Chapter 6 - The Breach at Midnight
The digital display on Roman’s encrypted phone flashed a blinding, pulsing red. The blaring sirens echoing through the secure speakerline from the D’Angelo estate seemed to tear directly through the cold air of the Pier 44 warehouse.
“They took Sophie?” Roman’s voice didn’t rise in volume, but the absolute, zero-degree lethality wrapped around every syllable made Vance flinch over the comms line.
“We checked the primary perimeter monitors three minutes ago,” Vance reported, his breathing heavy as he sprinted through the estate's main corridors. “The intruder bypassed the biometric pressure plates in the west wing by routing through the old underground drainage tunnels built during the Prohibition era. They used a localized frequency jammer to blind our outer cameras, grabbed the child from her nursery while Nora was downstairs, and vanished into the storm drains before the backup guards could even clear the courtyard.”
Across the warehouse floor, Dante Moretti—still pinned against the wooden shipping crate by two enforcers—let out a dry, raspy laugh, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth. “Looks like... looks like you’re not the only one playing chess, Roman. You thought you cleaned the board, but someone else had pieces moving while you were busy reading old journals.”
Roman didn’t look back at Dante. He simply raised his pistol, aimed three inches to the left of Dante’s head, and pulled the trigger.
The deafening bang echoed off the metal roof, sending a bullet tearing straight through the wood of the crate, missing Dante’s ear by a hair’s breadth and burying itself deep into the iron pillar behind him. Dante’s laughter choked off instantly, his eyes rolling back in terror as his knees buckled.
“If a single hair on my daughter's head is harmed,” Roman whispered into the phone, his voice a low, vibrating growl, “I will personally feed Dante’s remains to the rats in these docks, piece by agonizing piece. Secure Nora. Lock down every bridge, tunnel, and highway leaving Chicago by midnight. Nobody moves in this city without my explicit clearance.”
“Understood, Boss. What about your mother?” Vance asked.
“Keep her locked in the East Wing,” Roman snarled, pivoting on his heel and marching down the metal stairs toward the exit. “She’s about to find out what happens when the monster she created turns its fangs back home.”
He stormed out of the warehouse into the blinding blizzard, leaving Dante shivering in the frozen dark. The snow whipped against Roman’s face, but he didn't feel the cold. The journals he clutched in his left hand felt like lead bricks, containing the blueprint of betrayal that had cost him three years of his daughter's life—and now, had put her right back in the crosshairs of an unknown enemy.
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As he slammed the door of his SUV and ordered the driver to floor the accelerator back toward the estate, Roman realized the terrifying truth: Helena hadn't just been hiding Sophie from Dante. Someone else within the inner circle had been playing a much longer, much deadlier game.
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