Chapter 3 - RESURRECTED IN THE DARKThe ExtractionThe atmosphere in the chapel shattered from solemn grief to pure terror. Marco realized in a terrifying instant that his coup had collapsed before it even began.
"He's possessed! It's a trick!" Marco yelled, reaching for his weapon to finish the job.
"DOWN!" Vincent roared, drawing his revolver and aiming it directly at Marco’s chest. "Touch the Don and you die where you stand!"
Chaos erupted. Marco’s loyalists fired two shots into the ceiling to create cover, grabbing Marco and hauling him out through the chapel’s rear service entrance into an awaiting black SUV. Tires screeched as they fled into the rainy afternoon.
"Elena... get me out of here..." Prattasio managed to whisper, his body shaking violently as the paralytic neurotoxin began to wear off, causing excruciating muscle spasms. "Marco controls... the main estate. We can't go back."
"Where do we go, Don Prattasio?" Vincent asked, kneeling beside the casket, his hands shaking as he helped lift his leader out of the wooden grave.
"The Old Docks," Prattasio gritted out, gripping Veto’s collar for stability. "The fish processing plant. Underground vault B."
Within five minutes, Prattasio was loaded into the back of an armored sedan, wrapped in heavy wool blankets. Veto sat right on top of him, refusing to move an inch, his heavy body providing warmth to his shivering master.
As the sedan sped through the rain-slicked streets of the city, Dr. Vance was thrown into the trunk, bound with zip-ties.
An hour later, inside the damp, concrete subterranean room beneath the abandoned fish factory, Prattasio sat in a metal chair while an old military medic—loyal only to the original Lori bloodline—flushed his veins with saline and atropine.
Dr. Vance was thrown onto the cold concrete floor before him. Veto stood over the doctor, a low, murderous rumble echoing in his chest.
"Speak," Prattasio said. His voice was regaining its terrifying, gravelly authority. "You signed my death certificate while my heart was still beating. Who paid you?"
Dr. Vance was crying hysterically, urine soaking his expensive trousers. "It wasn't just Marco! I swear on my mother's life, Prattasio! Marco was just the foot soldier!"
Prattasio leaned forward, his hands resting on his knees. "Who gave you the Tetrodotoxin?"
"It was... it was the Five Families Council!" Vance sobbed. "They held a secret meeting three days ago! You refused to let them open the human trafficking corridors through the docks! They decided you had to die, but they couldn't execute you publicly because your men would burn the city down! So Marco offered to poison you from the inside!"
Elena gasped. "All five families? They all agreed to this?"
"Yes!" Vance wept. "Marco was promised your throne, Elena was supposed to be married off to the Moretti family to cement the alliance, and the Lori empire was to be carved up like meat!"
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Prattasio looked down at Veto. The dog raised his head, locking eyes with his master.
"They buried me," Prattasio whispered softly, a cold, monstrous smile creeping across his lips. "They gave me a casket, a chapel, and a priest. Now... I’m going to give them a funeral."
