Chapter 23 - The Enemy of My Enemy
I didn't blink, keeping my posture rigid and defensive. “The Moretti family was dismantled in the north. Your capos surrendered their shipping routes to the Rossi syndicate. What possible war could you be talking about?”
Isabella walked slowly toward the bookshelf, running a gloved finger along the spine of an antique leather-bound volume before turning to face me. The pale amber of her eyes burned with an intense, calculated fury.
“My father thought he could outsmart Dominic by buying off internal traitors like Leo,” Isabella said softly, a bitter edge to her voice. “He thought a frontal assault on the mountain estate would break the Rossi line. He was a fool. But my father wasn’t running the real operation. He was just a proxy for a much larger, invisible hand.”
“Keep talking,” I said, keeping my voice entirely level.
“There is a syndicate out of Marseille—the Corsican Syndicate, operating under the table as the Vipera network,” Isabella continued, stepping closer to the desk. “They funded my father’s rebellion. They financed Marco’s betrayal from the inside. And now that Dominic thinks he’s won, they’re moving their entire drug and weapons pipeline through the Mediterranean ports right under your noses.”
I stared at her, weighing every word. “Why come to me? Why not go straight to Dominic?”
“Because Dominic would put a bullet between my eyes before I finished my first sentence,” she replied bluntly. “You are the only person in his inner circle who evaluates threats based on facts rather than pride. You saved his life once, Dr. Hayes. If you don’t listen to me now, you’ll be signing his death warrant a second time.”
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Before I could answer, the heavy oak doors of the library swung open with a loud crash. Dominic stood on the threshold, his face carved from arctic ice, his hand resting securely on the grip of his Sig Sauer.
“Isabella,” Dominic growled, the single word dropping the temperature in the room by twenty degrees. “Step away from her.”
