Chapter 7 - The Burning Harbor
The sky above the Boston harbor burned an unnatural, violent orange, casting long, terrifying shadows across the wet asphalt.
Lorenzo stared at the towering inferno in his rearview mirror, absolutely devastated by the sheer magnitude of his brother’s incredibly reckless, unauthorized strike.
Marco had completely sacrificed a dozen of the Duca family’s most loyal, seasoned enforcers simply to entirely wipe out the Hail mercenaries on the southern pier.
It was a brutally efficient, deeply unforgivable tactical decision that perfectly mirrored the absolute worst, most sadistic traits of their late father.
Rocco gripped the steering wheel tightly, his face a completely unreadable mask of stone as he expertly navigated the massive armored SUV through the chaotic, fleeing traffic.
Lorenzo’s mind was violently torn between returning to violently execute his treacherous brother at the burning docks or racing back to the estate to save Elena and Mia.
The image of the three-year-old girl holding up three tiny, trembling fingers flashed vividly through his deeply fractured mind.
He coldly ordered Rocco to completely ignore the massive, burning disaster at the harbor and drive furiously directly back to the heavily fortified mansion.
They arrived at the iron gates of the estate in record time, heavily crashing through the wooden security barricade without even slowing down.
Lorenzo sprinted aggressively through the grand marble foyer, his heavy assault rifle raised and completely ready to eliminate any remaining threats.
He bypassed the grand staircase and bolted directly down the hidden, spiraling stone steps that led deep into the subterranean library.
He reached the heavy, reinforced steel door of the underground panic room and violently punched in the emergency override code.
The thick metal door hissed open slowly, revealing a room completely filled with thick, dissipating white halon gas.
Lorenzo aggressively waved the smoke away, coughing violently as he desperately searched the floor for the terrified mother and child.
He found Vivien first; the high-society heiress was completely unconscious, slumped heavily against the wall with her weapon entirely out of reach.
Nearby, the corrupt security guard who had helped her escape was also passed out cold on the floor.
But when Lorenzo frantically scanned the rest of the small, heavily armored room, his blood ran completely cold.
Elena and Mia were entirely missing; they were absolutely nowhere to be found inside the sealed, highly secure bunker.
He violently grabbed the unconscious guard by his tactical collar, aggressively shaking the man awake and pressing the hot barrel of his rifle directly against his forehead.
The deeply terrified guard choked on the remaining halon gas, frantically swearing that he had absolutely no idea where the woman and child had gone.
He sobbed hysterically, claiming that right before the suppression gas violently deployed, a completely unknown third party had somehow bypassed the external locks.
The guard confessed that a heavily armed man in completely sterile tactical gear had aggressively dragged Elena and Mia out of the panic room through a hidden maintenance tunnel.
Lorenzo completely dropped the terrified guard, a deep, sickening realization violently washing entirely over his exhausted body.
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There was only one man in the entire city of Boston who possessed the highly classified blueprints required to navigate the estate's hidden underground tunnels.
And that man was Richard Hail, Vivien’s utterly ruthless, highly calculated father, who had clearly planned a massive secondary extraction operation from the very beginning.
