Chapter 4 - The Breach
The heavy steel security door of the war room shuddered under the impact of a thermal charge. Sparks showered across the floor as the locking mechanism began to melt.
"Consiglieri, take Elena and the child through the ventilation crawlspace behind the armory," Rocco ordered, not breaking his gaze from Vance, who was now laughing hysterically against the wall.
"I'm not leaving you, sir," the consigliere growled, leveling his shotgun at the door.
"That is an order!" Rocco’s voice cracked like a whip. "If I fall, the bloodline dies with me unless that boy reaches the safehouse in Verona. Sophia knows the old service tunnels. She navigated them in the dark just to bring him to me. Let her guide you."
Sophia looked up at Rocco, her dark eyes wide, holding an intelligence far beyond her years. She didn't hesitate. She grabbed the infant—who was sleeping peacefully through the chaos—secured him tightly against her chest with a length of torn linen, and grabbed her mother’s hand.
"This way," Sophia said, pulling Elena toward the heavy iron grate behind the gun racks.
As the steel security door blew inward with a deafening roar, smoke and shrapnel filled the room. Three masked gunmen in tactical gear swarmed through the opening, assault rifles raised.
Rocco didn't blink. He fired twice, dropping the lead assailant before the man’s boots hit the threshold. Bullets shredded the concrete walls around him, chipping marble and sending dust flying into the air. He rolled behind the massive steel console, returning fire with ruthless precision, each shot a calculated execution.
"Vance!" Rocco yelled over the gunfire, grabbing the traitor by the collar and using him as a human shield against a burst of incoming fire. "Who authorized the hospital switch?"
Vance spat blood onto the floor, wheezing. "It was... it was your uncle... Marco... he wants the throne back..."
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Rocco’s expression hardened into stone. Uncle Marco—the man he had exiled to Sicily ten years ago, the man he thought was dead.
With a swift twist, Rocco shoved the dying lawyer toward the advancing gunmen, turned, and sprinted into the dark labyrinth of the estate's sub-basement as the war room behind him was consumed in fire.
