Chapter 5 - The Siege of the Estate
The lights across the Torino Estate cut out simultaneously, plunging the massive mansion into darkness, save for the emergency red backup strips along the baseboards.
Sirens didn't blare—a property of this size operated on silent tactical alarms. Outside, the rain had turned into a thick, freezing sleet that rattled against the armored glass windows like bursts of automatic fire.
Vincent pulled a sleek, heavy tactical pistol from his desk drawer, checking the chamber with practiced ease before tossing a secondary sidearm across the table to Marcus.
Marcus caught it instinctively. His hands were steady, his training kicking in before his fear could paralyze him.
"Mina," Marcus said instantly.
"Her safe room is on the third floor behind the library," Vincent said, his voice cold and precise. "Viktor is pulling back to secure the main hallway. Marcus, you go to Mina. Get her into the vault. Do not open that door for anyone—not even me—unless you hear my voice giving the clearance code."
"What about you?" Marcus asked, stepping toward the door.
"I am going to remind the Valenti family why my name rules this city," Vincent said, pulling a second magazine from his coat. "Go!"
Marcus sprinted out of the study, taking the grand marble staircase three steps at a time in the dim red glow of the emergency lights. Suppressed gunfire began to echo from the ground floor below—sharp, metallic pops followed by the heavy thuds of breaching charges.
The Valenti faction had brought an army. They knew this was their final chance to eliminate Vincent Torino before his syndicate wiped them off the map entirely.
Marcus reached the third-floor corridor. The air was thick with the smell of ozone and gunpowder.
As he neared Mina’s room, a heavy figure stepped out from the shadowy alcove near the linen closet. It was an intruder—a towering Valenti enforcer wearing a ballistic vest and holding a short-barreled shotgun.
The intruder spotted Marcus and raised his weapon.
"Kid—" the man began.
Marcus didn't hesitate. He didn't wait to be spoken to, and he didn't ask questions. He remembered Viktor’s training: Speed, violence of action, absolute commitment.
Marcus dropped low beneath the sightline of the shotgun, lunging forward with all his weight. He slammed into the intruder’s knees, bringing the heavy man crashing down onto the hardwood floor. Before the gunman could recover, Marcus brought the heavy steel butt of his sidearm down onto the man's jaw with brutal force.
The gunman went limp.
Gasping for air, his pulse hammering in his ears, Marcus grabbed the man's dropped weapon, racked the slide, and kicked open Mina’s bedroom door.
Mina was standing by her bed, holding a heavy iron fireplace poker, her face pale but her eyes fierce.
"Marcus!" she breathed out.
"Safe room! Now!" Marcus commanded softly, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the concealed bookcase near the hearth.
He entered the keycode into the hidden panel behind a row of leather-bound encyclopedias. The heavy steel vault door clicked open with a quiet pneumatic hiss.
Marcus pushed Mina inside the reinforced chamber. "Stay in the back. Do not come out until I tell you."
"Are you coming in?" Mina asked, her small fingers clutching his sleeve.
Marcus looked back down the dark hallway, where the sound of heavy gunfire was rapidly ascending the stairs. Vincent was fighting his way up, but two more intruders were moving along the east wing toward their position.
Marcus looked at Mina, offering her a calm, confident smile. "Someone's got to hold the door, kiddo."
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He gently detached her fingers, closed the heavy steel vault door, and locked it from the outside.
He pulled his grandmother's restored coat over his shoulders—the dark leather elbow patches catching the faint red light—and stepped out into the hallway to meet the storm.
