Chapter 6
"You bugged my home," Dante stated, the horrifying reality settling into the bright, silent room.
Adrian’s fair skin turned a sickly, ashen gray. "Dante, listen to me. You have to understand the pressure the commission was under."
"You placed surveillance devices in the private sanctuary of my wife and my daughter," Dante repeated, taking a single, measured step toward the capo. The polished leather of his shoes echoed like a ticking clock. "You monitored the mother of my child."
"It was for security!" Adrian shouted, a desperate, pathetic attempt to reframe his treason. "The rival families were closing in! Elena was a civilian, she was a liability! I needed to ensure she wasn't leaking information to the feds or the Russians! I was protecting the family!"
"You were invading my life," Dante growled softly. He looked over at Victoria, who was weeping quietly, desperately trying to distance herself from the man on the floor. "And you, Victoria. You knew."
"I didn't!" Victoria pleaded, her hands clasped together in front of her elegant formal gown. "I swear to God, Dante, I only took the music! He told me it would secure my place in your heart! I just wanted you to love me!"
"You slapped my three-year-old daughter," Dante reminded her, his voice devoid of all warmth. "You showed me exactly what kind of love you possess. You are a parasite, attaching yourself to my power."
He turned his attention back to Adrian. The veteran Mafia boss crouched down smoothly, his tailored three-piece suit pulling tight across his broad shoulders. He looked directly into Adrian’s terrified, bleeding face.
"If you were monitoring Elena," Dante asked quietly, "then you were listening the night she died."
Adrian froze. His breathing stopped completely. The terrified glance he threw at Dante was no longer just about espionage; it was the look of a man staring into the abyss of his own damnation.
"It was a car accident," Adrian stammered, his American accent trembling violently. "The police report said the brakes failed on the coastal highway. It was a tragedy, Dante."
"You recorded her," Dante said, ignoring the excuse, his sharp eyes burning with a freezing, lethal intensity. "Which means you know exactly what happened in that car. Where are the tapes, Adrian?"
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"There are no tapes!" Adrian cried, scrambling backward until his back hit the legs of an overturned chair. "I destroyed them! The surveillance was unauthorized, if the commission found out I bugged the Don's house, they would have killed me!"
"They still will," Dante promised in a dead, calm whisper. "But I will get to you first. Take him."
