Chapter 9 - The Long Walk In The Dark
Through the clearing smoke stood Vincent Valenti himself.
He was a hulking, scarred man in his late fifties, his silver hair slicked back, wearing a blood-splattered trench coat. In his right hand, he held a heavy chrome revolver. His yellowed teeth bared in a feral sneer as he saw Nora guarding the doorway of the vault.
""Well, well,"" Valenti rasped, his voice sounding like grinding gravel. ""The little baker girl who ruined my multi-million-dollar surveillance operation. And little Tony Moretti, hiding behind a woman's skirts.""
Tony backed into the corner of the concrete safe room, terrified, but he picked up a heavy brass flashlight from the shelf, raising it with trembling arms. ""Leave her alone!""
Nora didn't cower. She stood squarely in the frame, her eyes flashing with a primal, maternal rage she didn't know she possessed. ""Get out of this house.""
Valenti laughed, a sickening, wet cough of a sound, raising the barrel of the revolver directly toward her chest. ""Dominic is pinned down in the courtyard by eight of my best shooters. By the time he finishes them off, I'll have his boy in my trunk and your pretty head on a spike outside his gates. Move aside, girl.""
Nora’s eyes darted toward the heavy industrial fire extinguisher mounted on the pantry wall just outside the vault door. Without giving Valenti a fraction of a second to react, she lunged sideways, ripping the metal canister from its bracket with all her weight, and triggered the high-pressure release straight into his face.
A blinding cloud of frozen chemical powder erupted into the confined space. Valenti roared in agony, clawing blindly at his burning eyes as the corrosive spray filled his lungs. The revolver went off, the bullet gouging a deep scar into the reinforced steel doorframe inches from Nora's head.
Valenti swung wildly in the whiteout fog, his massive fist clipping Nora across the jaw. She crashed violently against the concrete wall, tasting copper, the room spinning wildly around her.
""Bitch!"" Valenti screamed, blinking through the haze, raising the gun to finish her.
Suddenly, a shadow separated from the smoke behind him.
Dominic Moretti materialized like an avenging demon from the blizzard. His eyes were pure obsidian, his face painted in frost and gunpowder burns. He caught Valenti’s wrist in a grip that snapped the older mobster's bone with a sound like a dry branch cracking.
Valenti shrieked as the revolver clattered harmlessly to the tiles. Before he could draw breath, Dominic slammed him face-first into the steel frame of the safe room, driving his elbow into the back of his neck with ruthless, calculated finality. Valenti crumpled to the floor like a sack of wet cement, completely motionless.
Dominic didn't look down at the fallen enemy. He dropped instantly to his knees beside Nora, his hands trembling as he cradled her bruised face. ""Nora. Look at me. Look at me, sweetheart.""
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Nora opened her eyes, groaning slightly as she touched her swollen jaw, but when she saw Dominic kneeling over her, unharmed save for a shallow scrape along his temple, she let out a tearful, ragged laugh. ""I told you... I had responsibilities.""
Tony charged out from the corner of the vault, throwing his arms around his father's neck, sobbing uncontrollably. Dominic wrapped both arms around his son, burying his face in Tony's dark curls, pulling Nora tightly into the embrace until all three of them were breathing the same air, safe from the storm outside.
