CHAPTER 8 — Blood Is the Greatest Weapon
For one terrifying second...
Everyone pointed guns at everyone else.
Vincent aimed at Giovanni.
Marcus aimed at Giovanni.
Tony covered the tunnel entrance.
Elena stood frozen between two families that had both been stolen from her.
Then Giovanni laughed.
A slow...
Cold...
Terrifying laugh.
"You still don't understand."
He snapped his fingers.
The tunnel lights instantly went black.
A deafening explosion shook the underground chamber.
The ceiling cracked.
Concrete rained down.
Smoke swallowed everything.
Gunfire erupted from every direction.
Vincent grabbed Elena and pulled her behind a stone pillar.
Marcus rolled across the floor, firing into the darkness.
Tony shouted,
"Snipers!"
Red laser sights danced across the tunnel walls.
Moretti hadn't come with six men.
He had come with an army.
Dozens of masked gunmen flooded into the cellar from hidden passages no one else knew existed.
The underground vault became a battlefield.
Bullets tore through ancient wine barrels.
Stone columns exploded into clouds of dust.
Marcus fought beside Vincent without speaking.
Father and son—who had spent the night trying to kill one another—now instinctively protected each other's backs.
At one point, Marcus shoved Vincent to the ground just as a sniper's bullet shattered the wall where his head had been.
Vincent looked up in disbelief.
Marcus didn't even turn around.
He simply shouted,
"Stay alive!"
"I still have too many questions!"
Across the room, Elena chased Giovanni through a narrow stone corridor.
For the first time in her life...
She was face to face with the man who had stolen everything from her.
Giovanni stopped beside an enormous steel door.
He entered a security code.
The vault slowly opened.
Inside...
Not gold.
Not weapons.
Not cash.
Hundreds of shelves filled with thick black files.
Each one labeled with a powerful name.
Judges.
Governors.
Police commissioners.
Presidents.
Business tycoons.
Every file contained photographs, recordings, financial records, and years of blackmail evidence.
Giovanni smiled proudly.
"This..."
"...is the real empire."
"Money disappears."
"Power changes."
"But secrets..."
"Control the world forever."
Elena slowly raised her pistol.
"It ends tonight."
Giovanni looked at her almost lovingly.
"No, my dear."
"It begins tonight."
He pressed a hidden button beneath the shelf.
A loud alarm echoed through the vault.
On a giant monitor mounted to the wall, dozens of countdown timers suddenly appeared.
SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED
09:59...
09:58...
Tony's face turned white.
"Oh no..."
Vincent stared at the screen.
"What is it?"
Tony whispered the words that made everyone freeze.
"This bunker sits directly beneath the mansion..."
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"If that system reaches zero..."
"...the entire estate—and everyone inside it—will be blown off the map."
