Vitale
After years of animosity between my Family and the Fedorov's, we were finally going to take them out. Everything was planned, almost down to each gunshot. One Crew would remain to protect the Estate, and the rest of us, plus two Irish Crews the Gallagher's had lent us, would take own the entire Fedorov Family. I was so ready, my blood was burning, and all I had in mind was the prize- Joseph Fedorov's head on the ground. Even Violet had been pushed to the back for the first time since I met her. I had expected it to be hard to keep her off my mind, especially after she held me so close before I left, like it would be the last time, but she didn't need to worry. Our men would be fine, victorious, and I would return a champion for her. For everyone.
"Ready?" Romano asked, and I turned to see him standing behind me. We had parked half a mile away from the Fedorov Estate after clearing their warehouses, and the other Capos, Crews, and snipers were waiting for my go-ahead. Romano would be staying behind, as at least one of the Boss or Underboss had to survive.
"I am," I replied after a moment with total confidence. I needed to remain calm to ensure I wouldn't jump in too fast out of excitement. But after a deep breath, I knew it was time.
"Say the word," Romano smiled. I nodded and lifted the speaker to my lips.
"Move out."
And the men burst into action.
The Crews stuck together, splitting off from the main group and heading to the separate exits, while individuals such as snipers and our one pyrotechnician went on their own routes. As for me, I led my Crew straight up the middle, right towards the front of the Estate. We ran stealthily through the woods, using purely instinct to find our way, until we emerged into the clearing where the Estate sat. I counted to seven using my synched watch before sprinting forward to kick in the front door. On cue, the Crew to the side began firing into an open doorway. I didn't focus on them though-- they knew what to do-- and instead zoned in on my own part of the mission.
The door banged open with a crash, and I saw that my boot had cracked the wood. When I was inside, I found chaos, as I was expecting, but not nearly the amount I had anticipated. My Crew took action and began firing upon everyone save our own and the innocent women running terrified to cover. I watched from a few steps back, ducking, rolling, and shooting when I needed, and began calculating in my head the situation. I killed a good four men, and saw my Crew gun down another eight coming from surrounding hallways, but the action was dying down before it even felt like it started.
From the stairs leading down to the front of the mansion came a few shots, and one of my men was hit in the shoulder and dropped to the ground before I was able to kill the shooter. I ducked behind the swinging door before I too was downed, and took turns exchanging fire with the man on the stairs. I leaned out to fire off another couple shots just in time to see the Russian drop and fall dead down the stairs, and one of the Gallagher men run up the steps to continue clearing the second floor. A few more shots sounded from the back of the house and the upstairs, and then it was quiet.
"Clear," I heard from my radio, far too soon to be reasonable. Two more clears came in, and then an unexpected message from Benito, who had been on the back entrance, came through.
"They're here," his voice said flatly through the radio.
"Who?" I snapped, but I should have known something was amiss.
"Vasiliev."
It wasn't exactly panic that came over me, but confusion and irritation. See, the Vasiliev's were a rival Russian Family to the Fedorov's, and while they weren't our enemies, they definitely weren't our friends either. And now, it seemed as though they had decided to join our party of destruction.
"Where?" I demanded into the radio, but the response came from behind me rather than from the speaker on my wrist.
"Here, Fierro," a man replied, and I spun to face a man not so different from myself; tall, dark, and ready to kill. The only difference was the accent.
"Why?" I snapped. I wasn't in the mood to let some pissed-off rival Family ruin my mission. We already had all the help we needed from the Gallagher's. However, what he told me then had me rethinking my agenda.
"They're not here," he began, ignoring my question, but catching my attention.
"What do you mean?" If they weren't all here, which seemed more and more likely based on the speed at which we cleared the house, then we had no idea where they really were, and that was a severe problem.
"Two thirds of them were between here and their south city safe house," the Vasiliev told me. "All dead now, of course, thanks to someone crashing their security."
"You're welcome," I quipped, before motioning him on.
"The rest we discovered making their way towards another Estate. We're heading there now."
I felt my blood run cold and straightened my pose.
"Whose Estate?" I dared to ask, though I already feared the answer.
"Yours."
---
Violet
I waited downstairs for the Salvaggi's return with the lights dimmed. All of us did. The dining room and foyer were riddled with pacing maids and Crew members instructed to stay behind. Cheridan and Shandy sat with me on the spiral staircase, but no one was talking. It was all too tense. One of the Crew members was in contact with Romano, but it wasn't very comforting, seeing as Romano was staying back in safety. So, instead of knowing our friends, Family, or loved ones were safe, we got to sit quietly hoping that they'd make it home.
