Chapter 12 - An Unlikely Haven
The wreckage of the enemy boat burned brightly on the water, illuminating the small hidden cove where Leonardo Moretto stood on the private stone jetty.
Leonardo was younger than Dante, with sharper features and a leaner build, but he possessed the same icy, calculating eyes. Behind him stood a dozen heavily armed private contractors wearing night-vision goggles.
Elena cut the engine, allowing the battered speedboat to drift against the rubber bumpers of the dock. Leonardo jumped aboard immediately, his tactical rifle slung across his chest. He scooped up Ethan, checking him over with quick, practiced hands.
""You're alive, kid. Good,"" Leonardo muttered, before looking at Elena, who was struggling to breathe, clutching Lily against her chest. ""Are you hit?""
""Just the vest,"" Elena wheezed, groaning as she stood up. ""Lily is safe. Ethan is safe. But Dante... Leonardo, your brother stayed behind to trigger the blast.""
Leonardo’s jaw clenched. He stared at the smoking mountain in the distance, his eyes darkening with a grief he refused to display openly.
""Dante is the hardest bastard to kill on this continent,"" Leonardo said harshly, though a tremor of dread undermined his words. ""If he died, he took fifty of them with him. But right now, we have to move. Victor Castiglione survived the blast. My scouts reported his helicopter leaving the compound ruins ten minutes ago.""
""Where is he going?"" Elena asked, terror seizing her heart once more.
""Milan,"" Leonardo answered grimly, escorting them to a convoy of armored black SUVs hidden beneath camouflage netting in the dense forest. ""He’s calling in every allied family in northern Italy. He declared Dante dead and claimed the Moretto territory as his right of conquest. If we don't reach the Milan bank vault before dawn, he seizes the syndicate's financial keys, and we lose everything.""
Ethan climbed into the SUV, his small face hardening into stone. ""Take us to Milan, Uncle Leo.""
Leonardo looked down at his seven-year-old nephew, surprised by the chilling resolve in the boy's voice.
""You sound just like your father, Ethan,"" Leonardo murmured.
""My father told me to protect them,"" Ethan said, pointing at Elena and Lily. ""And my father never loses.""
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As the convoy roared to life and accelerated onto the mountain highway, Lily quietly pulled a small, bloody object from her dress pocket and handed it to Elena.
It was Dante’s silver watch, its glass cracked, its second hand ticking steadily forward.
