Chapter 7 - The Ledger of Blood
I didn't try to pull my hand away from Silas's grip. Instead, I used my free leg to strike his knee from the side, a precise, bone-shattering blow that delivered maximum force to his joint.
Silas roared in agony as his patella snapped outward. He stumbled backward, dropping the crowbar as his leg gave out beneath him.
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the sharp pain in my ribs, and lunged forward. I grabbed the iron crowbar from the floor, spinning it around and slamming the heavy metal bar directly into Silas's jaw. The impact sent three of his teeth flying across the room, his massive body crashing heavily into a medicine cabinet, shattering rows of glass vials.
He lay on the floor, coughing up dark blood, his brutal strength completely neutralized by a man who had been trained by the elite forces of the Mediterranean maritime syndicates.
I knelt over him, placing the heavy iron bar across his throat, pressing down until his eyes began to bloodshot.
"Where is the encrypted comms link, Silas?" I whispered, my voice cold enough to freeze the blood in his veins.
"In... in the desk," Silas choked out, his hands clawing weakly at my wrists. "The black smartphone... in the bottom drawer. The passcode is... is the date of the bomb."
The date of the bomb. The day Sophia died. The day they took my wife from me. They had used my worst tragedy as a security password for their operations.
I reached over to the desk, pulling open the bottom drawer. A rugged, military-grade smartphone sat inside a velvet pouch. I picked it up, entering the six-digit date of my wife's murder. The screen flashed green, revealing a single, active communication channel labeled: "V.L." Vincent Luciano.
"Lorenzo!" Hunter’s voice suddenly erupted through my earpiece, breaking my concentration. Her voice wasn't calm anymore; it was frantic, laced with a terrifying, primal panic. "Lorenzo, they found us! There are three black SUVs pulling up the main driveway of the safehouse! The motion sensors are going off everywhere!"
My heart stopped beating for a full second. The safehouse had been compromised.
"Hunter, get Leo into the safe room behind the pantry!" I ordered, standing up and abandoning Silas on the floor. "Lock the door! Don't open it for anyone but me!"
"I can't!" she cried, the sound of glass shattering audible through the satellite audio link. "They’re already on the porch! They’re shooting through the windows! Lorenzo, there are too many of them!"
"I’m coming, Hunter!" I roared, turning toward the door.
Before I could step out of the room, Silas let out a wet, mocking laugh from the floor. "You won't make it back in time, Rossi. Vincent sent his elite hit squad to that cabin. Your little bastard son dies tonight, and that bitch Hunter is going to be dragged back to Brooklyn in a body bag."
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I paused in the doorway. I didn't say a word. I turned back, raised my Beretta, and fired a single round into Silas Vance's chest, ending his miserable existence before he could draw another breath.
I ran out of the clinic into the pouring rain, jumping into my high-powered sports coupe. I smashed the accelerator to the floor, the tires screaming against the wet asphalt as I headed north toward the mountains, praying to a God I hadn't believed in for years that I wouldn't be too late to save the only family I had left.
