While Little Dom Solomon, Manfredi Marinelli, and I were putting our all into catching Gata Melata, a new pursuer showed up.
It was none other than Vince Lumini.
Alongside Lumini, two caporegimes from the Felini Family, Richard Vanella and Belcastro Granada, who had been putting pressure on the Sanchez Family from the east, resumed their attack due to the collapse of negotiations stemming from Melata’s escape.
The Five Families had only just paused their offensive against the Sanchez Family for this negotiation, after all.
But Lumini had been sitting on quite a bit of firepower even before.
He immediately unleashed his men to thoroughly search the eastern region of the Sanchez Family’s territory.
With the pursuers multiplying, Gata Melata also had his own scheme in mind as he found himself cornered from all sides.
His family had already been sent off to the Dragovich Family’s turf.
When this war broke out abruptly, the first thing Melata did was secure his family’s safety. They had been sheltered until this opportunity arose to send them to the Dragovich Family.
Now the only question was how Melata himself could escape unharmed.
“Boss, everyone’s joined up.”
“Good, step on it southwest.”
This escape wasn’t just for Melata and his close associates.
Some caporegimes of the Sanchez Family, who refused Melata’s sudden orders, chose to either fight fiercely or surrender to the Five Families instead of fleeing.
However, caporegimes of a similar scale joined in on Melata’s escape.
What began as just a few cars heading to the negotiation site had transformed into a convoy of dozens of vehicles.
Of course, even with this kind of scale, they couldn’t exactly feel safe. The answer was simple—the ones chasing Melata were of a magnitude that made this escape caravan look pitiful.
The first people they encountered were Lumini’s men.
Whether Melata was heading southwest or southeast, moving south at all meant he would inevitably run into Lumini’s guys.
Even if they managed to break through them, the Marinelli Family was digging in, and even if they tried to dodge them, the Godfather and Solomon were hot on their tails—but Melata was blissfully unaware and couldn’t afford to worry about it.
“Boss! Hostiles ahead!”
“….”
Melata didn’t issue any commands.
Even with this chaos, some cars were already sacrificing themselves to block Lumini’s men, guided by silent signals from several caporegimes.
Even though their boss had taken out his predecessor and claimed that position, the members of the Sanchez Family proved their loyalty by defying him.
Of course, that loyalty was directed not at Sanchez but the current boss in charge, Melata.
The reason they risked their lives was clear.
They followed Sanchez, and Eddie Sanchez was their boss. Sanchez’s decisions weren’t always right or honorable, but in the Mafia, such doubts were never raised.
Sanchez was locked up and had no real understanding of what was going down in the Family. Yet, they still funneled lots of cash to hire a high-priced lawyer when Sanchez was indicted.
The Sanchez Family respected the very fact that their boss behaved the way he did to get where he was and ended up jailed as a result.
However, Sanchez surely would not have wanted to see their loyalty to him wasted like this now, in an effort to save Melata.
“Boss, they’ve lost sight of them.”
“What?”
Lumini’s first attempt ended in failure.
Just as they had charged in fiercely, the Sanchez Family had matched their intensity and stood their ground.
By ramming headfirst into the oncoming cars, Lumini’s men had no way to respond.
“….”
The usual Lumini would have cleared out long ago at the sight of their unexpectedly robust resistance.
“Keep chasing!”
Lumini ordered more forces to tighten the drag on them from various directions, so they couldn’t escape by just a vehicle or two falling out of the convoy.
But while they were busy with that, other players entered this fierce battlefield.
Several cars appeared from the south, with Lumini’s men descending from the north.
“Don’t pay attention! Just run!”
“It’s too close!”
“Just ram them!”
Melata’s luck wasn’t too shabby.
Members of the Marinelli Family, taken aback by the sudden scale of their enemies, were left flustered.
The size of Melata and the fleeing convoy was significant.
Those few cars clearly weren’t a match. But they also couldn’t show themselves like the Sanchez Family had.
Thus, the members of the Marinelli Family met an end as if they had been struck by an unforeseen blow.
“….”
They barely got through the second crisis, but a third one was already looming.
It hadn’t been long since Lumini personally started chasing Melata, so he was yet to appear at the scene.
But while Melata wasted time clashing with the Marinelli Family, Lumini’s men were rapidly closing in.
It was Lumini’s second attempt.
The Sanchez Family employed the same tactic as before. Several cars at the rear slowed down and started to reverse.
*
This time, the method they chose brought meaningful results.
At least for those chasing them closely.
