Chapter 10 - Blood in the Water
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"Hit the ground!" Rocco shouted, opening fire with his automatic rifle as armed men poured out of the black vans.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the darkness of the warehouse like violent lightning. The sharp BANG-BANG-BANG of unsuppressed assault rifles shattered the night silence, sending showers of sparks cascading from the steel girders above.
Alessandro didn't panic. He rolled behind the rear wheel of a heavy armored SUV, drawing his custom 1911 pistol with practiced precision.
"Matteo, you fool!" Alessandro yelled over the deafening gunfire. "They didn't come to help you take the family! They came to eliminate both of us tonight!"
Matteo was crawling frantically across the blood-slicked concrete, hiding behind a metal pallet of car engine parts.
"No!" Matteo sobbed, clutching his shattered knee. "Don Valenti promised me I would lead the city!"
"Don Valenti lied!" Alessandro roared.
A bullet slammed into the windshield of the SUV directly above Alessandro's head, spraying safety glass across his shoulders.
Alessandro leaned out from behind the tire, acquired his target—a Valenti gunman advancing down the left aisle—and squeezed the trigger twice. The shooter collapsed instantly.
"Marco! Status!" Alessandro yelled into his comms unit.
"Rocco and I have the eastern flank covered, Boss!" Marco’s voice crackled through the earpiece over the sound of heavy gunfire. "But they brought twenty men! We're pinned down behind the shipping crates!"
"Hold your positions," Alessandro commanded smoothly. "They came into my house. They don't leave my city."
Alessandro reached into his coat, pulled out a small black detonator, and flipped up the safety switch.
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When he had entered the harbor ten minutes prior, Marco hadn't just disabled the security cameras—he had rigged the warehouse’s main power generator with three tactical breaching charges.
Alessandro pressed the red button.
