Chapter 5 - The Fall of the UnderbossDriven by pure desperation and the knowledge that he was facing either a death sentence or life in a federal supermax prison, Marco suddenly lunged backward. He threw his weight into Matteo, knocking the heavy security chief off balance and causing Matteo’s gun to discharge harmlessly into the ceiling.
BANG!
The crystal chandelier shattered, showering the room in sharp glass fragments.
"Kill him!" Victor Romano screamed to his remaining guards, realizing that Marco had set them all up to be slaughtered.
A chaotic gunfight erupted within the confined space of the library. Victor’s guards, realizing Marco was the common enemy, opened fire on Marco’s few secret loyalists inside the room. Lorenzo ducked behind the heavy oak desk, drawing his custom gold-plated .45 caliber pistol.
With terrifying speed and military precision, Lorenzo fired three shots. Two of Marco’s covert bodyguards dropped to the floor instantly.
Marco scrambled toward the side door—a hidden servant’s passage that led directly to the mansion’s underground garage.
"LORENZO!" Marco screamed over the deafening gunfire, his face twisted in madness. "I saved your life! You owe me!"
Lorenzo stood up from behind the desk, stepping through the smoke and flying wood splinters like a dark reaper. "You didn't save my life in Little Italy, Marco!" Lorenzo shouted, his voice cutting through the noise. "I checked the old police reports last week! The shooter who killed my father... he was paid from an offshore account registered to your uncle! You set up my father's murder so you could play the hero and earn my trust!"
Marco stopped dead in his tracks at the threshold of the hidden door. The truth, laid bare after nineteen years, shattered his final illusion of control.
"He was an old fool who stood in the way of progress!" Marco spat, drawing a hidden snub-nosed revolver from his ankle holster. "And so are you!"
Marco raised his gun, aiming directly at Lorenzo’s chest.
BANG!
A gunshot echoed through the library, but it didn't come from Marco’s gun. Nor did it come from Lorenzo.
Marco gasped, dropping his weapon. He looked down at his chest, where a dark crimson stain was rapidly spreading across his grey suit jacket.
Behind him, standing near the doorway with a smoking snub-nosed pistol in her shaking hands, was Vivien.
She was crying hysterically, her gown stained with soot and blood. "You ruined my life, Marco..." she sobbed, her hand trembling violently as she held the gun. "You told me we would rule together... you used me..."
Marco collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest. He looked up at Lorenzo, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. The brilliant, master strategist was reduced to a dying man choking on his own betrayal.
"Lorenzo..." Marco gasped, reaching out a blood-stained hand toward his former leader. "Brother..."
Lorenzo stepped up to Marco, looking down at him with an expression devoid of anger, pity, or remorse.
"I have no brother," Lorenzo said softly.
Lorenzo raised his pistol and fired a single shot.
Marco Salvi fell forward onto the polished hardwood floor, his eyes staring blankly at the grand fireplace as his life bled out into the mahogany grain.
The gunfight in the library ground to a halt. Victor Romano’s remaining men dropped their weapons, realizing the war was over. Matteo, bleeding from a minor graze on his arm, quickly took control of the room, disarming Romano’s men and securing Vivien, who surrendered without a fight, sobbing quietly on the floor.
Lorenzo reholstered his weapon, his breathing steady despite the carnage around him.
"Victor," Lorenzo said, turning to the old New Jersey don, who stood shaken against the wall.
"Lorenzo..." Victor said, his voice raspy, holding his hands up in surrender. "I didn't know. On my mother's grave, I didn't know Marco was planning to kill you. My daughter lied to me."
"I know, Victor," Lorenzo replied calmly. "Which is why you walk out of here alive tonight. But your daughter belongs to the feds now. And the Romano family will retire from Manhattan entirely. You hand over the docks, the unions, and the shipping lanes to my captains by tomorrow morning. Do we have an agreement?"
Victor Romano swallowed his pride, looking at the dead body of Marco Salvi and then at Lorenzo's cold, unyielding eyes.
"We have an agreement, Don Lorenzo," Victor said quietly.
Outside, the sirens of federal law enforcement and state police began to wail, echoing through the long driveway of the estate. Lorenzo’s tactical legal team, which had been waiting down the road, arrived alongside the authorities to execute a pre-arranged corporate immunity agreement, turning over Marco’s rogue faction to the government while shielding the core Duca legitimate operations.
Lorenzo walked away from the destruction of the library, stepping over the debris and heading down the long, quiet hallway toward the master suite.
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The nightmare was finally over. The poison that had infected his life for nineteen years had been purged.
Now, he had a promise to keep.
