A Blued Steel Wolfe (2 page)

The reception party quickly went into full swing, once everyone arrived. The DJ played a mix of Irish and Italian favorites. The guests were having fun until they heard a single muffled gunshot. It wasn’t quiet, like a silencer would be. It was just muffled. Most of the guests didn’t even seem to hear it, but Antonio did.

Antonio and Linda were on the dance floor when it happened. As soon as he heard it, Antonio moved protectively in front of his new bride and looked about for the shooter.

Then some well-dressed men entered the backyard of the Hamptons estate and smiled at the guests. Giovanni and Kevin, as heads of the Alliance, rose to meet the new arrivals. Antonio knew that the guard posted at the gate was dead, but he couldn’t warn his father before the Russian began to speak.

“Greetings everyone,” Dmitri said in his thick accent. He gave a falsely warm smile to everyone in attendance, and then focused on the newlyweds as he continued. “We are merely here to pay our respects to the most beautiful bride and her very lucky groom.”

Giovanni knew that this was more it appeared, but he would be diplomatic. Dmitri had a lot of power on the northern side of Manhattan. “Thank you for your well wishes, my friend. If we’d known that you would be interested, Dmitri, we would have invited you.”

“Ah, Giovanni my friend,” Dmitri said with his false smile still in place. “I am hurt that you would forget about me when planning the invitations for your son’s wedding.”

“It wasn’t intentional, Dmitri. Unfortunately, we did not account for you and your men attending, so we don’t have enough food for you,” Giovanni said with his arms outstretched by his sides to indicate the guests. “We must have lunch tomorrow, though. My treat.”

As he said it, he nodded imperceptibly to his chief of security. Johnny Scars nodded back and surreptitiously made a signal to the rest of his team. He knew to be ready in the event that the Russians should try something.

“Well, then I will graciously accept your offer, my friend,” Dmitri said. He smiled even wider and nodded once. At that signal, Johnny Scars and the other members of Giovanni Lupo’s security detail fell as eight shots rang out.

“Snipers!” Antonio yelled as he grabbed Linda and started running towards the house at an oblique angle. He spotted ten men on the roof and realized that they were targeting the Dons as well as the security. A quick glance back showed his father fall to the ground with a bullet through his leg. He couldn’t stop though. He needed to get his new wife to safety before he could help his family… if any of them survived.

Once in the house, an O’Hara security man met him and took charge of Linda. At Antonio’s request, the man gave him a gun, and the son of Don Giovanni ran back out into the hailstorm of bullets.

He emerged to see Dmitri put his gun to Giovanni’s head and pull the trigger. His father’s head flew backward as the bullet took the back half of his skull with it.

Without thinking, Antonio lifted the Beretta 92FS and took careful aim. He squeezed the trigger once, and a small red dot appeared in Dmitri’s forehead. The Russian’s face took on a surprised expression, and he fell to his knees. Then he toppled over, dead.

“Your boss is dead!” Antonio shouted at the Russians, over the din of gunfire.

The other Russians paused for a moment as they all looked at Dmitri’s corpse. The Italians and Irish, having taken cover, used that moment to open fire on the Russians again. Several more of the Russian Bratva died in a hail of bullets before they returned their attention to the Alliance shooters. The Mafiosi kept up their fire as the Russians used what cover they could find. The shooters on the roof of the O’Hara home died when the Irishmen inside the house figured out that the ex-KGB goons were on the roof.

The tide seemed to turn in favor of the Allies, but then even more Russians entered the backyard with automatic weapons. Bullets flew on both sides, but the Italians and the Irish faced insurmountable numbers and firepower. Outmanned and outgunned, they had to choice but to pull back into the house.

Most of the O’Hara security team was still alive, and working to get the women and children out of harm’s way. Antonio looked around, but could only spot a few of his Family that were still alive. Even his brother was missing, which seemed strange. Salvatore wouldn’t desert his family. That was unthinkable! Yet his body wasn’t anywhere to be seen, nor was he anywhere in sight!

