Kidnapping the Assassin: The Mafia Don’s Fatal Mistake

The Broken Vault

Chapter 55

**[Elara]**

"Leo, listen to me," Cassian commanded, his voice perfectly level, completely burying the absolute terror tearing through his chest. He was the Don. He had to be the anchor. "Do not open that door. I don't care what they say. You stay in the back corner behind the server racks."

*"They have a torch, Papa,"* Leo’s voice trembled, the frantic, high-pitched whine of a thermic lance bleeding through the encrypted radio. *"The door is getting hot."*

"We are three minutes away," I said, leaning close to the radio, fighting the blinding pain in my ribs to keep my voice steady for my son. "You are my brave boy, Leo. You hide. We are coming."

The line cut to static as the radio frequency was violently jammed. 

I looked at Cassian. The obsidian darkness in his eyes wasn't just anger; it was a terrifying, apocalyptic promise of absolute violence. He racked the bolt of his assault rifle, his jaw locked tight. 

"Luca," Cassian growled, his voice a low vibration that shook the cabin. "Drive this vehicle through the front gates. Do not stop for the checkpoint. Do not stop for the front doors."

"Yes, Boss," Luca replied, flooring the accelerator. 

The heavy armored SUV tore down the narrow, winding Tuscan roads, taking corners at a suicidal speed. The tires shrieked, kicking up gravel and dust. 

I looked down at Nine. The young assassin was unconscious, his breathing shallow, but the IV line Cassian had started was keeping his blood pressure from completely bottoming out. He had fought the phantoms to protect my family, and he had almost died for it. 

"They used the exact same tactic Arthur used," I whispered, the sickening realization settling over me. "A loud distraction to pull the King and Queen away from the castle. The Praetorian remnants didn't die with the Emissary. They just waited for us to drop our guard."

"They made one fatal miscalculation," Cassian stated coldly, checking his spare magazines. 

"What?" 

Cassian looked at me, a feral, terrifying smirk touching his lips. 

"They assumed we were still playing chess. Tonight, we flip the board."

The SUV cresting the final hill revealed the sprawling Rossi villa below. The perimeter was dark. The floodlights had been systematically shot out. The massive wrought-iron front gates were closed. 

"Brace!" Luca yelled from the driver's seat. 

We didn't slow down. The massive, three-ton armored vehicle slammed directly into the wrought-iron gates at eighty miles an hour. The metal shrieked and tore off its hinges, flying into the courtyard. 

Luca kept his foot buried on the gas. He drove the SUV straight up the manicured driveway, over the expensive fountain, and violently crashed directly through the heavy mahogany front doors of the villa. 

The airbag deployed with a deafening pop. The cabin filled with white smoke. 

Cassian kicked his door open before the vehicle even completely stopped moving. 

I scrambled out right behind him, ignoring the sharp, stabbing agony in my ribs. I grabbed Cassian’s spare sidearm from his tactical vest, chambering a round. 

The grand foyer of our home was a slaughterhouse. 

Four Rossi guards lay dead on the marble, their throats neatly severed. The familiar, terrifying precision of the vantablack assassins. 

We didn't stop to check the bodies. We sprinted down the hallway, taking the stairs leading to the wine cellar three at a time. The smell of ozone and melting steel grew stronger the deeper we descended. 

We hit the bottom of the stairs, bursting into the cavernous cellar. 

The heavy steel door of the vault was glowing a bright, cherry red. Two figures in the featureless, mirrored vantablack armor stood in front of it. One was wielding a heavy thermic lance, systematically cutting through the heavy locking mechanism. The other stood guard, holding a glowing monofilament whip. 

Cassian didn't yell. He didn't announce our presence. 

He raised his assault rifle and unleashed a continuous, deafening volley of automatic fire directly into the back of the assassin holding the lance. 

The heavy armor absorbed the initial impact, staggering the phantom forward, but Cassian didn't stop. He walked forward, emptying the entire thirty-round magazine into the exact same cluster of armor plating on the assassin's spine. 

