Chapter 14 - The Siege of the Estate Back in Chicago, the iron gates of the Vatello estate were screaming.
A convoy of unmarked tactical trucks had rammed straight through the black iron perimeter, shattering the reinforced security pillars like toothpicks. Heavy machine-gun fire chewed into the stone facade of the grand manor as dozens of masked operatives poured across the snow-covered lawns, overwhelming the loyalist guards in a brutal, coordinated blitz.
Inside the grand study, Leo stood atop a heavy mahogany chair, peering through the reinforced glass window. He didn't flinch at the sound of explosions echoing across the courtyard. His small hands gripped the window frame tightly, his dark, bottomless eyes tracking the movement of the attackers with cold, tactical precision.
Nico burst through the double doors of the study, his clothes scorched, blood soaking through his left shoulder.
"We've been betrayed from within!" Nico shouted, slamming the heavy oak doors shut and throwing the industrial deadbolts. "The security codes to the perimeter grids have been overridden by an external terminal! It's the regional captains from the South Side—they allied with a new player while Dante was out of the city!"
Leo turned slowly from the window. He looked up at Nico, his expression devoid of the normal panic expected from an eight-year-old child.
"They aren't here for the estate, Nico," Leo said, his voice unnervingly calm. "They're here for the physical ledger vaults in the basement. Whoever controls the legacy papers controls the syndicate."
Nico stared down at the boy, a sudden, chilling realization washing over him. The child wasn't just a bystander caught in the crossfire; he understood the architecture of the syndicate better than most grown capos.
"Where is your father?" Nico asked urgently.
"He's where the truth is," Leo replied, walking over to Dante’s heavy desk and sliding open the bottom drawer to retrieve the heavy .38 revolver Dante had left him weeks ago. "And if we don't hold this room for the next twenty minutes, there won't be an empire left for him to come back to."
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Heavy footsteps slammed against the hallway outside the study. The sound of a tactical breaching charge being slapped against the oak doors made the air pressure drop.
"Get behind the structural pillars!" Nico roared, raising his submachine gun as the wooden doors exploded inward in a storm of splintered timber and fire.
