Chapter 10 - Blood on the Sanctuary Floor
"Allison, don't," Julian commanded softly, never taking his eyes off Salieri.
"Julian, he won't stop until he has it all," Allison said, taking two deliberate steps forward, extending the small black notebook toward Salieri. "Here it is. Take it, let Elena go, and take your blood money out of this city."
Salieri sneered, his greed getting the better of his discipline. He shoved Elena forward onto the floor and reached out with his left hand to snatch the notebook.
In that split second, Allison dropped her arm and dropped to one knee.
Behind her, Julian fired.
The heavy hollow-point round took Salieri squarely in his left shoulder, spinning him backward against the server racks. Salieri roared in pain, returning fire blindly. Sparks exploded across the subterranean vault as bullets shattered server panels and ricocheted off stone walls.
"Down!" Elliot shouted, lunging forward to drag Allison behind a steel filing cabinet while firing his Kimber .45 in rapid, disciplined succession.
Two of Salieri’s hidden operatives emerged from the shadows near the vault ceiling, spraying automatic fire across the corridor. Elliot’s men engaged instantly, the narrow catacomb erupting into a deafening war zone. Concrete chips flew like shrapnel.
Elena scrambled on her hands and knees across the blood-slicked stone, screaming in terror. A stray round tore through the floor inches from her face.
Julian moved with the cold precision of a veteran commander. Stepping out from cover, he squeezed off three deliberate rounds, taking down the two gunmen perched on the maintenance catwalk above. Both bodies plummeted twenty feet down, hitting the stone floor with sickening crunches.
Salieri, clutching his bleeding shoulder, scrambled toward an auxiliary emergency hatch behind the main server banks.
Julian pursued him like an avenging ghost. He kicked open the maintenance door just as Salieri attempted to pull the exterior release lever. Julian slammed Salieri against the iron bulkhead, planting the barrel of his pistol against the older man’s throat.
"Wait! Julian, wait!" Salieri sputtered, blood bubbling on his lips. "You kill me, you never find out who backed me! The Mayor... the Federal District Attorney... they were all part of the Syndicate! They wanted the Moretti family erased!"
"My father taught me many things, Salieri," Julian whispered, his finger tightening on the trigger. "He taught me how to build an empire. How to protect my family. But the most important lesson he gave me was how to deal with traitors."
*BANG.*
Salieri’s body went limp, sliding down the iron door into a pool of expanding darkness.
Julian lowered his weapon, breathing heavily through his nose. He walked back into the main vault, where the gunsmoke was slowly drifting into the ventilation shafts.
Elliot was helping Allison to her feet. Aside from concrete dust in her hair, she was unharmed. Across the floor, Elena sat curled in a fetal position, shivering uncontrollably in the corner.
Julian looked down at his former fiancée. The diamond engagement ring he had given her—the one she had worn while plotting to poison Allison and steal his family's legacy—lay discarded on the stone floor, cracked by a stray bullet.
"Julian... please..." Elena wept, looking up with hollow, terrified eyes. "I'll leave... I swear I'll never come back... please don't kill me..."
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Julian stared at her with complete, chilling indifference. "Killing you would be a mercy, Elena. The police and the federal agents Salieri bribed are already being rounded up by my contacts in the Governor's office. You are going to state prison for attempted murder, conspiracy to commit treason, and financial fraud. You will spend the next thirty years in a concrete cell, remembering that you traded your life for a phantom fortune."
He nodded to his men. "Hand her over to the state troopers waiting at the perimeter. Let justice take its course."