Everything was silent for a long time. Cheridan kept rubbing her barely-showing bump, and Shandy was playing with Cheridan's long blonde hair. I just sat, enjoying the lack of sunglasses in the dimmed room and wringing my hands anxiously. The windows had thick blinds pulled down over them, so not even the moonlight shone through the glass. It was dark and quiet, but it was tense.
Finally, around two-fifteen AM, the contact, Franc's radio buzzed to life, and I stood up quickly.
"Home Base, come in," I heard from the other end, recognizing the voice to be Romano's.
"Here," Franc said excitedly. "Report?"
I was expecting an update on the attack, but the voice on the other end said two words I never anticipated hearing.
"Brace yourselves."
As if on cue, a loud banging sounded on the door and everyone jumped from their positions.
"Fedorov's... Coming..." I heard vaguely on the radio, but it was hard to hear over the deafening blows to the door. I turned to look at Cheridan to see her holding her pistol already, but I stepped in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. In the background, I heard shots ringing out from where a side door had been busted into, but I was only focused on one thing.
"Run, Cheridan, now," I ordered, looking her dead in the eyes. Her blue eyes widened and she shook her head a little.
"The Estate..." she tried, but there was no way in hell I would let her finish that sentence.
"No," I practically shouted. "You are protecting more than yourself now, so f*cking run now, or I will force you myself." She took a little step up the stairs and I pushed her on to speed her progress. "Now, Cheridan! For your baby!"
And she took off, right as the front door busted open. I had just enough time to see her disappear away before I was spinning towards the commotion, my own borrowed gun in hand.
I caught a glimpse of one of the intruders the second before he fired his gun.
Directly into the side of Shandy's head.
"No!" I screamed, but I knew there was nothing I could do under fire and didn't drop to her aid. Instead, I ran around the curve of the stairs, bullets chasing my ankles, and took cover behind the bannister.
I fired my gun every time I saw movement through the door, and almost missed the man running up to me in the process of protecting the house. Before he could grab me though, I spun toward him and fired twice. The first shot hit the wall behind him, but the second sent him staggering back with a hand to his ribs. I took the opportunity to pop a bullet through his skull, before turning and running in a crouch the rest of the way up the stairs. I was going to guard the top of the steps at all costs to keep anyone from getting to Cheridan and her baby.
When I turned back, however, the power was cut, and the entire scene was plunged into darkness. I gripped my gun tightly, mentally doing the math on how many bullets I had left, and waiting for any sign of threat.
Not enough bullets, was the answer.
I heard rustling in the dark and an occasional gunshot or scream, but everyone was discombobulated in the dark. I breathed heavily and blinked rapidly in hopes to calm my nerves and adjust my eyes to the dark. Fortunately, this was something I had become quite accustomed to lately, and after a few more seconds, I could almost make out the scene below me.
There were bodies everywhere, for one, and those who weren't dead or critically injured were having trouble not tripping over them. I saw a few of the Salvaggi Crew, and more of the Fedorov's. But none on the stairs. Acting on impulse and instinct, I began to creep back down the steps toward the man I'd shot. He had a gun, maybe with more ammo than mine. I had to hope at least. As I was moving, a few more men below me found one another, and shots rang out rapidly in the darkness. I was shaking so badly I could barely stand, but I kept moving. I kept moving for Cheridan, Shandy, Alice... For the Salvaggi Family, no matter how f*cked up they could be.
I let out a soft breath when my fingers touched the assault rifle and I pulled it to me. It was covered in blood, most likely from its owner, but it was something. I held it close to me as I continued down the steps as quietly as I could to where Shandy lay. Carefully, I reached out to touch her neck, hoping beyond hope that the bullet hadn't hit too much of her brain.
Nothing.
I felt tears prick my eyes as I smoothed her blood-stained hair away from her face. She didn't deserve this. In any way. Neither did Alice...
"Ey!" I heard behind me, and I leapt to my left as the man who'd shouted fired. I shot a couple times in his direction until I could reach the top of the bannister and fling myself over it. I didn't know how far down the ground was, but the idea to brace myself barely registered by the time I was hitting the ground. I fell forward, hitting my lip on the floor, and then scrambled up as quickly as my body would move me.
It occurred to me then, as I was preparing to flee towards the back door, that Cheridan was still somewhere up there hiding, doing her best to protect her unborn child, and that I was about to flee to safety while she was trapped.
And so, I took a deep breath, clenched my fists around the gun I had, and hauled a$$ toward the back door, shouting and shooting as I went.
"This way, you c*cksuckers!" I screamed, and ran faster than I think I ever had in my entire life. I heard shouts behind me and the sounds of pursuit, and said a silent prayer hoping that my end would come painlessly. When I heard gunshots, I dropped to the ground and went to army crawl around a corner. When my face met boot, however, I stopped dead. You had a good run, I told myself, squeezing my eyes shut. The loud bursts of gunfire rang around me as I braced myself for my death, and then suddenly, everything went quiet.
