Chapter 6 - The Decoy
Victor Romanov was cunning. The threat at the shipping ports was a distraction.
While Dante and seventy of his most lethal men descended upon the docks in a brutal, bloody firefight to wipe out the Russian faction, Victor had paid off a corrupt member of Dante’s outer perimeter security.
At 10:00 PM, the fire alarms in the Caruso estate blared.
Clara, clutching Leo in the underground panic room, heard the heavy steel door begin to hiss. Someone was overriding the security code.
"Stay behind me, Leo," Clara whispered, gripping a heavy iron fireplace poker she had brought down with her.
The door swung open. It wasn't Dante.
It was three massive Russian thugs, led by Victor Romanov himself.
"Well, well," Victor smiled, his gold tooth gleaming. "Dante left his treasures unguarded. Grab them."
Clara swung the iron poker with all her might, striking the first thug in the jaw. He grunted, stumbling back, but the second man backhanded her across the face. Clara collapsed to the floor, her vision swimming.
"Mommy!" Leo screamed.
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"Take the kid," Victor ordered. "If she fights, break her legs. We have the leverage now. Dante will surrender his empire for them."
They dragged Clara and Leo out of the safe room, throwing them into the back of a panel van waiting in the service driveway. As the van sped away into the night, Clara tasted blood in her mouth. She wrapped her arms around her sobbing son, praying that Dante would realize the trap before it was too late.
