Chapter 8 - FIRE AND ASHES IN THE COURTYARDThe corridors of the Moretti estate were an inferno of smoke, shattered glass, and flickering emergency lights. Sirens wailed in the distance, but no police would ever arrive in time—in this part of the city, Matteo Moretti was the law, and Rossi intended to execute a hostile takeover by erasing him entirely.
Clara half-dragged, half-supported Matteo down the narrow, hidden service corridor behind the library, leading toward the ancestral wine cellar where the underground tunnel network began. Bruno trotted tightly by their side, his low, rumbling growl cutting through the roar of the crackling flames above.
"Stop," Matteo whispered, leaning heavily against a stone pillar as blood continued to seep through his fingers. He pulled a heavy iron ring on the floor, lifting a hidden trapdoor that led down into pitch-black darkness. "Go down. Now."
"Not without you," Clara said fiercely.
"Clara, listen to me," Matteo gripped her face with his blood-stained hand, his dark eyes burning with absolute, desperate intensity. "Rossi is waiting at the exit tunnel. He knows this escape route. If we go down there together, we walk into a firing squad."
"Then you want me to run away and leave you here to die?" Clara's voice cracked, tears finally breaking free, cutting clean tracks through the soot and ash on her cheeks. "After everything—after you found out who I really am, after you let me in—you're just going to throw me away?"
Matteo stared at her, the cold, emotionless mafia boss completely stripped away, leaving only a man who had finally found something worth more than his own empire.
"I'm not throwing you away," Matteo murmured, leaning down to press his forehead against hers, ignoring the blood dripping onto her shoulder. "I'm keeping you alive. Bruno! Guard!"
At the command, the massive Cane Corso instantly stepped in front of Clara, pressing his heavy body against her legs, blocking her from following Matteo as the mafia boss turned and began limping back toward the burning corridor.
"Matteo! No!" Clara screamed, lunging forward, but Bruno held her back with gentle, immovable strength, whining softly as he planted his paws into the stone floor.
Matteo didn't look back. He drew his silver pistol with his right hand, stepping out into the roaring smoke just as Don Vincenzo Rossi’s voice echoed down the hall.
"It's over, Moretti! Give up the estate, and maybe I'll let your little maid die quickly!" Rossi sneered.
"Vincenzo," Matteo’s voice echoed back, calm, lethal, and dripping with absolute malice. "You forgot one rule in the syndicate."
"What's that?" Rossi barked a laugh.
"Never leave a wounded wolf in the dark."
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Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three deafening shots echoed through the smoke, followed by a chorus of panicked shouts, the shattering of glass, and then—silence. Absolute, terrifying silence.
