Chapter 5 - The Federal Siege
Dominic dragged Vincent up the basement stairs and threw him into the subterranean holding cell behind the motor pool, locking the heavy steel door with a resounding clang. There was no time to interrogate him further. Vincent’s digital dead-man’s switch was a ticking time bomb, and Dominic knew the federal bureaus moved fast when handed a silver platter of irrefutable racketeering evidence.
He sprinted up the spiral staircase, bursting through the doors into the grand hallway. The mansion was dead quiet.
He raced down the corridor toward the master kitchen. He needed to get the girls and Grace out of the state immediately before the federal task force descended on the Long Island estate. Private jets were fueled and waiting at a secluded airstrip in Westhampton, ready to spirit them away to a safehouse in the Swiss Alps.
He pushed open the kitchen door.
Grace was standing by the marble island, packing a small canvas duffel bag while Olivia and Sophie sat quietly at the table, their hands intertwined. Little Nora was curled up in a corner chair, clutching a stuffed rabbit.
They all looked up as Dominic burst into the room.
“Pack your bags. Now,” Dominic ordered, his voice urgent and breathless as he scanned the perimeter windows. “Federal agents are en route. Our position has been compromised.”
Grace didn't panic. She snapped the zipper of the duffel bag shut and stepped between Dominic and the children, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“Compromised by whom, Mr. Romano?” Grace demanded sharply. “You? Or another one of your business associates?”
“There’s no time for this!” Dominic snapped, striding forward and grabbing a second bag from the pantry. “Vincent had a dead-man’s switch linked to our financial servers. The FBI will be breaching the front gates within twenty minutes. If we don't leave right now, my daughters will end up in federal custody.”
Olivia, the oldest, stood up from the table. At fourteen, she had her mother’s fierce, unyielding eyes.
“We aren't going anywhere with you, Dad,” Olivia said, her voice trembling slightly, but carrying an unmistakable tone of finality.
Dominic stopped dead in his tracks. The bag slipped from his fingers, hitting the floor with a dull thud. “Olivia... what are you talking about? We have to run.”
“No,” Sophie chimed in, stepping up beside her sister. “Every time you run, you bring the violence with you. Mom told us that before she died. She said your world is a cage, and we’re tired of living in it.”
The words felt like a physical knife twisting in Dominic’s chest. He looked at Grace, desperate for an ally. But Grace simply shook her head slowly, her expression filled with quiet disappointment.
“They’re right, Dominic,” Grace said softly, using his first name for the very first time. “Running to a Swiss bunker won't save them. It will just isolate them with a man who refuses to face the wreckage he created.”
Before Dominic could argue, a deep, concussive boom shook the entire foundation of the mansion.
Boom!
The automated iron security gates at the end of the long oak-lined driveway had just been blown off their hydraulic hinges. Headlights cut blinding white swaths through the floor-to-ceiling windows as a convoy of black tactical SUVs and armored federal transport trucks swarmed up the gravel drive.
Sirens wailed into the night sky, drowning out the gentle sound of the wind off the Long Island Sound.
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“Too late,” Dominic muttered, his hand dropping to his holster as he stared out the window at the approaching tactical teams. “They’re already here.”
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