Page 52 of Deadly Don's Baby Contract

His men throw Marco's men to the floor near Franco but only remove Marco's hood. In the commotion, Luca is roused, confused and disorientated for a moment. The blood on his face has caked on, and it's obvious that he's in agony, even if he can't do anything about it. Not even lift his hand to his head.

"What's going on?" he asks groggily.

"What's going on, young buck, is that your cousins have delivered themselves to me! It's Christmas!" He starts laughing maniacally. One of his henchmen comes up behind him and whispers something in his ear.

"Excuse me, gentleman and lady." He says before turning on his heel.

"We don't have much time," Marco whispers to Franco and the guys. "I contacted Dominic, Aria's godfather, to help us, but we need to stall and provide a distraction. They were ten minutes out when they were caught. By my calculations, that gives us about five now."

"Why do we have to create a diversion?" Luca asks.

"Because if they arrive and those guys are still outside, nothing is stopping Vito and his boys on the inside from finishing us off." He pauses. "They've taken our guns and anything else we have to fight while bringing us in here. Get those hoods off," he tells his guys.

They start shaking their heads to get the hoods off, but it doesn't work.

"Luca!" I shout in a loud whisper. "Use your teeth to take the hood off the guy next to you. Then they can each do it for the guy next to him." He does as I've suggested, and Marco and Franco do the same for the men sitting on either side of them.

"I have an idea for the distraction." Marco looks at me, skeptical. I power through. "I think this used to be some sort of greenhouse or processing plant. Those skylights are to let spores out and fresh air in."

"So!" Marco asks, irritated and louder than he intended.

"What's going on!?" One of Vito's men sidles over to us.

"Nothing! Mr. Morelli isn't exactly my biggest fan, and he's giving me some of what your friend over there was dishing out earlier!" He's still deciding whether or not to believe me when the sound of screeching tires outside draws his attention, and all of them rush to check it out.

"Okay. We don't have much time." I move over to Franco. "My stomach. Take it out!"

"What?" he asks.

"There's a gun hidden just underneath my stomach. Take it out and hand it to me." He takes it out, but the angle of his restraints makes it impossible for him to use it effectively. Gunfire erupts outside, and Vito's men race toward us.

"Take them out!" Vito yells.

"Close your eyes!" I scream at the men on the floor as I run to the latch controlling the skylights and hit the release button. The windows slam shut above us, and thousands of shards of glass head toward the floor, spearing everything in its path. I roll under the workbench and angle my tied hands under my butt, and move my legs through to bring them to the front.

"Give me the gun!" I tell Franco as I get to my knees. He looks at me, and a brief flicker of doubt crosses his face before he hands it to me.

"You dumb fuck!" Marco yells at him. "You just signed our death warrants. She'll kill us all."

"Move away!" I say, pointing at Franco. I move the gun a little to my left and shoot the chain between the handcuffs.

Vito's men are descending on us. Blood streams down their faces. Three of them are out of commission, and one is clutching his jugular and sinks to the floor. Dominic's men are winning the battle outside, and some of Vito's men come into the warehouse to find shelter. Seeing imminent defeat, Vito loses it and starts barreling toward us.

Franco takes out three of Vito's men while Marco and Luca scramble to free the others. One of Marco's men gets hit in the middle of the forehead and sinks to the floor. The others have no weapons, and the distance between them and Vito's men is too great for close-quarter combat. They try to find positions that will give them an advantage once the smoke clears. Luca has his back to the fracas, struggling with one guy's restraints and doesn't see the guy descending on him. I kick at the chair in front of me, and it gets the guy square in the nuts, and he goes down. Marco disarms and shoots him dead.

Dominic's men breach the perimeter and come into the factory guns blazing. Everyone ducks for cover, and Franco tries to make his way to me. The air is thick and smells of sulfur. Everyone's coughing and shooting or hiding, depending on where they are relative to the action. Luca drags one of Marco's guys across the floor. Tears stream down his face as he tells the guy to hold on.

It doesn't look good, but he gets to work trying to stem the blood flow from the wound in the guy's leg. Franco tells me to get down as some of Vito's men turn to ward off Dominic's encroaching battalion while others set about trying to take out the Morelli brothers. Nothing matters for these soldiers but making Vito proud. They know that dying for him here today will mean that their families and loved ones will be well taken care of for the rest of their lives.

They've hitched their wagons to his, and for better or worse, this is where it's brought them. It's a decision that was made long ago in blood and will only be honored with blood.

I can see Vito in the distance. The situation is becoming desperate. His men are starting to drop like flies. He cocks his gun, but no bullets are forthcoming. He scrambles towards the body of one of his men and tries to find his gun. I watch as his beady eyes scan the floor, trying to find the weapon that must have slid across the floor when the man was shot. I know the moment he spots it.

Franco is like a skilled sniper in battle. He doesn't fire wildly. His shots are calculated and with pinpoint accuracy. He knows how many bullets there are in the clip, and he's not going to waste a single one with so much at stake. He picks off the men one at a time. It becomes more difficult the closer Dominic's men get to us because the smoke and debris make it challenging to tell the enemy from the ally. His shots become more careful -even friendly fire isn't accepted in a situation like this, and even in the thick of it, he knows that.

As the space between his, Marco's, and Dominic's men dwindles, Vito belly-crawls to the discarded gun of his fallen soldier and lets out a frustrated scream when he finds it empty. He hurls it across the floor before spotting another dead body and searching for it. Even with limited visuals, I can tell that he's found a loaded gun and intends to use it to take out either Franco or Marco.

He's a hunter, and he's focused on his prize, but to hell with the consequences. Even if he dies here today, he will go out with one of the Morelli's blood on his hands. It's been his singular objective for years. He's a man possessed.

---