Chapter 6 - Thunder over the Driveway
BANG!
Before Marco could draw his weapon, my silver Beretta cleared my holster and fired a single round directly through his left shoulder!
Marco screamed in agony, falling backward onto the wet gravel as blood sprayed across his camel-hair coat!
“KILL HIM!” Marco shrieked to his mercenaries.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Gunfire erupted across the driveway as Matteo’s guards on the perimeter wall opened fire with automatic rifles!
The three SUVs were riddled with bullets, their heavy glass cracking into spiderweb patterns. Two Castiglione guards fell instantly to the gravel, while the remaining mercenaries scrambled frantically behind the armored doors for cover.
I moved with the lethal, instinctual speed that had made me the undisputed Don of the East Coast.
I stepped through the crossfire, my Beretta barking with precision.
BANG! BANG!
Two mercenaries trying to flank the gravel path dropped into the rose bushes.
I reached Marco Castiglione in four long strides, grabbed him by the collar of his expensive coat, and dragged his bleeding, terrified body through the rain up the grand stone steps into the mansion’s foyer.
SLAM!
Matteo shut the heavy oak doors behind us, locking the heavy steel bolts into place while the gunbattle outside died down into absolute silence.
Marco lay whimpering on the marble floor of the grand hallway, clutching his ruined shoulder, blood pooling onto the polished white stone.
“Please... Alessandro... please...” Marco sobbed, crawling backward until his back hit the base of the grand staircase. “It was business! Just business! I didn't know the boy mattered to you!”
I stood over him, my face cold, dark, and unreadable.
I reached into my pocket, pulled out Isabella’s gold wedding band—which Rosa had enclosed inside the cream letter—and held it in front of Marco’s tear-filled eyes.
Marco’s eyes widened in utter horror as he recognized the Moretti family crest engraved on the inside of the ring.
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“Lucas is not a Castiglione asset, Marco,” I whispered, leaning down until my face was inches from his. “Lucas is my son. Isabella’s son.”
Marco’s breath caught in his throat. He realized the terrifying magnitude of his mistake. He hadn't come to collect a helpless orphan. He had walked straight into the lair of a grieving dragon who had just found his fire again.
