Chapter 9 - The Blood Bath at the Lakeside Clinic
The private cardiac clinic was an abandoned, fog-shrouded compound surrounded by pine trees on the shores of Lake Erie.
Costa’s black sedans were parked carelessly across the circular drive, their hazard lights blinking through the dense morning mist.
Dominic did not bother with subtle negotiations or peaceful hostage diplomacy; he launched an all-out assault.
Two armored vans rammed through the clinic’s heavy glass entrance, spraying automatic fire through the barricaded lobby.
Costa’s mercenaries, expecting a desperate, pleading son-in-law, were met with an army executing an extermination order.
Dominic led the charge from the front, moving through the tiled corridors with ruthless, unstoppable violence.
I stayed close behind him, flanked by Enzo, the smell of gunpowder and burning drywall burning my throat and eyes.
Every corner turned revealed another fallen hostile, cleared by Rossi soldiers executing clean, military breaches.
We reached the central intensive care wing on the third floor, where the heavy steel blast doors were locked from within.
Dominic planted a shaped breaching charge against the door hinges, pulling me back around the concrete corner.
The explosion blew the heavy steel barrier inward with a thunderous roar that shook the entire medical wing.
Through the clearing smoke, I saw my frail mother Ellen tied to a hospital chair, an IV line taped to her trembling arm.
Standing behind her was Victor Costa himself, his silver hair disheveled and an automatic pistol pressed against her temple.
Back off, Dominic, or I will paint this sterile wall with the old nurse's brains, Costa screamed, his voice wild with desperation.
Dominic stepped into the room alone, lowering his assault rifle to his side with chilling, terrifying calm.
The house is surrounded, Victor; every man you brought to Ohio is currently bleeding out on the lower floors.
Costa’s hand shook as he tightened his grip on the weapon pressed against my mother’s frail, white hair.
You took everything from me, boy; your father ruled the city, and now you think you can take my northern docks, Costa spat.
Ellen looked up through bruised, swollen eyes, her gaze finding mine standing in the shattered doorway behind Dominic.
Clara, my sweet baby, run, my mother sobbed, her failing heart monitor beeping erratically on the adjacent cart.
She looked at Dominic, recognizing the predatory bone structure of the man whose father she had tried to save two decades ago.
Antonio’s boy, Ellen whispered through cracked lips, showing no fear of the gun pressed against her skull.
Your father told me with his dying breath to tell Isabella that he loved her, Ellen said quietly into the tense room.
I never got to deliver that message because this monster dragged me from the room and threatened to slaughter my child.
Costa screamed an obscenity, his finger squeezing backward to end my mother’s life once and for all.
Before the firing pin could strike, Dominic drew a concealed blade from his wrist sheath and hurled it with inhuman speed.
The steel blade pierced directly through Costa’s wrist, severing the tendons and sending the firearm clattering across the tiles.
Costa shrieked in agony, clutching his ruined arm as Dominic crossed the room like a striking serpent.
Dominic grabbed Costa by the throat, lifting the heavy crime boss off his feet and slamming him against the concrete pillar.
I rushed to my mother’s side, using the combat knife Enzo handed me to slice the nylon cords binding her frail wrists.
She fell into my arms, weeping against my shoulder as I checked her pulse, her vital signs, and her breathing.
Look at her, Victor, Dominic snarled into Costa’s ear, pressing the barrel of his sidearm beneath the old man’s chin.
The woman you framed, and the daughter who took seven bullets meant for my family, have brought you to your knees.
Costa choked on his own blood, glaring with venomous spite into the eyes of the young mafia king.
May you like
Kill me then, you arrogant bastard, Costa gurgled through crushed vocal cords.
Dominic did not hesitate; he pulled the trigger once, ending thirty years of bloodshed and vendettas in a single heartbeat.
