Chapter 4 - A Bullet for LoyaltyThe world seemed to stop spinning. The roar of the fire downstairs, the acrid smoke burning my throat, the terrifying proximity of Marcus Vance down in the foyer—all of it faded into complete insignificance compared to the cold steel barrel pressed against the nape of my neck.
I looked at Dominic.
For the first time since I had met the feared mob boss, absolute terror flashed across his face. Not for himself—but for the trap closing around us.
"Viktor," Dominic said, his voice dangerously low, vibrating with a lethal fury that could shatter glass. "Lower the weapon. Now. I will give you a clean death if you drop it in the next three seconds."
Viktor didn't flinch. His grip on his Glock remained rock-steady.
"It's over, Don Rosetti," Viktor replied, his voice devoid of any hesitation. "The entire west estate guard is ours. The local police are paid off to stay twenty minutes away. By morning, this house will be nothing more than ash, and the Syndicate will control every dock from here to Milwaukee."
"You think I didn't plan for rats?" Dominic’s lips curled into a razor-sharp smirk.
Before Viktor could process the warning, the heavy oak doors to the medical wing behind us blew open with a deafening crash.
Three flashbang grenades rolled across the marble floor, spinning wildly.
FLASH! BANG!
A blinding white light swallowed the hallway, accompanied by a concussive shockwave that shattered every window within twenty feet. Viktor shrieked, dropping his weapon as his ears rang and his vision went completely white.
I hit the floor, covering my head as hot shrapnel whizzed overhead.
Through the roaring tinnitus in my ears, I heard boots pounding down the corridor from the master suites. It wasn't the Syndicate. It was Dominic’s personal inner circle—men who hadn't been corrupted by Marcus’s bribes, led by a fierce, battle-scarred veteran named Mateo whom Dominic had kept hidden in reserve.
"Clear!" Mateo roared, firing a shotgun blast that blew Viktor backward into the wall, knocking him unconscious before he could recover his sight.
Dominic didn't hesitate. While Marcus Vance down in the foyer was still blinded by the secondary smoke from the flashbangs, Dominic leaned over the stone banister, took a deliberate two-handed grip on his pistol, and squeezed the trigger three times.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Marcus dropped his detonator, clutching his chest as he stumbled backward against the marble pillar, sliding down into a pool of dark blood. The detonator clattered harmlessly across the stone floor, its LED status light blinking from red to green—disarmed by the sudden loss of signal.
"Secure the perimeter!" Dominic ordered, his voice echoing like thunder through the burning mansion. "Flush every last cockroach out of my house!"
Mateo and his men swarmed down the stairs, neutralizing the remaining mercenaries in a brief, brutal firefight that lasted less than forty seconds.
Silence descended upon the grand hall once more, broken only by the crackle of flames licking at the lower-level tapestries.
Dominic walked slowly over to where Marcus Vance lay gasping his final breaths. The mob boss looked down at his former friend with cold, detached pity.
"You wanted a principality, Marcus," Dominic said softly, kicking the dead man's assault rifle away from his reach. "Here is your kingdom."
Dominic turned around, walking back up the stairs toward me. He extended a leather-gloved hand, pulling me up from the soot-stained floor.
"You saved my life back there, Noah," Dominic said, inspecting my soot-covered sweater—the same one I had wrapped around Lily in the alley. "And you didn't run when Viktor turned his gun on you."
"I told you," I panted, coughing as a lungful of smoke hit me. "I'm not running anywhere."
Dominic clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder, his expression turning grim. "The fire is contained, but this was just an advance scout party. The real head of the Syndicate—the man who ordered the hit on my family—is still out there. And he has something belonging to my wife that we need to recover."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, wiping soot from my forehead.
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Dominic pulled a small, encrypted flash drive out of Marcus Vance's tactical vest pocket.
"Eva didn't just leave a prophecy about you, Noah," Dominic said quietly, looking toward the dark hallway leading to Lily's room. "She left a ledger. And the men who killed her are coming back to finish what they started."
