CHAPTER 1 — The Bullet That Changed the Devil's Heart
Rain hammered the empty streets of downtown Chicago just after midnight.
Black SUVs sped through deserted intersections while dozens of armed bodyguards surrounded the vehicle carrying the city's most feared man.
Vincent DeLuca.
A mafia boss whose name alone made politicians lower their voices.
A man who had survived eighteen assassination attempts.
A man who trusted no one.
Tonight would be the nineteenth.
Inside the armored limousine, Vincent calmly poured himself a glass of whiskey.
His right-hand man suddenly received a phone call.
His face turned pale.
"Boss... we've been betrayed."
Before Vincent could respond—
BOOM!
An explosion ripped through the lead SUV.
Gunfire erupted from every rooftop.
Bullets rained like a storm.
The convoy instantly became a battlefield.
"Protect the Boss!"
Bodyguards fired wildly while Vincent stepped out, pistol already in hand.
Three assassins charged from an alley.
Two fell instantly.
The third fired a sniper round that shattered Vincent's shoulder.
Blood splashed across the black pavement.
For the first time in twenty years...
The Devil of Chicago was bleeding.
His remaining guards were dying one after another.
The killers closed in.
Vincent realized something horrifying.
Someone inside his own organization had leaked every movement.
He had been sold.
The world's most powerful mafia king was about to die...
Not in a war.
But in an ambush arranged by his own family.
Just as the sniper aimed for Vincent's head—
A young woman suddenly sprinted from the opposite sidewalk.
"No!"
She slammed Vincent to the ground.
BANG!
The bullet missed his skull by less than an inch.
It tore through her shoulder instead.
Vincent stared in disbelief.
Nobody...
Nobody had ever taken a bullet for him.
Especially not a stranger.
The assassins rushed toward them.
The girl grabbed Vincent's pistol.
"I don't know who you are..."
"But if you want to live—follow me!"
Vincent almost laughed.
No one had ever given him orders.
Yet something in her fearless eyes made him obey.
She led him through abandoned subway tunnels beneath the city.
She knew hidden passages even Vincent had never discovered.
Behind them...
More than forty gunmen searched every corner.
Hours later...
They finally reached an abandoned church.
The girl collapsed from blood loss.
Vincent caught her before she hit the floor.
"What... is your name?"
She forced a weak smile.
"Emily Carter."
Then she lost consciousness.
Vincent looked at the blood covering his hands.
His own men had abandoned him.
His enemies wanted him dead.
Yet one ordinary woman had risked everything...
Without even knowing his name.
At that exact moment...
Something inside the cold-hearted mafia king changed forever.
He quietly whispered,
"Whoever hurt you..."
"...will disappear from this earth."
He didn't realize...
The greatest danger wasn't outside the church.
May you like
It had already been waiting inside his own family.
END OF CHAPTER 1
