Chapter 6 - The Infiltration
The night was suffocatingly quiet.
Thick autumn fog rolled off the Hudson River, wrapping the Moretti estate in a blanket of damp white mist. The ancient trees along the perimeter stood like silent sentinels in the dark.
Inside the third-floor suite, Lily slept peacefully in the center of the massive canopy bed. She had kicked off her blankets, her little arm wrapped tightly around Bun, the worn stuffed rabbit Rosa had carefully cleaned and placed beside her.
Rosa sat in an armchair by the window, unable to sleep.
She wore a soft silk nightgown that Alessandro had ordered for her, but she felt completely out of place in it. On the vanity table across the room sat an exquisite velvet box containing an emerald-and-diamond necklace worth a fortune—a gift Alessandro had sent up earlier that evening, accompanied by a note that read: *Wear this tomorrow night. Stand beside me.*
She was terrified. Going to a high-society mafia gala as Alessandro’s guest was suicide. The entire underworld would view her as an interloper, a common servant who had seduced the Don to steal a crown.
Suddenly, a faint sound broke the silence.
*Click.*
It wasn't a floorboard settling. It was the distinct sound of a suppressed pistol cocking.
Rosa’s instincts flared. For four years, living as an unprotected woman in a city of predators, she had learned to read danger in the shifting of the air.
She didn't scream. Screaming would wake Lily and draw fire. Instead, she slipped out of the armchair like a shadow, moving silently across the carpet toward the bed.
She reached into her pocket. Earlier that evening, while the staff had been unpacking her things, she had quietly slipped a heavy silver letter opener from Alessandro’s desk into her pocket. It wasn't a gun, but it was steel.
The adjoining balcony door swung open on oiled hinges.
A figure clad in tactical black stepped into the room, their boots making no sound on the rug. The intruder raised a suppressed handgun, aiming directly at the lump of blankets on the bed where Lily lay.
“Stop,” Rosa whispered.
The intruder spun around, startled.
Before the gunman could pull the trigger, Rosa launched herself forward with the feral, unhinged fury of a mother defending her cub. She didn't think about her own life; she saw only the weapon pointed at her sleeping child.
She drove the heavy silver letter opener straight into the intruder’s shoulder.
The man grunted in agony, the gun dropping from his grip as he stumbled backward against the vanity table. Perfume bottles crashed to the floor, shattering in a loud explosion of glass.
“Bitch!” the man snarled, his voice muffled by a balaclava. He swung a heavy fist, clipping Rosa across the jaw.
The blow sent Rosa crashing to the floor, pain exploding behind her eyes. Taste of copper filled her mouth. But as the intruder reached for his dropped pistol, Rosa lunged forward, grabbing his ankle with both hands and pulling with all her might.
The man fell hard, his head striking the edge of the marble fireplace.
At that moment, the bedroom doors were kicked off their hinges with a thunderous crash.
Alessandro burst into the room, a black semi-automatic pistol in his hand, his eyes wild with terror. Behind him, Marco and three guards flooded the suite with tactical lights blazing.
Alessandro’s eyes swept the room in a fraction of a second.
He saw Lily sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes in confusion. He saw the unconscious intruder bleeding on the hearth. And he saw Rosa on her hands and knees, blood dripping from her lip, her eyes blazing with raw defiance.
The relief that washed over Alessandro’s face was instantly replaced by a rage so absolute, so demonic, that even his own guards took a step back.
“Marco! Secure the perimeter!” Alessandro roared, his voice shaking the walls. “Find out how many of them breached the grounds! Kill every single one of them!”
He dropped to his knees beside Rosa, gathering her into his arms. His hands shook as he pulled her against his chest, his fingers gently checking the bruise forming along her jawline.
“Rosa… God, Rosa,” he whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. “Are you hurt? Did he shoot you?”
“Lily…” Rosa gasped, clutching his shirt with trembling fingers. “Is Lily okay?”
“She’s safe,” Alessandro promised fiercely, burying his face in her dark hair. “She’s untouched. You saved her. You fought him off.”
Lily crawled to the edge of the bed, holding Bun tightly. She looked at Alessandro, then at her mother’s bleeding lip, her little face scrunching up in distress.
“Mama hurt?” Lily whispered, tears welling in her eyes.
Alessandro picked Rosa up in his arms as if she weighed nothing, carrying her to the bed and setting her down beside their daughter. Lily immediately wrapped her tiny arms around Rosa’s neck, kissing her bruised cheek.
“Mama okay, little bird,” Rosa choked out, holding her daughter tightly. “Mama is okay.”
Alessandro turned toward the unconscious intruder on the floor. Marco stepped forward, ripping off the man’s balaclava.
“He’s Chicago crew, boss,” Marco said coldly, recognizing the tattoo of a coiled viper on the man’s neck. “Romano’s personal strike team. They used climbing gear to scale the river cliff where the motion sensors were jammed.”
Alessandro stared down at the assassin, his eyes completely devoid of humanity.
“Wake him up,” Alessandro ordered, his voice chillingly quiet. “Take him to the basement. I want every name, every safehouse, and every instruction Vincent Romano gave him before the sun rises.”
He looked back at Rosa and Lily, huddled together on the bed in the pale moonlight.
May you like
“Vincent Romano made the biggest mistake of his miserable life,” Alessandro said, his hand resting on the grip of his weapon. “He came after my family. Tomorrow night… I burn Chicago to the ground.”
***
