Seven Years in Hell: Escaping the Don Chapter 09
Domenico pinned me mercilessly against his chest, entirely indifferent to the fact that my Glock was pressed directly
against his heart.
Just as my finger tightened on the trigger-
BOOM!
A deafening explosion instantly tore through the bunker’s dead silence.The heavy titanium blast door twisted and collapsed
under the force of a specialized breaching charge.
Acrid smoke and concrete dust flooded the sealed space,
accompanied by the chaotic, urgent stampede of tactical boots.
It wasn’t Victor.
Emerging from the smoke were over a dozen heavily armed
mercenaries.
Leading the pack were the very mafia capos under Domenico who had been plotting a coup.
Just as Vincenzo had warned, Domenico’s recent spiral into madness and brutality had utterly alienated these ruthless men. They had tracked the mad tyrant to this isolated bunker, intent on wiping him and his bloodline off the face of the earth.
“It’s over, Domenico!” The lead capo sneered, raising his automatic rifle.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A dense hail of bullets rained down instantly.
Domenico reacted with the lightning reflexes of a cornered
beast. At the first crack of gunfire, his arm whipped around my
waist, tackling me violently behind a reinforced concrete
barricade.
“Damn it!” he snarled. Ripping his handgun from his holster, he returned fire with lethal precision, the muzzle flashes illuminating his dust–covered, ice–cold features.
But in that split second, my mind went entirely blank.
My gaze shot past the flying shrapnel, locking dead onto the corner by the surgical table.
Leo was curled up on the cold floor in sheer terror, his arms
wrapped tight around three–year–old Mia, while baby Luca
screamed his lungs out amidst the deafening gunfire.
Maternal instinct instantly shattered the absolute, cold
rationality I had faked for years.
“Leo! Get down!”
I shoved Domenico away like a madwoman, hurling myself out
from the safety of the barricade and sprinting desperately toward my children.
Bullets sparked against the metal walls around me, but only one thought burned in my brain: I would die before I let them hurt
my children.
I threw myself over them, using my back as a human shield to
cover all three. Leo’s freezing little hands gripped my shirt in a death–hold, his small body trembling uncontrollably.
Just then, a mercenary flanked our position. A sadistic grin twisted his face as he leveled his dark muzzle directly at my back.
It was too late to draw my weapon. Running purely on instinct, I squeezed my eyes shut, wrapped my arms tighter around my children, and braced for the agonizing tear of metal biting into flesh.
But the bullets never pierced my body.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
It was the sickening, muffled sound of rounds burying deep into meat and bone.
A suppressed, violent grunt sounded right above my head. drop of something scalding, sticky, and stinking of raw iron hit
my frozen cheek.
Stunned, I opened my eyes and slowly looked up.
Domenico towered over us like a mountain of flesh and blood,
shielding me and the children completely.
His dark tailored overcoat was shredded, blooming with several
massive, fatal bullet wounds across his back.
Before the mercenary could even let out a second laugh,
Domenico used the absolute last ounce of his strength to raise his weapon and blow the man’s head off.
“Boss! We’re here!”
With a thunderous roar, Victor finally stormed into the bunker,
leading my elite North American kill squad. A relentless wave of heavy suppressive fire swept the room. Within seconds, the
remaining mutineers were slaughtered where they stood.
The gunfire ceased. A deathly silence reclaimed the bunker.
Domenico’s massive frame finally lost all support. Like a dead,
hollowed oak, he collapsed heavily to his knees beside me. A
terrifying amount of blood spilled from his lips, pooling rapidly across the concrete floor.
I knelt there rigidly, my hands stained crimson with his boiling blood.
“You…” My voice was so hoarse it didn’t sound like my own. That heart I thought had frozen entirely solid suddenly
throbbed with a dull, uncontrollable ache.
Slumped against the edge of the metal desk, Domenico’s chest heaved violently, his breaths tearing out in a wet, ragged wheeze. His gray–green eyes were already losing their focus, yet they remained locked onto my face.
He didn’t bother clutching his bleeding wounds. Instead, with
excruciating effort, he raised a hand coated in dust and gore,
reaching out to touch my cheek. But just an inch from my skin, he froze.
Realizing his filthy, blood–soaked hand would only stain me, he
let it drop weakly back to his side.
“Isabelle…” A wet, rattling cough tore through his chest, bringing up a sickening amount of blood, yet a faint, tragically relieved smile pulled at his lips. “Seven years ago… I failed to protect you… but today, I finally… did.”
I bit down hard on my lower lip, tasting rust. I didn’t say a word.
“Don’t forgive me… I don’t deserve it…” His breaths grew frighteningly shallow. His gaze swept tenderly over a weeping
Leo and Mia in my arms, before settling deep into my eyes one
last time. “Take them… Leave this life… this hell of blood and
smoke. From now on, everything the Moretti family owns… is yours.”
“You are free… my love.”
With that final, sigh–like whisper, the last flicker of light in his eyes extinguished entirely. The arrogant, invincible mafia
godfather finally lowered his proud head in this freezing underground vault, and stopped breathing.
Save for the muffled, terrified sobs of the children, the bunker was dead silent.
I stared at his lifeless face for a very long time. My eyes burned,
but I still didn’t shed a single tear.
Seven years of absolute despair and torture, along with the
ultimate redemption he bought today with his own life–it all
felt as though it had been washed away, finalized, in this pool of blood.
Death settled all debts. He didn’t owe me anymore. And I no longer hated him.
“Boss, we need to move,” Victor approached quietly, his head bowed.
I took a deep breath, pulled my gaze away, and holstered my Glock.
Pushing through the lingering ache in my shattered collarbone,
I stood up and scooped a crying Luca tightly into my arms. Then,
I extended my bloodstained hand to Leo and Mia.
“Leo. Mia. Take Mom’s hand.”
This time, Leo didn’t flinch away. Crying quietly, he grabbed my
hand with all his might, while Mia wrapped her arms securely around my leg.
Leading them, I stepped over the brass casings and the pools of
blood. Without looking back at Domenico’s body, I walked
steadily toward the blinding daylight spilling through the
ruined bunker doors.
Outside in Manhattan, the blizzard had finally ceased.
My cold, untouchable empire was just seeing its dawn.