He met my eyes.
“I enter this life alive?—”
Footsteps echoed.
One by one, they came.
Abandonato.
Campisi.
Nicolasi.
Petrov.
De Lange.
Sinacore.
Every family. Every debt. Every witness.
In the far corner, Phoenix stood with Cassian at gunpoint.
Good.
He’d gotten my text.
“As burns this saint,” Phoenix said, stepping forward.
King Campisi stood beside him and finished, “so burns my soul.”
Dante nodded. “I enter alive. I will exit dead.”
“Amen,” the room murmured.
He smiled at me.
Exhaled.
I pulled the trigger.
As he fell, as blood pooled and the room filled with silence, each man stepped forward. One by one, they crossed themselves making a silent gesture over their hearts. Then they turned and walked out the hidden back entrance one by fucking one.
No speeches.
No chaos.
Just powerful men saying goodbye to their family, their friend.
I stayed.
I waited.
Ten minutes.
I waited until the footsteps cleared and all that was left was Dante in a pool of blood I’d created and the sound of my own ragged breathing.
And stared at my father-in-law lying their lifeless on the floor—and I imagined my little brother, I imagined all the lives lost… for what? In honor of what? And I cried.