Chapter 7
The silence in the flooded cellar was suffocating, broken only by the steady drip of condensation and the distant roar of the fire consuming the mansion above.
"Bruno, down," Dante whispered under his breath. The dog obeyed, lowering his massive chest into the cold water, his amber eyes fixed with lethal intent on Miguel.
Dante slowly uncurled his fingers. His Kimber .45 fell into the freezing water with a dull splash. He raised both hands to shoulder height, his face an impenetrable mask of stone.
"You brought Valenti into my home, Miguel," Dante said, his voice flat, devoid of fear. "My father took you off the streets of South Brooklyn. He put shoes on your feet. He treated you like blood."
"Your father used me as an errand boy while his spoiled brat inherited an empire!" Miguel snarled, stepping forward into the water. His boots sloshed heavily. Up close, the transformation in my husband was terrifying. The gentle man who used to kiss my forehead before leaving for work was completely gone. His skin was sallow, stretched tight over hollow cheekbones, his eyes burning with an unhinged, feverish greed.
"Miguel..." I stepped forward, shielding Sophie behind my back, the Glock Dante gave me hidden inside the oversized folds of the Kevlar vest. "Look at me. Look at your daughter. How can you do this?"
Miguel’s gaze flicked to me, then down to the small girl trembling behind my legs. For a fraction of a second, something human flickered in his eyes—a shadow of grief, or perhaps regret. But it vanished just as quickly, swallowed by madness.
"I did this for us, Elena!" he barked, his voice echoing off the limestone arches. "Do you have any idea what it was like? Working for these animals? Pretending to be their loyal dog while the DOJ used me as bait? They promised me witness protection! They promised me a new life for our family in California! And then they abandoned me the second the bullets started flying!"
"You abandoned us!" I screamed, tears spilling over my lashes. "You let me believe you were dead! I had ninety dollars in my account! I had to beg for groceries to feed our daughter while you were cutting deals with mob bosses!"
"Because she wasn't ready!" Miguel yelled, gesturing wildly toward Sophie. "I needed the ledger! With that drive, we don't have to hide in some two-bedroom tract house in Nebraska under fake names! We could have fifty million dollars! We could live like royalty anywhere in the world!"
"Enough theater," Salvatore Valenti said smoothly, stepping through the water, his expensive leather shoes ruined without him seeming to care. He tapped the ash of his cigar into the cellar pool. "Dante. The drive. Hand it over, and maybe I let your mother live to see a nursing home."
Dante didn't look at Valenti. His eyes remained locked onto Miguel.
"You think Valenti is going to let you walk away with fifty million, Miguel?" Dante asked calmly. "You're a rogue Fed who executed a Don. The second you hand him that drive, he puts a bullet in the back of your skull and dumps you in the sound. He doesn't leave loose ends."
"Shut up!" Miguel screamed, raising his assault rifle and aiming it directly at Dante’s forehead. "Give me the drive, Dante! Give it to me, or I swear to God I'll kill you right in front of them!"
"Take it," Dante said softly.
He reached into his pocket with deliberate slowness, pulling out the sleek titanium drive. He held it out on his open palm, the faint red light pulsing beneath his fingers.
Miguel’s eyes dilated with ravenous hunger. He lowered his rifle slightly, stepping forward, his hand reaching out to snatch the prize he had spent three years chasing.
"Miguel, wait!" Valenti barked, his sharp eyes catching the faint red blink on the casing. "Step back!"
It was too late.
"Now, Elena!" Dante roared.
In one explosive motion, Dante lunged forward, smacking Miguel’s rifle barrel upward just as a burst of automatic fire ripped into the stone ceiling, showering us in limestone dust.
At the exact same instant, Bruno exploded from the water like a missile. Ninety pounds of muscle and teeth slammed directly into the gunman standing to Valenti’s left, taking him down into the pool with a bone-crushing crunch.
"Sophie, get through the gate!" I screamed, shoving my daughter through the rusted iron door into the drainage tunnel.
I pulled the hidden Glock from the Kevlar vest with both hands, aimed straight at the second gunman who was raising his submachine gun toward Dante, and squeezed the trigger.
*BANG!*
The recoil slammed through my wrists. The bullet caught the man in the shoulder, spinning him around. Dante swept Miguel’s legs out from under him, sending my former husband crashing violently into the freezing water.
Valenti scrambled backward toward the stairs, shouting to his remaining men: "Kill them all! Kill them all!"
Dante grabbed the crowbar from the floor, jammed it through the heavy handles of the iron cistern gate behind us, and slammed it shut, separating us from the surviving gunmen.
*Clang!*
Rounds of high-caliber ammunition slammed into the thick iron bars, sparking against the steel, ricocheting wildly into the stone walls of the cellar.
May you like
"Run!" Dante yelled, his arm wrapping around my waist as we plunged into the black, rushing waters of the drainage canal. Behind us, through the bars, Miguel rose from the water, his face twisted in homicidal rage, screaming my name into the dark.
***
