Chapter 5 - The Snake in the Garden
Red emergency lights flooded the mansion, accompanied by the deafening blare of security sirens. Lorenzo’s soft posture vanished in an instant, replaced by the lethal commander of the Rossi syndicate.
He drew his gun from his shoulder holster, racking the slide with a metallic snap.
"Marco!" Lorenzo barked into his lapel radio. "Lock down the upper sector! Get the heavy tactical team to the courtyard!"
He turned to Hunter, grabbing her firmly by the shoulders. "Listen to me very carefully. The room behind the nursery wardrobe is a reinforced panic room. Steel walls, independent air filtration, bulletproof glass. You go inside with Leo, you lock the door from the inside, and you do NOT open it for anyone except me. Do you understand?"
"Lorenzo, please be careful," Hunter cried, her voice trembling as she rushed to the crib to scoop up the crying baby.
"Nothing in this world can kill me tonight, Hunter," Lorenzo promised, his eyes burning with a fierce intensity. "Not while I have something to come back to."
He shoved the heavy wardrobe aside, exposing a concealed keypad. He punched in a six-digit code, and the heavy titanium door slid open. Hunter rushed inside with Leo, clutching the child tightly against her chest.
"Lock it!" Lorenzo commanded.
Hunter hit the internal lock button. The thick steel door slammed shut, cutting off the sound of the sirens and replacing it with a heavy, dead silence.
Inside the panic room, Hunter sat on the floor, rocking Leo back and forth. Outside, through the heavy insulation, she could hear faint, dull thuds—the sound of heavy gunfire, shattering glass, and explosions echoing through the lower levels of the mansion.
Minutes turned into an hour. The panic room had security monitors showing feeds from the house. Hunter watched in horror as masked men in tactical gear battled Lorenzo's guards through the grand foyer.
Suddenly, the monitor showing the third-floor hallway flickered.
A figure in a black tactical suit approached the heavy wardrobe hiding the panic room. The man pulled off his mask, revealing his face to the security camera.
Hunter gasped, horror freezing her blood.
It wasn't a Moretti soldier. It was Antonio Rossi—Lorenzo's own uncle and second-in-command!
Antonio pulled an electronic bypass tool from his vest and attached it to the keypad wires outside the door. He wasn't trying to destroy the estate; he was trying to execute the heir himself to claim the Rossi empire for his own faction!
The digital screen on the panic room door began to beep erratically as the bypass tool started cracking the security code.
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Red light... yellow light... green.
The heavy titanium lock disengaged with a terrifying hiss.
