Chapter 5 - The Siege of Barrington Hills
The Drake Hotel summit was a distraction.
At 10:00 PM, while Damian was surrounded by fifty armed mobsters in the grand ballroom of downtown Chicago, engaging in a intense battle of words and political maneuvering with the Commission, a dark caravan of six unmarked vans bypassed the outer security gates of the Barrington Hills estate.
Inside the estate's security control room, Frank watched the monitors in horror.
"INTRUDERS!" Frank roared into his radio. "RED CODE! THEY CUT THE OUTER COMM LINES!"
EXPLOSION!
A massive C4 charge detonated at the rear iron gates, blowing them off their hinges! Over forty elite mercenaries—hired by Viktor Reznikov, the ruthless head of the Russian Bratva who had secretly aligned with the remnants of the Moretti family—swarmed the estate grounds with heavy automatic weapons!
Gunfire tore through the night! Grenades exploded across the manicured lawns, blowing up security vehicles and shattering the lower windows!
Inside the house, Natalie held Ava’s hand tightly as Frank escorted them down a hidden stairwell behind the library toward the reinforced underground panic room.
"Get inside! Lock the steel door from the interior!" Frank commanded, handing Natalie a small 9mm pistol. "Don't open it for anyone except me or Damian! Do you understand?!"
"Frank, what about you?!" Natalie cried, holding the heavy weapon with trembling hands.
"I’m holding the stairwell," Frank growled, pulling a heavy shotgun from his shoulder. "Now GO!"
Frank slammed the heavy outer steel door shut. Seconds later, the sounds of horrific gunfire and shouting echoed from the floor above!
Inside the panic room, the air was cold and quiet. The room was equipped with leather sofas, canned food, water, and security monitors displaying live feeds from the house's remaining cameras.
Ava was shaking violently, tears streaming down her face, her hands clamped over her ears. "Natty! The loud noises! Make them stop! Make them stop!"
Natalie dropped the gun on the table, immediately pulling Ava into her arms on the sofa, wrapping a heavy weighted blanket around the girl. She pulled out Ava’s noise-canceling headphones, put them over her ears, and turned on the ocean sounds at maximum volume.
"Focus on me, baby," Natalie whispered, tears filling her own eyes as she rocked the girl back and forth. "Look at my eyes. Just look at Natty. You're safe. We're in the steel room. Nobody can hurt us."
Ava squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her face into Natalie’s neck, her small body trembling with terror.
On the security monitors, Natalie watched in horror as the estate guards were overwhelmed by the sheer number of mercenary attackers. One by one, the camera feeds went black.
Finally, only one camera remained active: the hallway right outside the panic room door.
On the screen, Frank fought like a demon, taking down four attackers before being overwhelmed and struck across the head with the butt of a rifle. He collapsed, bleeding and unconscious.
Stepping over Frank’s body was Viktor Reznikov—a massive, scarred man with cold grey eyes, holding a heavy tactical breacher charge.
"I know you're in there, little nanny!" Reznikov’s booming, accented voice resonated through the panic room’s external speaker system. "DeLuca is trapped downtown! He isn't coming to save you! Open the door, give me the girl, and I will let you live!"
Natalie stared at the screen, her blood turning to ice.
She looked at the pistol on the table. She had never fired a gun in her life. She was a retail worker, a caregiver, a woman of peace. But as she looked at Ava—innocent, terrified, relying entirely on her for survival—something inside Natalie snapped.
The gentle nanny died. The future Matriarch of the DeLuca family took her place.
Natalie picked up the pistol, racked the slide just as Frank had shown her during security briefs, and pointed it directly at the heavy steel door.
"If you want her, you monster..." Natalie whispered, her voice cold, steady, and filled with unbreakable lethal resolve, "...you have to come through me."
Outside, Reznikov slapped the breacher charge onto the steel lock mechanism and initiated the countdown.
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