Page 232 of Diego

Then a drawer slams.

Someone is searching the desk.

Mario points to Alessio, then to the opposite side of the entrance. Alessio moves into position.

He points to me next, directing me lower along the near wall while Matteo stays behind us.

No one speaks, but a sound must have alerted him in some way because he fires at the doorway. The shot goes wide and blows a chunk from the built-in shelving.

Alessio answers from the other side.

The attacker staggers behind the desk.

He fires blindly over it.

I step into the opening and shoot him before he can fire again. The man collapses against the desk and slides to the floor.

Alessio checks him. “Dead.”

Mario looks toward the radio. “Front?”

Gunfire answers before anyone can.

Three shots come in rapid succession from the other side of the house. Two more follow several seconds later.

Then Dante’s voice reaches us.

“Front secure. Both down.”

Ricardo follows. “We’re holding the entrance.”

Mario does not assume that means we are finished.

“Full sweep,” he says. “Nobody goes downstairs until we know this house is ours again.”

We clear everything.

The upstairs bedrooms. Bathrooms. Closets. The office again. Kitchen storage. Service corridors. Wine cellar entrance. Garage access. Exterior doors. Every place large enough for someone to hide gets checked by at least two people.

Our security people do the same outside.

The final count confirms everyone who entered the property is either dead or in custody. One attacker is alive near the west wall with a gunshot wound to the shoulder. Another is unconscious near the front drive. Mario orders both secured for later questioning.

Only after the last camera feed and perimeter check come back clear does Mario let anyone head downstairs.

He goes first.

I am beside him.

Ricardo and Dante follow, with Matteo and Tomasso behind them. Edoardo and Alessio come next. Giovanni, Antonio, and Nico stay close while several of our people remain upstairs and outside to hold the property.

Nobody calls Lorenzo.

He is still at the hospital with Donna, and if everything goes the way it should, the next important thing he hears tonight will be that his child has been born.

Edoardo looks at his useless phone as we descend and shakes his head. “He’s going to kill us when he finds out what we were actually doing.”

Mario glances back at him. “He can complain after Donna has the baby.”