Antonio pushed it to the back of his mind for now. They still had to deal with the invading Russians. As he moved into a fallback position, it dawned on Antonio that he was now the de facto leader of the Lupo Family!

He shouted to his remaining soldiers, rallying them to him where he could. He only had nineteen soldiers left, out of the fifty who’d accompanied them to the wedding and reception. Together, they barricaded themselves inside the house.

Kevin O’Hara always had a plan in case his enemies invaded and overran his estate. He had a secret escape tunnel leading to a second property of his that nobody knew existed. It was into this tunnel that he ushered the women and children. Once they were all inside and on their way, he turned to his enforcers and nodded. They knew what they had to do. Kevin was many things, but he was also an honorable man. None could ever accuse him of deserting his friends and allies. He had to help Antonio and any others of the Lupo clan who might still be alive. So with that in mind, he and his men made their way back up the stairs and into the house itself.

Kevin, being the man he was, always led from the front. Having served two tours of duty in Vietnam, he also hired veterans as enforcers whenever possible. He quickly spotted Antonio and some of the Italian Mafiosi defending the dining room. They’d barricaded themselves behind the huge oak table, and fired sparingly at the Russians trying to breach the house itself. From the precision shooting, he knew two things. First, they were almost out of ammunition. Second, they used good fire discipline, judging by how many Russian bodies littered the ground.

Seeing their predicament, Kevin and his enforcers moved into a position to give the Italian soldiers supporting fire. They opened up on the Russians from the flank, taking down seven in quick succession. The Irishmen moved forward quickly, firing into the Bratva soldiers, all either ex-KGB or Spetsnaz. It didn’t matter when they were outflanked by ten pissed off Irishmen with semi-automatic pistols and submachine guns.

They started to turn the tide against the Russians, but the Bratva launched a flanking attack of their own. The front door crashed inward, and suddenly the Italians and their Irish allies found themselves caught in the crossfire. Three more of Antonio’s soldiers died before they could react to the new threat.

Then the Bratva entering through the front door spotted the Irish flank attack, and opened fire on them, even as Antonio pivoted in a crouch and took careful aim. He only had six rounds left, so he had to make them count.

He fired once, twice, three times, and three Bratva soldiers fell in rapid succession. He shifted his aim and fired three more times, and the slide on his Beretta locked back as three more Russians died.

“I’m out!” he shouted to his men.

“Two rounds left, Boss,” said Angelo to his left. One thing Giovanni drilled into his men was counting bullets during a firefight. He knew, as did Antonio, that failing to reload when you needed to would result in a loss of lives.

“Kitchen!” Antonio yelled, nodding towards the kitchen island, which would provide cover. It would give the Russians breaching at the front door little chance to hit them, while totally obscuring them from the Russians at the back.

“Antonio!” Kevin shouted as his enforcers finally stemmed the tide at the front door.

“Kevin. We’re pinned down in the kitchen and out of ammo!” Antonio replied, even as the AK-47s riddled the kitchen island with 7.62mm rounds.

“On our way, son!” Kevin shouted back, and his men broke cover and sprayed the Russians with hot lead.

The Bratva soldiers dived for cover, but three of them died in the hail of bullets. Those who made it to defensible positions leaned out and sprayed bullets of their own back at the attacking Irishmen.

When Kevin and three of his men made it to the island, they handed some Beretta magazines full of 9mm ammo to the surviving Lupo clan.

“Thank you, sir,” Antonio said as he loaded his pistol and racked the slide. The others did the same and broke cover to peek at where the Russians were hiding.

“We’ll draw their fire, Tony,” Kevin said, looking at his men and nodding. “When they start shooting at us, take ‘em down.”

“Yes, sir,” Antonio replied. “Good luck!”

“The same to you, son,” Kevin smirked back, then checked the magazine in his Uzi and nodded once more to his enforcers.

At his signal, the Irishmen broke cover and started firing controlled bursts at the Russians while moving back towards the heavy table. Antonio waited for the Russians to peek out, and fired one round when one showed himself. That bullet hit the Bratva thug between the eyes, killing him instantly.