Back at the crash site from earlier, other Lumini’s men were swiftly leaping back into the chase.
It was then that the Solomon Family made their entrance.
“Boss! We seem to be getting chased by others!”
“Don’t worry about that! We’re taking Melata!”
What Solomon commanded led to chaos with the Solomon Family’s entrance.
The Solomon men charged in from the north, barreling straight down south, disregarding whether they blocked the Sanchez Family or Lumini’s men.
Had Lumini been there, even as one of the Five Families’ bosses, he would have been enraged at the scene.
To put it alternatively… Melata’s bad luck came in handy.
Melata and his escaping convoy took advantage of the tangled land of the two forces and shifted southward. But it wasn’t long before Marinelli Family members revealed themselves.
It was all happening in the blink of an eye.
While Manfredi didn’t know about the tangle of Solomon’s and Lumini’s men, he was solely focused on not letting Melata slip away.
“….”
It seemed Melata’s luck was about to run out.
To seal the deal, a heavy vehicle came into view trailing behind with no other chasing cars in sight.
It was a bulletproof car occupied by the Godfather and his Wolf.
“What the hell is that?”
Manfredi writhed at the unexpected interference in the trap he and his brother had set. He had no clue that the one in that car was the Godfather.
The clash between the escape convoy and the Marinelli Family began.
For the escaping convoy, there was no method other than to ram into the enemies blocking the path. The vehicle harboring Melata gradually slipped to the back.
Among the wreckage of vehicles, only those that were still in decent shape began to step out and start shooting.
By proportion, damage was notably less on the Sanchez Family’s end, who had more members from the Golem.
“Turn the car around!”
“Wait a sec, Brother!”
“Sarina!”
“Yes!”
While that was happening, my bulletproof car was demonstrating some odd maneuvers.
Instead of barreling toward Melata’s escaping route, it began to reverse while keeping a safe distance.
With a loud bang, the rear door of the bulletproof vehicle I kicked opened, revealing something splendidly black.
A heavy machine gun, thick and hefty beyond comparison to a submachine gun.
Sarina held onto me firmly from the back seat—not just because of the recoil, but to help me fire more steadily.
The Wolf, in the driver’s seat, kept an eye on the rear while reversing, preparing for any potential emergencies. Despite all the buildup, the outcome was a matter of a single moment.
As soon as a flash of light emerged from the monster’s maw, the metal shot unleashed upon the enemies.
A stray bullet struck the heavily reinforced cement floor, blowing it apart in an instant, sending shards flying around. The Sanchez Family’s vehicles couldn’t withstand the blow either, crumpling like paper.
I had barely fired in one direction, but the entire area erupted.
“What the hell was that!”
The Marinelli Family was just as flabbergasted by the shocking turn of events. Unfortunately for them, they too were caught in the crossfire of what I’d shot.
What I aimed for was undoubtedly Melata.
In a flash, half of the escaping convoy was incapacitated. No matter how tough they were as Golem, they couldn’t withstand such a disaster.
The Marinelli Family might find it hard to admit, but had the Golem I just took out been in fine form, they’d have sustained more severe damage.
“Stop! Now halt!”
“Yes!”
The bulletproof vehicle ceased its advance, reversing out of reach.
I grunted under the recoil of the machine gun as I and Sarina closed the rear door of the bulletproof car.
“Luke, what do we do now?”
Sarina looked ready to bolt at any moment.
“Leave it to Manfredi. He should be able to handle it just fine.”
“What?”
Initially, Sarina and I intended to deal with it ourselves, but we changed our minds after what just transpired.
We hadn’t aimed to, but it was possible that my gunfire had taken out a member of the Marinelli Family, so I decided to leave the final blow against Melata to Manfredi and his brother.
“Brother, should we make a run for it?”
“….”
Sarina and I kept a watchful eye on the scene.
The Marinelli Family and the Sanchez Family were locked in a chaotic melee. Any attempt to fire the machine gun again would likely result in a massacre that wouldn’t distinguish between friend or foe.
Yet abandoning the scene entirely didn’t sit well with me either.
Soon after, the situation settled down.
Melata was dragged out in front of Manfredi and his brother, looking as if he were a defeated general.
He was bleeding profusely, the color reminiscent of the wide sky filled with a crimson sunset.
“Looks like I kept my promise to the Godmother.”
Manfredi celebrated his victory while surveying the surroundings.
The Godfather, the Solomon Family, Lumini’s men. He soaked in the gazes of those who had been hunting the same prey.
But he willingly decided to offer the chance to put an end to Melata’s life to the Godfather.