My breath was caught in my throat, and I saw spots behind my eyes as I began losing consciousness out of pure terror.
Terror in knowing that the Russians had won, and the Family I had grown to love was dead.
---
Vitale
We entered through the back door of our Estate after hearing reports of heavy fire in the front. I commanded my men on what to do, which sides of the hallways to line, but only one thought was on my mind; Violet. She was here, in this hellstorm, and I had no idea if she was dead or alive.
"I'll lead them back through here," I told my Crew, who I had stationed around corners and in doorways. "When I come past, ambush everyone that follows. Understand?"
Their affirmatives were cut off by the sound of shouting and random gunshots though, and my heart skipped a beat when I heard the voice.
"This way, you motherf*ckers!" Violet screamed from the direction leading towards the front, and I was both elated to hear her alive and terrified by what she seemed to be doing. She was causing a distraction, God knows what for, and we could use that.
"Fire when she comes through!" I shouted, just before Violet passed the first of my men and dropped to the ground as they opened fire. My breath stopped as I had to stand there and wonder if she'd been hit, but picked up jaggedly again when she began crawling towards me. When her elbow landed directly on top of my shoe, she stopped abruptly. I ignored her as I helped my men shoot down the remaining Fedorov men, before stating in my radio, "Clear!"
The immense relief I felt when I heard three other announcements just like it hit me in a rush, and I let out a long breath. I still had something to clear though, and I dropped to my knees and reached out to take Violet gently by the face.
So much blood, was the first thing I noticed, and I frantically pushed her onto her back to check her over. When I saw her striking blue eyes looking up at me, I thought the world had stopped.
"Violet," I choked out, touching her face, but her hand that caught mine was strong.
"Not my blood," she whispered, and the rest of the world came back into focus. I reached down to scoop her up, but before I could, Ben was kneeling on her other side and grabbing her shoulders.
"Where the f*ck is she?" he shouted into Violet's face. I was about to reprimand him for treating Violet that way, but she just gazed back at him calmly.
"Safe," she told him, her voice soothing. "Upstairs. I made sure she got out first."
No thanks came from Ben as he took off in the direction Violet had told him, but I knew he would be grateful later. I took the chance to help Violet up from the floor and hold her tightly against me.
"Are you okay?" I whispered into her hair, and I felt her shake her head.
"Shandy..." She trailed off and I looked down into her tear-filled eyes. It broke my heart to see her hurt over losing her friend, but I was so overwhelmingly relieved that she was alive that I barely cared.
"God, Violet, I was so scared," I admitted to her. "You don't know..." I took a shaky breath and felt the words burning on the tip of my tongue. "Violet, I love-"
"Vitale!" Romano shouted from somewhere to my left, and I stepped away from Violet. She looked small as she cowered into herself, but the assault rifle she held, most likely nabbed off of a dead Fedorov, made her still appear fierce.
"The house is clear," I reported, clearing my throat and standing tall.
"Yes, I gathered that," he snapped. "Next time, tell me that before..." He trailed off looking at Violet and then cursed. "Gather the men," he said finally. "I need a report on fatalities and a summary on what the f*ck happened tonight. And... Get her cleaned up. She looks terrified."
With that, he left me standing alone with Violet and began shouting commands. I turned back to my ragazza viola, and sighed. She did look like a mess, with blood splattered on her face and spotting her shirt and hands. I stepped forward and gently cleaned her face with my sleeves before leaning down and placing kisses on her cheeks, lips, forehead... anywhere my mouth could reach. Violet sighed and leaned into me, and I heard her gun hit the tile floor with a loud clang.
"I'm so sorry," I told her between kisses, and she shook her head.
"You couldn't have known," she assured. "You didn't know they were--"
"But I should have!" I said this louder than I anticipated, and Violet flinched. "I should have known. You could have--"
Violet's lips pressed softly but surely to mine, stopping my speech and calming my mind. I leaned into her and parted her lips gently with my own, drinking her in. She was safe, alive, here, and that's what mattered. She pulled away before I did and took my face in her hands.
"Go to your men," she told me gently. "I need this blood, her blood off me now, and you need to be the strong Underboss everyone needs right now. I'll see you tonight in your room." And she kissed me one more time before stepping around me and hurrying off.
Somehow, Violet had known exactly what I needed to hear to reset my mind and get my sh*t pulled together, and I was able to straighten my back and gather my men together with all the strength both I and my Family needed.
All because of the girl with the purple hair that had stolen my heart and given me that strength. Even with tonight's massacres, I knew that as long as I had the amazing woman upstairs waiting for me, things would be okay.