My Mafia Madness 4

Chapter 32 - We Have a Slight Problem

Dante was frantic as he darted through the length of the manor, from one floor to the next.

He was headed back down to where he had left Luca and the others lying in wait for their targets to arrive.

Their original plan was to spring a trap on the group of intruders working for Moroni and if possible take them all alive for interrogation.

He only hoped that by now it wasn’t too late.

Finally reaching the large open space that linked onto the room he was headed for, Dante suddenly skidded to a halt as he noticed Luca and several others emerging from the now open door up in front of him.

Frowning in confusion, the Don wasn’t sure why they were already coming out of the room.

They had a job to do! They needed to stay hidden in order to ambush their enemy.

So why were they coming out now? What had happened in his absence?

“Luca, what’s going on?” Dante queried as he crossed the floor to join his men.

“What the hell happened?”

Upon hearing Dante’s question and lifting his head up, Luca met his capo’s concerned gaze with a proud smile before speaking his response.

“Hey, there you are! Don’t worry capo, it’s all been sorted now...” the loyal henchman announced, holding his hand out in reassurance.

“We got ’em. Surprised the bastards just as we’d planned to.”

Dante’s from deepened, his eyes narrowing with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief. He still felt concern. Concern that they might have missed something.

“And the traitors dressed as waiters roaming about my manor?” Dante interrogated with a snide tone to his voice.

Luca nodded his head as he patted the Don on the side of his arm.

“Yep, they’ve all been rounded up, every last one of them. We have our teams doing sweeps of the entire place as we speak, just to make sure.”

Dante gave his faithful henchman a nod of appreciation for his valiant efforts.

“Well done, Luca. I’m impressed.”

Dante held out his hand for Luca who glanced down at it for a second before he eventually reciprocated and did the same, grasping the Don’s hand and shaking it firmly with gratitude.

“Thanks capo. It was entirely a team effort.”

“Where’s Nicola? I thought he’d be back down here, now that its all over with.” Dante queried, glancing around as if searching for him.

“The last I heard he was somewhere upstairs tracking someone. But that was like… ten minutes ago.” Luca reported.

“Alright. Send him a text with an update, would you?” Dante commanded with a nod of his head.

“Get him back down here to help sort this mess out.”

“Sure thing capo.” Luca agreed as he pulled out his phone and began typing away.

With a sigh, Dante spoke again.

“I guess I’ll give the go ahead for Alexa and the others to come out of-”

“-Luca! Luca! Hey man, we’ve got a bit of a problem…”

Cecilio’s voice sounded panic-stricken as he came darting out from the room where their enemies were currently being bound and led away for interrogations.

As soon as he noticed Dante standing there, he began addressing the Don instead, with him having returned and taking charge of the situation once more.

“Capo, we’ve just done a head count of the prisoners but there’s a problem. Apparently, the number of men sighted arriving together doesn’t match what we have here.” Cecilio reported as he glanced between Dante and Luca with concern.

“What do you mean?” Luca asked, glancing up from the text he was in the middle of writing to Nicola.

“It means we’re missing one.” Dante spoke for Cecilio now, who merely nodded to confirm that what the Don had just said was indeed correct.

“So far, the teams haven’t come back with any sightings of anyone suspicious lurking around. The manor’s large but luckily, it’s only a matter of time until he’s spotted.” Cecilio added, placing both his hands on either of his hips.

“Whoever it is, he’s hiding here in the manor somewhere.”

“Best keep Alexa and the others secure, boss. At least until we locate him.” Luca added as he pocketed the phone, with his message to Nicola now having been sent.

Dante nodded his head in agreement. It was the wisest thing to do with someone dangerous running around unaccounted for.

They needed to track down this last person and fast!

“I want that fucker found and brought to me alive. Got it?”

Dante gave his command as he glanced between both Luca and Cecilio for clarification.

“That means dart guns only. Make sure you inform everyone.”

The two nodded to show their understanding before Dante then turned, pulled out the gun from his right sided holster and began marching off.

He was off to find the last of their enemy intruders and to put an end to this chaos once and for all.

What Dante didn’t yet know was the that last person they were now in search of was none other than Domenico himself, underboss to Don Moroni and the leader of the infiltration team who had just snuck his team into the manor only moments ago.

And Domenico was highly skilled at getting whatever the job was done.

He wasn’t leaving the manor without his acquired target.

-

At that very moment, standing in one of the upstairs hallways, Nicola received a text message alert and pulled out his phone to check it.

The screen revealed a message from Luca. He immediately opened it and read what it said silently, in his head….

‘All clear. Get back down here. Luca’

With a relieved sigh, the large Italian man moved to stand up from his hiding position and began making his way along the carpeted hallway, headed for the stairs that would lead him back down to join the others.

As he walked he began typing his response message…

‘On my way.’

Just as he hit ‘send’, a sudden flicker of movement flashed in front of him, causing him to lift his head up just in time to come almost face to face with someone.

As their eyes locked, it took a moment before realisation kicked in for both of them, and as soon as it had their eyes went wide with recognition and obvious concern.

Standing opposite Nicola was none other than Domenico and in his hand was a hand-held semi-automatic gun.

And the two had almost instantly recoignised one another.

Everything seemed to morph into slow motion as both men lifted their guns up to fire while simultaneously darting in behind their nearest walls for cover.

The sound of rapid fire filled the hallway as shards of the plastered walls splintered off and went flying all around the place in mattered clouds of dust and debris.

Nicola wedged himself between two angled walls and Domenico behind a wall which appeared quite solid as he pressed his back up against it.

As the dust began to settle momentarily Nicola decided to be the one to break the silence between them. Perhaps to possibly lure this fool out for a clean shot.

“Domenico Lombardi… what the hell is someone like you doing working for a asshole like Moroni?”

