Chapter 4 - Blood and Snow
The blizzard had turned into a whiteout.
The world outside the mansion was a wall of swirling ice.
I led the group of children and Beatrice toward the garage.
Lorenzo was nowhere to be seen,
but I knew he wasn't far.
He was a rat who knew every tunnel in this maze.
We reached the fleet of armored SUVs.
"Get them inside!"
I yelled to Beatrice.
She herded the children into the vehicles,
her movements precise and urgent.
Leo refused to go in first.
He stood by my side,
watching the shadows.
"He's over there,"
Leo whispered,
pointing toward the edge of the woods.
I looked,
and for a second,
the wind died down.
Lorenzo was standing by the gatehouse,
surrounded by the last of his loyalists.
He held a remote detonator in his hand.
"Antonio!"
he screamed over the wind.
"If I can't have the empire,"
"nobody can!"
"I've rigged the gas lines!"
"The whole estate goes up in ten seconds!"
My heart stopped.
The children were still getting into the cars.
"Run!"
I shouted to Beatrice.
"Drive through the gates! Don't stop!"
"What about you?"
she cried.
"Go!"
I didn't wait for her answer.
I sprinted toward Lorenzo.
I wasn't a young man anymore,
my lungs burned in the freezing air,
but I had the momentum of a man with nothing left to lose.
Lorenzo pressed the button.
A low rumble shook the earth.
The back of the mansion exploded in a pillar of orange flame.
The shockwave knocked me to the ground.
Snow turned to steam.
I looked back,
seeing the SUVs racing through the gates just as the main structure began to collapse.
They were safe.
Beatrice had made it.
I turned back to Lorenzo.
He was staring at the fire,
his face twisted in a manic grin.
"It's over,
Antonio."
"Everything you built."
"Everything you were."
"Dust."
I stood up,
wiping blood from my brow.
I walked toward him,
ignoring the heat of the fire at my back.
His men raised their guns,
but Lorenzo held up a hand.
He wanted to do this himself.
He drew a chrome-plated .45.
"You were always too sentimental,"
he said.
"That’s why your brother died."
"That’s why you’re dying."
He aimed at my heart.
A shot rang out.
But it wasn't from Lorenzo's gun.
It came from the woods.
Lorenzo’s shoulder exploded in a spray of red.
He spun around,
dropping his weapon.
I looked toward the trees.
Beatrice was there,
kneeling in the snow with a long-range rifle.
She hadn't left.
She had circled back.
She was the shadow I never saw coming.
I walked up to Lorenzo,
who was writhing in the snow.
The great manipulator,
the architect of my misery,
was reduced to a whimpering heap.
"You’re right about one thing,
Lorenzo,"
I said,
standing over him.
"Blood is just water."
"But family?"
"Family is the fire that doesn't go out."
I didn't use a gun.
I didn't want it to be quick.
I looked him in the eye as the life began to fade from him,
the cold of the Chicago night finally claiming its own.
The fire behind us roared,
consuming the symbols of my dark past.
The Caruso mansion was gone.
May you like
And for the first time in twenty years,
I could breathe.