Then Antonio turned to his soldiers. “Follow me,” he said simply. Then he jumped from cover and sprinted towards the where the Russians hid. While the O’Hara enforcers held the Russians’ attention, Antonio and his men managed to close distance quickly. Antonio went into a slide, passing one of the couches and firing his pistol as the Bratva thugs hiding behind it came into view.

Two more Lupo soldiers hit the floor and slid, popping several more enemies with alacrity as they came into view.

Then it was over. A deathly silence covered the house, signaling that the attack was over. Antonio and his men stood up, scanning around them for any sign of the Russians.

“Tony!” Tommy McCarthy, one of Kevin’s men shouted. “Tony, they hit Kevin!”

Hearing the declaration, Antonio ran to where Kevin lay bleeding.

“Don’t bother, son,” Kevin coughed. “Two bullets to the chest… lung punctured.”

“Hold on, Kevin!” Antonio replied. “We can have an ambulance here in no time.”

“No!” Kevin rasped. He started coughing up blood, but recovered one last time. “Get Siobhan and Linda out of here. We’re too weak to fight back, and the Russians are going to be out for blood. Tell my wife… tell her I love her. Tell her to take our people back to Boston. Keep… Linda… safe.”

With that final declaration, Kevin O’Hara’s eyes glassed over and he expelled his final breath. Antonio reached up and closed his father-in-law’s eyes. “I will, sir,” he declared solemnly.

“What… what’s going on?” A bleary voice asked from the direction of the backyard. Antonio shot to his feet and aimed his pistol. Then he lowered it as he saw a bruised and bleeding Salvatore enter the house.

“Where were you, Sal?” Antonio asked, his voice a mixture of accusation and concern for his brother’s welfare.

“I think a bullet grazed me when the shooting started,” the younger Lupo replied. He put a hand to the side of his head, and it came back bloody.

Then the sirens sounded, as the police responded to the many reports of gunfire in the neighborhood. Antonio looked up at the remaining Irish and Italian gangsters.

“Let’s go, everyone! Into the tunnel!” Antonio ordered, leading the way as the handful of soldiers and enforcers followed him, one of them helping Salvatore walk. As he led the way, Tommy came up beside him.

“Standard procedure is in effect, Mr. Lupo,” Tommy said. “As soon as we exit the tunnel, we blow this end of it to cover our escape. There will be cars waiting for us on the other end, and we get our people outta here.”

“Thank you, Tommy,” Antonio replied. “Do as Kevin instructed and help Siobhan get your people back to Boston.”

“Yes, sir,” Tommy replied professionally. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take Linda, and any of my people who want to follow me, out of New York,” he replied simply.

“Where will you go, though?” Tommy asked. “We can make room for you up in Boston. We have resources up there. Hell, we can get some firepower together, and come back and wipe those commie bastards out!”

Antonio glanced at the senior ranking member of the O’Hara crime Family. “Thank you, Tommy, but my first order of business is to keep Linda safe. I can’t do that if I’m leading or joining you on a mission of revenge against the Russians. Besides, that wasn’t what Kevin wanted me to do. He wants
all
of us safe, though. That means that we have to leave town and stay gone.”

“So you’re running?” Tommy bristled. “I’ve known you for over a year, Tony. We’ve worked together several times, and I know you ain’t a coward. Now you want to turn tail and run?”

“Our families are done, Tommy,” Antonio said calmly. “You heard the sirens coming. The cops are going to be all over this place in no time. They’re going to see Kevin and my father, dead along with the Russian bastards who attacked us. We lost over a hundred people today. The Russians lost as many, if not more. The carnage here is going to bring the wrath of the NYPD down upon us all if we don’t leave
now
.”

“We’ll need to clean out the accounts, then,” Tommy said with a resigned sigh. “We need to clean them out before the cops can freeze us out.”

“Exactly,” Antonio said with a nod. “Time is critical here, so we have to do so as quickly as possible. As soon as you and Siobhan get clear, get her to the bank to clear out all of your personal accounts. I’ll do the same at our bank. We have to-“