Chapter 5 - The Price of Blood
Salvatore Vance froze, his body going completely rigid.
From the shadows near the boathouse doors stepped a tall, gaunt man with a jagged scar running from his left eye down to his jawline. He wore a heavy leather trench coat and held a nickel-plated revolver aimed directly at Vance’s chest.
Behind him stood four heavily armed mercenaries, their assault rifles raised, targeting Loretta and the boat.
"Dominic Moretti," Vance said softly, his voice dropping into a register so dark and lethal it made the air feel heavy. "You brought your men to die on my land."
Dominic laughed—a dry, rattling sound that smelled of cold malice. "Your land? By tomorrow morning, Salvatore, your empire will belong to my family. Your guards are dead or fleeing. Your house is burning. And now, I have you and your little crippled secret."
Dominic shifted his cold gaze toward Loretta, his eyes narrowing. "And who is this? The waitress from West 91st? The one who ruined my lieutenant's clean kidnapping job?"
Loretta stepped sideways, subtly placing her body between Dominic’s gun and the boat cabin where Leo was hiding. She felt no fear now—only a deep, burning fury.
"You're a coward," Loretta said, her voice clear and steady echoing in the stone boathouse. "Sending armed men to murder a little boy. You're pathetic."
Dominic’s scar twitched with anger. "Shut your mouth, trash." He raised his revolver toward her head. "I'll deal with you first—"
"Look at me, Dominic!" Vance roared, taking a massive step forward, deliberately drawing the gunfire toward himself. "Your fight is with me! Face me like a man, or are you as weak as your dead father was?"
The insult struck a nerve. Dominic’s eyes snapped back to Vance, his jaw tightening. "My father was twice the man you’ll ever be!"
In that split second of distraction, Loretta acted.
She grabbed a heavy iron boat cleat from the dock floor and hurled it with all her strength at the nearest mercenary holding a rifle. The iron struck the soldier’s wrist, forcing him to discharge his rifle into the concrete floor with a deafening bang.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Vance moved with terrifying speed. Before Dominic could react to the noise, Vance fired three rapid shots. Two mercenaries fell into the cold water with heavy splashes. Vance dove behind a wooden crate, drawing a secondary weapon from his ankle holster.
"Loretta! Get in the boat! Start the engine!" Vance bellowed, firing continuously, suppressing the remaining gunmen.
Loretta leaped onto the deck of the speedboat, scrambling into the glass enclosed cabin. "Leo, stay down!" she yelled. She threw herself into the captain’s chair, staring at the complex array of digital switches and ignition buttons on the dashboard.
"Key... where is the key?" she panicked, her hands searching the console.
Outside, the gunfight was furious. Concrete splinters flew through the air as Dominic fired wildly at Vance’s position. Vance dropped another mercenary, but a bullet from Dominic’s revolver caught Vance in the upper shoulder.
Vance groaned, spun around, and slammed against the side of the boathouse wall, blood instantly staining his white dress shirt.
"Salvatore!" Loretta screamed through the cabin window.
Dominic stepped out from behind cover, a cruel, victorious grin spreading across his scarred face as he leveled his silver revolver at Vance’s head. "It ends here, Vance."
"NO!"
Loretta didn't know how to operate a high-performance speedboat, but she knew where the throttle was. She slammed her hand down on the red ignition button, bringing the massive twin V8 engines to a roaring, screaming life. Without touching the wheel, she slammed the heavy metal throttle lever fully forward.
The sleek black boat surged forward like a missile, rising out of the water, crashing straight over the wooden dock, slamming directly into Dominic Moretti.
The heavy fiberglass hull crushed the wooden pillars and sent Dominic flying backward into the dark, churning waters of the river with a sickening crunch.
The boat smashed into the stone bank of the boathouse, grinding to a violent halt, its engines whining loudly before stalling out.
Silence descended upon the boathouse, broken only by the sound of lapping water and the heavy breathing of the survivors.
Loretta stumbled out of the shattered boat cabin, her head spinning, blood trickling from a small cut on her forehead. She dropped onto the ruined dock and crawled frantically toward Vance, who was slumped against the wall, holding his bleeding shoulder.
"Salvatore! Salvatore!" she cried, pulling his hand away, looking at the dark crimson stain spreading across his clothes.
Vance slowly opened his eyes, his breathing heavy and shallow. He looked at her battered face, then past her to the boat, where Leo was poking his small head out of the cabin, uninjured.
A slow, painful smile touched Vance’s lips.
"You..." Vance wheezed, coughing up a small spot of blood. "You crashed my million-dollar boat."
Loretta let out a hysterical sob, half laughing, half crying, pressing her hands against his chest to stop the bleeding. "You can buy another one, you idiot! Stay alive!"
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"Loretta..." Vance whispered, his hand rising to gently touch her cheek, his thumb wiping away a tear mixed with soot and blood. "You really are... incredible."
His eyes rolled back, and his head slumped against her shoulder as the distant sirens of state police cruisers began to wail down the long driveway of the estate.