The armor finally cracked. The final three rounds punched through the compromised plating, severing the assassin's spinal cord. 

The phantom collapsed, dropping the thermic lance. It hit the stone floor, hissing violently. 

The second assassin spun around, snapping the monofilament whip toward Cassian in a deadly, horizontal arc. 

I didn't let the wire reach him. 

I threw myself into a slide across the dusty cellar floor, aiming my pistol directly at the thick power cable connecting the whip to the battery pack on the assassin's hip. 

I fired twice. 

The bullets severed the cable. The humming, super-heated wire instantly died, dropping uselessly to the floor like a dead snake. 

The assassin didn't panic. They discarded the useless handle and drew a heavy combat knife, lunging toward me. 

Before the phantom could take two steps, Cassian was there. 

The Don dropped his empty rifle. He closed the distance, grabbing the assassin’s knife arm with his scarred right hand, twisting it brutally until the shoulder popped out of its socket. With his left hand, Cassian grabbed the back of the assassin’s mirrored helmet and slammed their face violently into the thick stone wall of the cellar. 

He didn't stop at one hit. He slammed the helmet into the stone again. And again. 

"Cassian!" I yelled, scrambling to my feet. "The door!" 

Cassian dropped the unconscious, broken assassin to the floor, breathing heavily. He turned toward the glowing red steel door of the vault. The lock was entirely melted, destroyed by the thermic lance. 

"Leo!" Cassian roared, grabbing the heavy, molten handle with his bare hands, entirely ignoring the searing heat burning his palms. "Lily! Open the door!"

He pulled with terrifying, unhinged strength. The heavy steel door groaned and slowly swung open on its warped hinges. 

The vault was dark. 

I rushed past Cassian, my heart hammering in my throat. 

"Leo!" I cried out. 

From the far corner, behind the heavy server racks, a small, terrified figure emerged. 

Leo ran across the room, completely ignoring the smoke and the dead assassins in the hallway, and threw himself into my arms. He was shaking violently, crying silently into my shoulder. 

"I've got you," I sobbed, sinking to my knees and wrapping my arms around my son, burying my face in his messy hair. "Mamma's got you, baby. You're safe."

Cassian knelt beside us, wrapping his massive arms around both of us, holding us so tightly I could feel his heart hammering against my back. 

"Where is your Aunt Lily?" I asked, pulling back slightly to look at Leo's tear-streaked face. 

Leo pointed a trembling finger toward the dark corner of the vault. 

I stood up, grabbing a flashlight from the wall emergency kit, and shined it into the corner. 

Lily was slumped against the cold concrete wall. Her hands were pressed tightly against her stomach. Blood soaked the front of her silk pajamas, pooling darkly on the floor beneath her. 

"Lily!" I screamed, dropping the flashlight and rushing to her side. 

I slid to my knees, pulling her hands away to assess the wound. It was a deep, jagged laceration across her abdomen. 

"Elara," Lily whispered, her face deathly pale, her eyes struggling to focus on my face. A weak, bloody smile touched her lips. "I... I locked the door... just like you taught me."

"You did perfectly," I choked out, tearing off my silk robe and pressing it violently against her wound to stem the bleeding. I looked back at Cassian, sheer panic finally breaking my composure. "We need a trauma surgeon! Now!"

Cassian was already on his radio, screaming orders to Luca to bring the medical kit down to the cellar. 

I leaned down, pressing my forehead against Lily’s cold cheek. 

"Stay with me, Lily," I pleaded, tears streaming down my face. "You don't get to leave me now. We survived too much. Stay with me."

Lily’s eyes fluttered shut. Her breathing slowed to a terrifying, shallow rasp. 

The ghosts had failed to kill the King and Queen. But they had struck at the very heart of the empire. 

And as I held my bleeding sister in the dark, the Viper made a final, absolute vow. 

I wasn't just going to find the remnants of the High Table. I was going to erase their entire bloodline from the face of the earth.