CHAPTER 4 — The Video That Could Destroy an Empire
Lorenzo Rossi stood outside the cabin with twenty armed men.
Snow swirled around the black SUVs like ghosts.
His voice echoed through a loudspeaker.
"Dominic... you have one minute."
"Walk out alone."
"The maid walks out first."
"I'll make her death quick."
Sarah's face turned white.
Dominic reached for another magazine.
Only three bullets remained.
Ben checked the hunting rifle.
Empty.
Silence settled over the cabin.
Not fear.
Acceptance.
Then Sarah slid the memory card into an old laptop powered by a truck battery.
The screen flickered.
Static.
A date appeared.
Three months earlier.
Carmine Rossi sat alone inside his office.
He looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this..."
"I'm already dead."
He took a slow breath.
"My brother Lorenzo will kill me."
"He believes power belongs to whoever pulls the trigger first."
"But he forgot something."
Carmine smiled sadly.
"Every empire leaves fingerprints."
The video switched.
Bank transfers.
Secret offshore accounts.
Politicians accepting cash.
Judges taking bribes.
Federal agents shaking hands with mafia captains.
Sarah couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Then came the final clip.
Lorenzo himself.
Standing beside two masked assassins.
"Kill my brother."
"And make sure Dominic dies with him."
The room fell completely silent.
Dominic stared at the screen.
His hands shook.
Not from blood loss.
From heartbreak.
"My uncle..."
"He ordered it himself."
Ben slowly closed the laptop.
"That's why Carmine hid the truth."
"If this reaches the authorities..."
Half the city's elite will fall."
Outside...
Lorenzo checked his watch.
"Time's up."
The first rocket slammed into the cabin wall.
Wood exploded.
Flames raced across the ceiling.
Sarah grabbed the laptop.
Dominic grabbed the memory card.
Ben kicked open a trapdoor beneath the fireplace.
"There isn't much time."
"What is this?" Sarah shouted.
Ben smiled.
"Carmine built more than a mansion."
"He built escape routes."
One by one...
they disappeared underground.
Seconds later...
the cabin exploded.
Lorenzo watched the fire consume everything.
He smiled.
"Burn it all."
"They're dead."
He turned back toward his SUV.
Never noticing...
May you like
three figures crawling through an old smuggler's tunnel beneath the frozen mountain.
The hunt had begun again.
