Chapter 8 - The Siege
The attack came on a rainy Thursday night.
The Morettis, knowing that Leo was preparing a massive strike against their headquarters, decided on a suicidal, high-risk gambit: a direct assault on the Rossi mansion to take Beatrice and Lily hostage as leverage.
Thunder crashed outside as three dark vans smashed through the outer perimeter gates. Gunfire erupted across the manicured lawns.
Inside, the mansion's automated steel shutters slammed down over the windows. Leo’s elite guards took up defensive positions in the foyer, returning heavy fire through the reinforced doors.
Beatrice held Lily inside the safe room built behind the master bedroom closet.
"Bea, is Daddy okay?" Lily whimpered, hugging her stuffed rabbit to her chest.
"Daddy is fine, sweet girl," Beatrice said calmly, though her heart was pounding against her ribs. She was holding a heavy chrome revolver Leo had taught her to shoot over the past month. "Daddy is taking care of the bad men."
Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the second floor.
The Morettis hadn't just come through the front door—they had used a breaching charge on the balcony roof.
Beatrice heard heavy boots echoing down the hallway outside the safe room.
"Find the kid and the maid!" a rough voice shouted outside. "Moretti wants them alive, but break their legs if they fight!"
Beatrice looked at Lily. "Stay in the corner under the blanket, Lily. Do not make a sound."
Beatrice stood up. She didn't hide in the corner. She stepped right to the heavy steel door of the safe room, her thumb clicking the hammer back on the revolver. She had spent twenty-eight years believing she was weak because of her size. Now, her size, her strength, and her fierce love were her greatest weapons.
The safe room door handle rattled. Someone was putting in a breaching code override.
The door swung open.
A heavy-set hitman stepped through the threshold, holding a submachine gun.
He caught sight of Beatrice standing tall in the center of the room. He smirked. "Well, well... look at the giant maid—"
BANG!
Beatrice didn't hesitate. She squeezed the trigger just like Leo had taught her. The bullet caught the man squarely in the shoulder, knocking him backward out of the doorway.
Before the second gunman outside could react, Leo appeared behind them like an vengeful specter. Two quick silenced shots rang out in the corridor, and the second man crumpled to the floor.
Leo stepped over the fallen men, his suit splattered with rain and blood, his eyes wild with terror for his family.
When he saw Beatrice standing there, smoke still wisping from the barrel of her gun, breathing heavily, completely unharmed, he froze.
"Bea..." Leo gasped.
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"They didn't get past me," she said, her voice shaking slightly as the adrenaline began to fade.
Leo rushed forward, throwing his arms around her, crushing her against his chest as if he would never let her go again. "God, you're incredible," he breathed into her hair. "You absolute dragon of a woman."
