Chapter 6 - The Infiltration
The night Dante left for Evanston was the longest Aara had ever experienced. Snow battered the high glass windows of the estate as a blizzard swept across Lake Michigan. Inside, the mansion was on absolute high alert. The number of guards along the corridors doubled, and Marco remained behind with a tactical squad to secure the perimeter.
Aara stayed with Isabella in the upper parlor. The older woman sat calmly, working on her embroidery, but her tight grip on the needle betrayed her anxiety.
“He will return, Aara,” Isabella said quietly, noticing Aara pacing near the window. “Dante has fought Victor Petrov for ten years. He knows how Victor thinks.”
“It’s not just Petrov, is it?” Aara asked, turning around. “Marco said someone inside your organization betrayed you.”
Isabella sighed, setting her work down. “In our world, loyalty is bought with power or fear. When a war goes on too long, men grow greedy. Dante will find the traitor.”
At 2:00 AM, the estate’s silent alarms triggered.
Red security lights flashed softly along the baseboards of the hallway. A loud bang echoed from the lower gates, followed by the muffled sound of automatic gunfire cut short by the storm.
Aara rushed to the window. Down at the perimeter gate, dark figures were moving through the heavy snow. Headlights flared as three armored SUVs crashed through the wrought-iron barrier, spinning out on the icy drive.
“Marco!” Isabella called out as the parlor door opened.
Marco stepped inside, a submachine gun held low across his chest. His face was set in hard lines. “They bypassed the outer sensors. Petrov’s main force hit Evanston as a distraction—his elite team came here. We need to move you to the safe room immediately.”
“Where is Dante?” Aara demanded, her heart pounding.
“The Capo is on his way back, but the storm is slowing his convoy,” Marco said sharply. “Move! Now!”
Aara helped Isabella to her feet, and together they followed Marco down a narrow service stairway hidden behind a panel in the hallway. The lower levels of the house were filled with the sharp crack of gunshots and shouting as Vulov guards engaged the intruders.
They reached a reinforced steel door at the basement level. Marco entered a security code into a digital keypad, and the heavy door unlocked with a deep hiss.
“Inside. Both of you,” Marco ordered.
As Aara helped Isabella step over the threshold, she heard a sound down the corridor—the heavy footfalls of multiple men approaching fast.
“Go, Marco!” Isabella urged.
“I hold the door,” Marco said grimly, drawing his sidearm.
Before he could close the heavy door, a smoke grenade bounced down the concrete hallway, exploding in a blinding flash of light and acrid grey gas. Marco fired down the corridor, but a burst of automatic fire struck the doorframe.
Aara pulled Isabella deep inside the safe room as a heavy figure lunged through the smoke. Marco wrestled with the attacker, but a second intruder stepped past them, raising a handgun equipped with a suppressor.
It was one of Dante’s senior captains—a man named Valeri, whom Aara had seen sitting at the meeting table just days before.
“Hello, Mrs. Vulov,” Valeri said with a cruel smile, aiming the weapon directly at Isabella. “Victor sends his regards.”
Aara didn't think. Driven by pure instinct, she grabbed a heavy metal fire extinguisher mounted near the door and swung it with all her strength, smashing it into the side of Valeri’s head.
The blow landed with a sickening crunch. Valeri stumbled sideways, his gun firing wildly into the concrete floor before he collapsed unconscious onto the tiles.
Marco managed to overpower his assailant outside, shoving the door shut and locking the heavy steel bolts into place from the inside. He slid down the door, panting heavily, bleeding from a grazing wound on his shoulder.
He looked up at Aara, who stood holding the dented fire extinguisher, breathing heavily in the dim emergency lighting.
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“Miss Hayes,” Marco muttered, a genuine look of shock on his face. “You really have a habit of hitting people with heavy objects.”
Aara dropped the extinguisher, her hands shaking violently as she sank to her knees beside Isabella. They were safe inside the vault, but outside, the battle for the Vulov estate was far from over.