As Nicola called out, his tone showed a certain familiarity shared between them. As if the pair knew one another before now.

And in fact, they did.

“I thought it was you, Russo… it’s been a long time.” Domenico replied from his hiding place.

“Whatever you’re doing, you’ve got no chance of walking out of here alive. We’ve got the entire place on lockdown... just come out and we can sort something out.”

Nicola tried to negotiate as he gripped the handle of his gun a little tighter.

“There’s no way I’m coming in quietly. Come on Russo you know me better than that! I’m not the type to just give up so easily.” Domenico reminded as he peeked his head out for a second.

“This isn’t a f*****g joke, Domenico! No doubt everyone in the entire manor just heard you firing your gun off…”

Nicola snapped out of frustration.

“My men will be here any second now which means you’re completely f****d! Do you understand that? You know this doesn't have to be a complete bloodbath, please.”

Domenico snickered for a moment.

“Speaking of showering you with bullets, did I manage to hit you with any of them?” he called out playfully, as if the entire thing was merely some kind of game to him.

It was now when Nicola suddenly felt a painful ache and glanced down to see the red stain growing on his upper thigh.

He’d been hit.

It didn’t appear too bad, a straight through-and-through shot with the bullet having exited out the back of his leg.

Still, it hurt like a motherfucker!

Grunting softly to himself, he gritted his teeth together to control the growing pain as he focused on keeping his tone of voice calm as he responded aloud.

He didn’t intend on giving away any more information regarding his current wellbeing than he had to. At least not to his enemy.

“Sorry, looks like you’re a pretty lousy shot with that thing…”

Nicola taunted with a surprisingly calm voice.

“I mean come on, man. It’s an automatic weapon. I’m actually surprised with how lousy of a shot you are, even an infant could do better.”

Of course, this had been said to rile Domenico up and make him come out of his hiding place, but he didn’t budge.

Instead, he narrowed his eyes and grinned.

“I got you, didn’t I?” Domenico called out to Nicola knowingly.

Nicola grunted in response.

“Would you just shut the f**k up and come out already?” he demanded.

“You’re running out of time.”

Domenico chuckled darkly to himself as he nodded his head.

“Yeah, I got you.”

Ducking his head out for a second time and still not seeing Nicola emerging from wherever he was hiding, Domenico contemplated making a quick run for it down the adjacent hall.

If he was correct, it would lead him down towards the master bedroom and according to the tracking device imbedded within his watch, his target was in there right now.

He was so very close.

Checking his gun was ready to fire if it came to that, Domenico took a moment to psych himself up before he silently slipped out from behind the corner and began sneaking down the hallway.

The entire time he kept his eyes fixed on where he had last seen Nicola, making sure he didn't sight him.

As he disappeared down the hallway and into the shadowed darkness, Nicola tried coaxing his enemy out with one last plea from where he was hiding.

Unfortunately, he had no idea that Domenico had already run off and left him.

“Last chance, man. Give yourself up and you might just get out of this with your life.”

After ten seconds of not getting any sort of response from Domenico, alarm bells started going off in Nicola’s head as he came to realise what might have happened.

Just to check that he was in fact correct, he slowly emerged from his hiding space and crossed the space to where Domenico had disappeared with his gun drawn.

Ducking around the corner his heart sank.

It was just as he had suspected, the bastard was gone!

“Fuck.” he muttered softly to himself as he glanced down the hallway with heightened concern.

Pulling out his phone, he speed-dialled Dante and held the phone up to his ear as he started heading down the hallway after the intruding enemy.

It didn’t take long before Dante answered it.

“Nicola? What is it?” the Don got right to it.

“I’ve seen the intruder, capo. He’s up here on the second floor with me now.” Nicola reported softly, hoping that his voice wouldn’t be heard by Domenico as he headed after him.

“Keep your eyes on him Nicola. I’m on my way up there now.” Dante ordered.

“That’s a negative, I don’t have eyes on him anymore. The bastard gave me the slip, but I’m giving chase as we speak.”

Nicola held his gun out in front of him with his right hand as he spoke with the phone held in his left hand, pressed up against his left ear.

“And there’s more… I know who he is, Dante.”

“You do?” Dante seemed genuinely shocked by this admittance.

“Si. He and I… we have a past. I had no idea he was even here in New York at the moment.”

Nicola began to openly explain what he already knew, being entirely honest with his boss and loyal friend.

“His name is Domenico Lombardi.”

Dante gasped on the other end of the line.

“Domenico… s**t! Yes, I know of him. The bastard’s Moroni’s second, Nicola...”

Dante made his announcement while auditably panting as he began climbing the staircase leading up towards the second floor where they both were.

“I want him alive, you understand? Do not take him out!”

“Understood. I’ll do what I can.” Nicola replied before he hung up and pocketed his phone.

The entire time he had been silently stalking the intruder from one room in the hallway to the next.

Making sure to move as quietly as he could manage with his massively muscular frame.

So far there was no sign of Domenico which unfortunately was not good news.

The sound of a subtle whistle caused Nicola to spin around on his heel and he came face to face with Dante, now approaching him from further down the hallway with his own gun drawn.

He had three other men following along behind him, each appearing to be armed with tranquilizer guns and ready to help take down their final intruder.

As Dante and Nicola began to update one another, they made sure to remain as quiet as they possibly could by whispering each of their words.

“Any luck?” Dante asked.

Nicola shook his head, gesturing his response in silence.

“But I have an idea of where we should go first.” the second-in-command pointed out.

Dante nodded as he replied in agreeance.

“I think we’ve both got the same idea. And if we're right, they’re all in danger.” he stated.

“Let’s move! This way, all of you. Hurry!”

With that the heavily armed group of men began jogging together down the hall behind their capo.

They were headed for the master bedroom.