Chapter 5 - The Night the Fortress Fell
Emergency lights flashed red through the corridors.
Dominic grabbed Norah’s hand.
“Safe room.”
“No.”
“Norah—”
“Lily.”
He swore.
They ran upstairs.
Marco’s voice erupted through Dominic’s radio.
“East gate compromised. Internal access codes. We have at least eight inside.”
Victor had not attacked the compound.
He had opened it.
Dominic reached Lily’s room.
Maria already held the terrified child.
“Daddy!”
Dominic lifted her.
Norah followed them toward the secure stairwell.
A bullet struck the wall.
Dominic pushed Norah down.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved.
Two guards covered the corridor.
The safe room door waited twenty yards ahead.
Norah suddenly stopped.
Water spread beneath her shoes.
Her face went white.
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“I think my water broke.”
His entire world stopped.
“No.”
“Very insightful.”
She doubled over.
Pain tightened across her abdomen.
Dominic caught her.
“Twenty-one weeks,” she whispered.
Too early.
Far too early.
Fear consumed him.
“Marco!”
Static.
Then gunfire.
Norah grabbed Dominic’s shirt.
“Get Lily safe.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Dominic!”
He looked between his daughter and Norah.
The impossible decision lasted one second.
Maria took Lily.
“I have her.”
Dominic handed Lily over.
“Safe room. Do not open it for anyone except me or Marco.”
Lily screamed for him as Maria carried her away.
Dominic lifted Norah.
Another contraction struck.
“Hospital,” she gasped.
“We can’t reach the cars.”
“Then figure it out, mafia genius.”
Under any other circumstances, he might have laughed.
Instead he carried her toward the service stairs.
They descended into the underground garage.
Marco appeared with blood on his sleeve.
“Armored SUV is ready.”
“Lily?”
“Safe.”
“Norah needs a hospital.”
Marco looked at her.
Then understood.
“I’ll drive.”
They reached the SUV.
An explosion shook the garage.
Sprinklers erupted.
Dominic shielded Norah.
A figure appeared through the water.
Dominic raised his weapon.
“Don’t shoot!”
Rafael.
Dominic stared at the brother he had buried nineteen years ago.
Rafael was older, leaner, scarred along one side of his face.
But unmistakable.
“Nice reunion,” Rafael said. “We should survive it.”
Dominic’s weapon remained raised.
“You have five seconds.”
“Victor has men at every exit. I know the maintenance tunnel.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
Rafael looked at Norah.
“But she doesn’t have time for your family issues.”
Norah groaned.
Dominic lowered the weapon.
“Lead.”
The tunnel emerged beyond the estate perimeter.
Marco drove while Dominic sat beside Norah.
Rafael followed in another vehicle.
At the hospital, doctors rushed Norah away.
Dominic tried to follow.
A nurse blocked him.
“Family?”
He hesitated.
Norah, half-conscious, whispered from the gurney:
“He’s the father.”
The words hit him harder than they should have.
The doors closed.
Dominic waited.
One hour.
Two.
Rafael sat twenty feet away.
Neither brother spoke.
Finally Dominic said, “Why?”
Rafael looked up.
“Why what?”
“Nineteen years.”
Rafael laughed bitterly.
“You think I chose this?”
He told him.
After the lake-house attack, Victor found Rafael alive.
Their father had indeed died.
But Victor convinced the sixteen-year-old that Dominic had known an attack was coming and allowed it because their father planned to divide the empire.
“It wasn’t true,” Dominic said.
“I know that now.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“And you stayed with him?”
Rafael looked ashamed.
“By then I had done things I couldn’t undo.”
Dominic understood.
That was the Russo inheritance.
Not money.
Consequences.
The doctor appeared.
Dominic stood.
“Norah?”
“Stable.”
“The baby?”
“Still has cardiac activity.”
Dominic’s knees nearly weakened.
The doctor continued.
“Her membranes have not fully ruptured. What she experienced appears to have been bleeding combined with severe contractions. We’ve stabilized her, but she needs close monitoring.”
“Can I see her?”
“Soon.”
Dominic nodded.
His phone rang.
Marco answered instead.
His expression darkened.
“Victor took the estate.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“Most staff escaped. But Victor controls the property.”
Rafael stood.
“That’s what he wanted.”
“No,” Dominic said.
He looked through the hospital window toward Norah.
“The estate is meaningless.”
Rafael frowned.
“Then what does he want?”
Dominic understood.
“Legitimacy.”
Victor could steal warehouses, accounts and soldiers.
But old alliances still recognized Dominic as Antonio Russo’s heir.
Unless Dominic disappeared.
And his children disappeared with him.
His phone buzzed.
A video arrived.
Victor appeared on-screen inside Dominic’s office.
“Family has always been your weakness, nephew.”
He smiled.
“Bring Rafael to me before midnight tomorrow.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
Victor continued.
“Or the next attack won’t be against your house.”
The video shifted.
A camera feed appeared.
Norah’s hospital.
May you like
Dominic went cold.
Victor knew exactly where they were.
