Chapter 7 - The Confrontation
They reached the second-floor office viewing room overlooking the dark factory floor.
Through the reinforced glass window, Elena saw Sal Moretti standing beside a steel desk, holding a glass of whiskey, a heavy pistol tucked into his belt.
On the desk sat Lily’s pink basket. The baby was crying loudly, her tiny arms flailing in the air, terrified by the sound of distant gunfire.
Every maternal instinct in Elena’s body exploded.
Dominick didn't wait. He kicked the reinforced office door off its hinges with a deafening crash.
Sal Moretti spun around, raising his pistol, but Dominick was faster. He fired two round bursts into Sal’s right wrist and thigh. Sal screamed in agony, dropping his gun and collapsing onto the floor, clutching his bleeding arm.
"LILY!" Elena screamed, dropping her gun and throwing herself across the desk, snatching her daughter into her arms.
The baby immediately clung to her mother’s neck, her crying subsiding into tiny, shuddering gasps as she buried her wet face into Elena’s sweater.
"I’ve got you, baby... I’ve got you... Mommy’s here," Elena sobbed uncontrollably, rocking the baby back and forth, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, her tiny hands.
Dominick stepped over the groaning Sal Moretti, standing above him like an avenging angel, pointing his gun directly between the mobster’s eyes.
"You took a child, Sal," Dominick said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "In our world, there are lines you don't cross. Even your brother knows that."
"Blackwell... please..." Sal wheezed, blood pouring over his hands. "It was Vance’s idea! He said... he said if we took the kid, you’d trade the USB drive!"
"Vance is already being arrested by the FBI," Dominick stated coldly. "Frank leaked the audio recording twenty minutes ago. The Moretti family is finished in Chicago."
"Don't kill me..." Sal begged, tears mixing with the sweat on his face.
Dominick looked over at Elena, who was holding her daughter tightly, her back turned to the violence, protecting her child from the dark world around them.
Dominick lowered his gun slightly.
"I won't kill you, Sal," Dominick said softly. "The federal agents coming up those stairs in five minutes will handle that. You're going to spend the rest of your life in a maximum-security prison."
The sound of police sirens began to echo through the snow-covered alleyways outside, red and blue lights flashing through the frosted office windows.
Frank pushed into the office, his vest covered in drywall dust, but uninjured. "The perimeter is clear. The feds are securing the building. We need to leave before the precinct commanders arrive."
Dominick looked at Elena. "Can you walk?"
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Elena stood up, clutching Lily against her heart, her posture straight, her eyes bright and clear.
"I can walk," she said.
