Chapter 5 - THE MIDNIGHT RAID ON THE MORETTI ESTATE
Smoke rolled up the grand mahogany staircase.
Gunfire echoed through the halls like rolling thunder.
“Stay behind me!” Dante barked, shoving me into a hidden alcove behind a tapestry.
He raised his pistol, waiting for the first attacker to clear the corner.
Two men in tactical gear charged up the stairs.
Dante fired twice.
Both dropped instantly without a sound.
“Move!” he shouted, grabbing my hand again.
We sprinted down a narrow service corridor behind the kitchens.
The estate was under a full-scale assault.
Vitelli’s men had breached the perimeter.
“They want you alive,” Dante said, reloading his weapon as we ran.
“Why?” I panted, my lungs burning with every breath.
“Because your mother left something behind, Emma.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The ledger,” Dante said darkly.
“The one Joanne Hughes stole twenty years ago before she vanished.”
My feet stopped dead on the cold stone floor.
“My mother was innocent,” I whispered fiercely.
“She was framed.”
“She took the only piece of evidence that could sink both families,” Dante said, pushing me toward a reinforced panic room.
“And Vitelli thinks you know where it is.”
The heavy steel door slid open.
Dante pushed me inside just as a bullet ricocheted off the doorframe.
“Wait here,” Dante said, his eyes locking onto mine.
“If I don't come back in ten minutes, press the red button on the wall.”
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“Dante—!”
The steel door slammed shut, locking automatically from the outside.
