Chapter 7
"I will not ask you a second time, Vivienne," Cassandro said, taking a slow, deliberate step away from the stone wall. His unbuttoned shirt revealed the steady, calm rise and fall of his chest, a stark contrast to the explosive violence he had just committed.
"I don't know how to open it!" Vivienne wept, clutching a torn piece of cabana fabric to her chest. "Damian handled the construction! He paid the contractors! I swear to God, Cassandro, I don't know the mechanism!"
Cassandro’s cold, intimidating eyes shifted toward the ruined croquet rack where Damian still lay unconscious.
"Then your brother’s usefulness has expired," Cassandro murmured softly. He raised his tattooed hand, gesturing to the senior capos standing silently near the dining room doors. "Wake him up."
Two broad-shouldered men in dark suits marched across the bright green grass. They hauled Damian up by his expensive, ruined summer suit, dragging his limp body across the patio. One of the capos grabbed a bucket of ice water from a nearby refreshment table and threw it directly into Damian’s face.
Damian gasped, choking violently as consciousness returned. His fair skin was stained with blood from his shattered nose. He looked around in a panicked daze, his eyes finally landing on the terrifying, movie-star handsome face of his brother-in-law.
"Open the wall, Damian," Cassandro instructed. Every word was measured, cold, and dangerous.
"Dom... please, you gotta listen to me," Damian pleaded, his American accent thick and nasal through his broken face. "We did it for the family. Natalie was going to take the kid and leave! She was going to the feds! She had ledgers!"
"Open the wall," Cassandro repeated, his volume remaining unnervingly low.
"Cassandro, if you open that wall, you can't undo what you see!" Vivienne screamed from the floor, tears streaming down her face. "You have to understand, she was destroying your empire!"
"My empire means nothing without my queen," Cassandro said. He walked over to Damian, his polished shoe stopping an inch from the man's bleeding face. "If you do not trigger the release mechanism in the next five seconds, Damian, I will have my men break this wall down using your skull."
Damian swallowed hard, coughing up a mouthful of blood. He looked at the cold, unyielding eyes of the Mafia Boss and realized there was no escape.
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"The third stone from the bottom, on the left side," Damian wheezed, pointing a shaking finger toward the nearly invisible seam. "Push it in. It engages a hydraulic release."
Cassandro turned away from him in disgust. He walked back to the wall, his tattooed hands reaching for the specific stone Damian had indicated.
