Chapter 10
Matteo stared at the heavy gold ring resting on the steel table. He slowly reached out, his tattooed fingers picking up the ancient piece of jewelry. He pressed his thumb against the back of the family crest and applied pressure. With a soft, metallic click, the back plate twisted off, revealing a tiny, hidden compartment.
Resting inside was a microscopic SD card.
The silence in the concrete room was absolute. Matteo stared at the tiny piece of plastic. It was the key to an empire. It was the absolute destruction of every rival Mafia family in the country. His father hadn't just faked his death to test his son; he had handed his son the ultimate weapon, daring him to use it.
"He gave it to the child," Nolan whispered, his voice trembling with awe and horror. "He knew you would protect her. He knew Celeste would try to take it."
"He used my daughter as bait," Matteo realized, a dark, freezing anger blossoming in his chest. His father had put a three-year-old girl in the crosshairs of a ruthless conspiracy just to deliver a message.
"Matteo, you have to let me go," Nolan pleaded, thrashing uselessly against the straps. "If the old man is alive, he's going to purge the entire family! We have to team up! We can use those files to take over the Commission together!"
Matteo slowly screwed the back plate onto the ring. He slipped the heavy gold band onto his own finger. It fit perfectly.
"We are not teaming up, Nolan," Matteo said softly. He stood up from the steel chair, picking up his tailored suit jacket and slipping it back over his broad, masculine shoulders. "You are going to stay in this room. Until you starve to death. And your sister will sit in the room next door, listening to you die."
"No! Please! Matteo!" Nolan screamed, raw terror ripping through his vocal cords.
Matteo ignored the screaming man. He turned and walked out of the interrogation room, the heavy steel door shutting with a loud, final slam that cut off the noise instantly.
He walked up the concrete stairs, leaving the darkness of the basement behind him, and stepped back into the bright, cinematic light of the hotel corridors. He pulled his smartphone from his pocket and dialed a secure number.
"Vance," Matteo said, his voice a low, terrifying rumble as the capo answered.
"Boss, we swept the perimeter," Vance reported urgently. "We found nothing. No sign of the old man."
"Call off the search," Matteo commanded, stopping in front of the massive glass doors of the hotel lobby. He looked out into the bright, sunlit streets of the city. "He doesn't want to be found yet. He is watching us."
"What are your orders, Boss?" Vance asked.
Matteo looked down at the gold signet ring on his finger, feeling the heavy, lethal weight of the secrets hidden inside it. The wolves were in the house, but he had just become the apex predator.
May you like
"Lock down the city," Matteo ordered, his volume incredibly low, every word measured, cold, and dangerous. "Prepare the strike teams. If my father wants a war to cleanse this family, I am going to give him a massacre."
Before he could hang up the phone, a massive, deafening explosion rocked the street outside. The heavy glass doors of the hotel lobby shattered inward in a spectacular shower of crystal, throwing the bright, cinematic foyer into absolute chaos. The ghosts of the past hadn't just returned; they had struck first.
