lily.
He stepped out of the study and into the grand hallway. The estate was silent, but it was the silence of a graveyard. Through his night-vision goggles, he saw three bodies lying on the marble floor near the stairs. They were his loyal guards. They had been shot in the back of the head.
It was an execution. An inside job.
Alessandro moved like a shadow, hugging the walls as he descended the grand staircase. The rain outside was deafening, masking the sound of his footsteps, but also masking the movements of his enemies.
As he reached the ground floor, he saw flashlights bouncing through the glass doors of the dining room. A team of highly trained, tactical mercenaries was moving through his house. They weren't street thugs. They moved with military precision, carrying silenced submachine guns.
Alessandro slipped into the shadows of the corridor leading to the basement stairs. He needed to get to the reinforced bunker. Once inside, he could activate the secondary security protocols, lock down the entire estate, and call in his loyal crews from the city.
He reached the heavy iron door of the basement. It was unlocked.
His heart sank.
He pushed the door open, his gun raised. He moved down the cold concrete steps, his eyes scanning every corner. The basement was quiet. He reached the holding room where Elena had been kept.
The door was wide open.
The room was empty.
"Elena?" Alessandro whispered.
No response.
He hurried down the corridor toward the heavy steel door of the bunker. The vault-style door, built to withstand a military-grade explosion, was slightly ajar.
Alessandro stopped. His chest tightened.
The bunker was supposed to be the safest place in the world. Only three people knew the biometric code to open it from the outside. Himself, Marco... and Carlo.
He stepped inside, his gun raised, his night-vision goggles scanning the reinforced room.
The backup generator inside the bunker was running, casting a dim, red emergency glow over the concrete walls.
In the center of the room, Elena was tied to a chair, a piece of heavy duct tape over her mouth, her eyes wide with sheer terror.
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Beside her, Lily was sitting on the floor, clutching her cashmere blanket, crying silently.
And standing over them, holding a silver-plated revolver, was Carlo Ricci.
