Chapter 15 - Retaliation
The peace of Christmas was shattered in January. The Rossetti family, backed into a corner and facing complete financial annihilation, decided on a desperate, final gambit.
It was a Tuesday afternoon. Elena was in her downtown office, finalizing the tax documents for the newly acquired Seaport holdings. Sophia was at school.
Dante received the alert first. The GPS tracker in Elena's office building had been jammed. Simultaneously, the security detail assigned to Sophia at the school reported a suspicious delivery van blocking the main exit.
Dante scrambled. He dispatched teams to both locations and called Adrian, who was in a meeting with political power brokers at the Boston harbor.
Adrian’s reaction was instantaneous and terrifying. He didn't shout; he just became a force of absolute, focused violence. "Burn them down, Dante. No survivors. And get my family secure."
Elena was leaving her office building, escorted by two Moretti guards, when the attack happened. A black sedan screeched to a halt in front of the entrance. Two men in ski masks jumped out, armed with submachine guns.
They didn't want to kill her; they wanted to take her. She was the leverage.
The Moretti guards reacted with lethal efficiency, pushing Elena back into the lobby and returning fire. The sound of gunshots filled the busy downtown street, sending civilians screaming for cover.
Elena was shoved into a secure stairwell by her guards. She was terrified, but her organization instinct kicked in. She pulled out her phone and activated the silent emergency beacon Dante had installed.
At Sophia's school, the attempt was subtler but equally dangerous. A woman claiming to be an aunt arrived to pick up Sophia early. The school administration, alerted by Moretti security to strict pickup protocols, refused. When the security detail moved to intercept the woman, she fled to the waiting delivery van, which sped away.
Within ten minutes, Dante’s tactical teams had neutralized the attackers at Elena’s office—two were dead, one was captured and already being transported to a Moretti-owned warehouse for interrogation. Elena was secured in an armored SUV and racing toward the mansion. Sophia was also secured and en route, having been pulled from her classroom by armed guards, much to the school’s shock.
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Adrian arrived at the mansion minutes after the Castillos. He ran to them in the library, his suit jacket discarded, his face a mask of primal, defensive rage. He grabbed Sophia, holding her so tightly she gasped. He looked at Elena, checking her for injuries, his eyes blazing.
Titan paced the room, his low growl a constant, vibrating sound that reflected his master's fury. The ghosts of October had returned, but this time, Adrian Moretti was awake, and he was ready for war.
