Chapter 17 - Blood and Steel"Alessandro!" Vance choked out, his face turning the color of curdled milk as he scrambled backward, desperately reaching for the gold-plated pistol holstered beneath his armpit.
Before his fingers could wrap around the grip, Sophia stepped out from the shadows beside me, raising her suppressed pistol and firing a single, perfect shot straight into the hand of his gun-arm.
Crack.
Vance shrieked, clutching his bleeding wrist as he collapsed back into a folding chair, kicking his legs out in blind panic.
"Traitor!" Vance snarled, glaring at his twin sister. "You survived the estate purge? How?!"
"Family tradition, brother," Sophia replied coldly, stepping forward and kicking his fallen pistol across the concrete floor. "We always clean house when the rats get too comfortable."
The Marseille lieutenants scrambled for their weapons, but before they could clear their holsters, the red laser sights of our assault rifles flooded the warehouse from every angle. From the upper catwalks, hidden laser dots locked onto every single man at the table.
"Drop your weapons, or you die right where you sit," I commanded, stepping forward into the harsh glare of the halogen lights, my Beretta aimed dead-center at Vance’s forehead.
Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. In the underworld, loyalty was bought, but survival was absolute.
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Vance clutched his bleeding hand, his eyes wild with terror as he stared up at me. "You can't kill me, Alessandro! The Marseille Cartel controls the entire Atlantic shipping network! If you drop me, your ports will be embargoed within forty-eight hours! You'll be broke, isolated, and hunted by international syndicates for the rest of your life!"
"Let me clear up a common misconception about my business model, Vance," I said, walking slowly until the barrel of my gun touched the skin between his eyebrows. "I don't rent power from international syndicates. I own the ocean they sail on."
