The Mafia's Undoing-Chapter 73: Guns and Smoke

Ten minutes.

That’s how long we have before Vincent’s team reaches our floor.

The emergency lighting cast everything in hellish red, and Vincent’s voice still echoed through the intercom. The sound of gunfire below was getting closer. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

I switch into combat mode instantly. The part of me that’s pure tactics, pure survival, and pure violence - the part Katherine rarely sees but needs right now.

"Luca!" I bark. "Defensive positions, bottle them at the stairwell- Now!"

"On it." He’s already moving, coordinating his men. "Vincent’s got eight, maybe ten hostiles. Professional grade."

"Morrison - ETA?"

She’s on her phone. "FBI SWAT is eight minutes out, NYPD four minutes, but Tony, if they breach your floor before-"

"We hold." I turn to Katherine and Elliot. "Get in the secure room. Now."

"I’m not hiding." Katherine’s already grabbed a weapon from our cache, the Glock I taught her to use, and checks the magazine with practiced efficiency. "We’re partners, remember?"

"Katherine, this isn’t-"

"Yes, it is." Her eyes meet mine, and I see fear there but also determination. "You need every shooter you can get. I’m a shooter."

She’s right, and we don’t have time to argue.

"Fine, but you stay behind cover. You watch angles, not engage directly unless-"

"Unless I have to." She’s already moving to the position. "I’ve got your six, Tony. Just don’t do anything stupid."

Despite everything, I almost smile. "That’s my line."

Thomas appears from his room, weapon in hand. He’s in his fifties, but he moves like the killer he was in his youth. "How many?"

"Eight confirmed, possibly more." I’m distributing weapons, checking ammunition. "Vincent’s using them to clear floors, draw our security away. He’ll come through when we’re at our weakest."

"Classic Vincent." Thomas takes a position near the elevator. "Always was smart with tactics."

Elliot’s at his laptop, his fingers flying. "I’m in the building systems, locking down elevators - done. Disabling emergency exits - done. They have to come through stairwells."

"Can you slow them?" Luca asks.

"Working on it." More typing. "I can trigger fire suppression systems on lower floors, won’t stop them, but might disorient them."

"Do it."

The building shudders as sprinklers activate below - alarms blaring, and water flooding the lower floors.

"That’ll piss them off," Thomas observes.

"Good." I chamber a round. "Angry people make mistakes."

The next few minutes were tense preparation. Luca’s men positioned at chokepoints, furniture overturned for cover, weapons ready. Everyone was silent, listening.

The gunfire is on floor seven now, getting closer.

Katherine’s positioned behind an overturned desk, her weapon trained on the stairwell door. Her hands are steady, but I can see her pulse jumping in her throat.

I cross to her quickly. "Hey, look at me."

She does with those brown eyes with gold flecks that I love.

"Remember your training - breathe, aim, and squeeze. You’ve done this before."

"Twice." Her voice is quiet. "I’ve killed two people, Tony."

"And survived every time." I touch her face briefly. "You’re stronger than you know."

"What if I freeze?"

"You won’t," I say it with absolute certainty. "When it matters, you won’t freeze."

She nods, then takes a shaky breath. "Together."

"Together." I move back to my position.

They’re on the eighth floor with the gunfire louder now.

Morrison’s voice through my phone: "FBI is three minutes out. Hold position."

Three minutes might as well be three hours.

Floor nine.

Luca’s phone rings; one of his men is on the perimeter. "They breached through the service entrance too, second team. At least six more."

"Fuck!" Luca’s already redirecting. "We’re surrounded. Tony-"

"I know." We’re trapped. Exactly what Vincent planned. "Elliot, can you-"

"I’m already sealing service entrance doors remotely. It’ll buy us maybe two minutes."

Floor ten.

Thomas catches my eye. "Anthony. Whatever happens-"

"Don’t." I can’t hear goodbye speeches right now. "We’re all surviving this."

Floor eleven.

The stairwell door closest to us shudders. Someone was testing it, preparing to breach.

"Weapons hot," I order. "Fire on anyone who comes through that door. No warnings, no hesitation."

Katherine’s jaw tightens, but she nods.

The door explodes inward - flashbang rolling through.

"Cover!" I shout, but it’s too late.

The blast is deafening and blinding. My vision whites out, with my ears ringing through the haze, I see shapes moving on tactical gear, their weapons raised, that’s Vincent’s team pouring through.

Gunfire erupts - Luca’s men were engaging, the confined space making it deafening. Smoke, muzzle flashes, and the smell of cordite.

I’m firing, dropping targets - two down, three, but they keep coming.

One breaks through toward Katherine and Elliot’s position.

"Katherine!" I’m trying to reach her, but there are two mercenaries between us.

I see her raise her weapon, steady despite the chaos and fires twice - center mass. The mercenary goes down.

The third person she’s killed.

But there’s a second one, coming from her blind spot-

Elliot screams a warning. Katherine spins, but not fast enough. The mercenary’s on her, hand-to-hand, her weapon knocked away.

I’m fighting through, desperate to reach her, but-

Katherine’s fighting back, using everything I taught her. Elbow strike to the throat, knee to the groin. She’s not winning; he’s bigger and trained, but she’s not going down easy.

The mercenary gets his hands around her throat. She’s clawing at his face, can’t breathe-

Elliot shoots and freezes at the sight of blood, who can barely handle violence, the mercenary drops.

Katherine gasps, sucking in air. Elliot’s standing there, gun smoking, staring at what he’s done.

"I killed him." His voice is small. "I actually-"

"You saved me." Katherine pulls him down behind cover as more bullets fly. "Thank you."

But there’s no time to process because more mercenaries are breaching, and we’re being overwhelmed.

Then suddenly, they pull back. All at once, in a coordinated retreat.

The gunfire stops.

In the sudden silence, smoke drifts to reveal bodies on the ground and blood on the walls. The evidence of violence.

"Status?" I call out.

"Two down," Luca reports. His men, dead.

"Thomas?" I can’t see my father through the smoke.

"Here." He emerges, bleeding from a graze to his arm but standing. "I’m fine."

Katherine and Elliot are okay, shaken but okay.

Then I hear it, a slow applause.

Vincent walks through the smoke like he’s entering a theater. Casual, unafraid, and alone.

"Anthony! Katherine!" His voice is almost friendly. "Lovely evening for a massacre, isn’t it?"

He’s sent his men away to make this personal.

I raise my weapon, but he’s already talking.

"Let’s talk, just us... like old times." He stops in the middle of the hallway, his weapon lowered. "I’m unarmed. Well, mostly."

"Vincent." I step forward, and Katherine immediately is at my side in a united front.

"Boss." His smile is cold. "Or should I say former boss? I suppose our employer-employee relationship is officially terminated."