Chapter 6 - The Siege of Beacon Hill
The romantic warmth in the room froze instantly into deadly ice. Lorenzo moved with instantaneous combat instinct, pushing Meline behind his broad frame while drawing a heavy black firearm from his shoulder holster.
"How many?" Lorenzo barked at Mario.
"At least fifteen heavily armed men," Mario reported, pulling two extra magazines from his tactical vest. "They bypassed the security cameras using an internal code. We have a mole in the house guard."
Meline’s blood ran cold. "The mole..."
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened. "Hector Lombardi isn't just trying to intimidate me anymore. He’s trying to wipe out the Moretti leadership tonight." He turned to Meline, his grip on her shoulders firm and reassuring. "Listen to me carefully, Meline. Mario is going to take you to the safe room in the basement. It is reinforced with four-inch titanium doors. Nothing gets through."
"No!" Meline cried out, grabbing his lapels. "What about you?"
"This is my house, and these are my men," Lorenzo said, his silver eyes flashing with a terrifying, fierce light. "I am going to hunt down every bastard who broke into my home. And then I am coming back to you."
He pulled her into a fierce, breathless kiss, then pushed her toward Mario. "Go! Now!"
Automatic gunfire erupted from the grand foyer down the hall, accompanied by the shattering of glass and shouting in Italian.
Mario grabbed Meline’s arm, leading her rapidly down a hidden service staircase toward the basement. The dark hallways echoed with thunderous explosions and the rattling of machine-gun fire. Meline’s heart felt like it was going to burst from her chest.
They reached the basement level, running down a narrow concrete corridor toward a massive metallic door. But just as Mario reached out to input the access code on the digital keypad, a shot rang out.
Mario grunted, collapsing to one knee as a bullet hit his shoulder.
Meline shrieked, spinning around.
Standing at the end of the corridor was one of Lorenzo’s senior security guards—the mole—holding a silenced pistol, flanked by two armed mercenaries wearing dark tactical gear.
"Step away from the door, Miss Hayes," the traitorous guard said with a cold grin. "Don Lombardi wants you alive. He thinks you'll make a fine bargaining chip to make Lorenzo hand over the Boston docks."
Mario attempted to raise his gun with his left hand, but the guard kicked him hard in the head, knocking him unconscious.
Meline backed up against the cold titanium door, her hands shaking. She looked down at her heavy silk-velvet gown. Hidden in the deep structural pockets she had custom-sewed into the skirts of the dress earlier today was something she had brought from the sewing studio.
"Don't come any closer," Meline said, her voice shaking violently as she feigned absolute terror.
"What are you going to do, seamstress?" the mercenary mocked, stepping forward with heavy plastic zip-ties. "Cry on us?"
As the mercenary reached out to grab her hair, Meline plunged her right hand into her dress pocket, pulling out a heavy bottle of industrial textile solvent—a highly flammable, concentrated chemical used to clean grease from commercial sewing machinery—and sprayed it directly into the mercenary's eyes.
The man screamed in agony, dropping his weapon as the burning acid blinded him.
Before the traitorous guard could react, Meline reached into her left pocket, pulling out her sharp, heavy steel pinking shears, and slashed them with all her strength across the guard’s gun hand.
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The heavy steel blades sliced deep into his wrist. The guard shrieked, dropping his silenced pistol to the concrete floor.
Meline didn't waste a second. She grabbed the fallen pistol from the floor, raised it with both hands as she had seen Lorenzo do, and pulled the trigger.
