Chapter 23 - The Final Verdict|
The tension in the safe room was thick enough to choke on. Alessandro held his gun perfectly steady against Lorenzo’s temple. His eyes were completely black, stripped of all the warmth and love I had known for the past three years. This was the Don of the Moretti family, executing a traitor.
"Alessandro," I said softly, lowering my own weapon and stepping out from my corner.
He didn't look at me. "Take Emma and go upstairs. It's safe now. My men are securing the property."
"Do it, nephew," Lorenzo taunted from the floor, a cruel smile stretching across his scarred face. "Show your wife the monster you really are. Let her see the blood on your hands."
I walked closer, placing a gentle hand on Alessandro's tense shoulder. "Don't do it. Not like this. Not in front of Emma."
Alessandro's jaw clenched. The muscles in his arm were coiled tight as a spring. I knew how deeply he hated this man, how much he wanted to erase the threat permanently. But I also knew that pulling the trigger in cold blood, in the same room as his daughter, would fracture his soul.
"He came for my family," Alessandro growled, his voice breaking slightly.
"And he failed," I replied softly. "Because you beat him. Let the families see him broken, dragged out in chains. Let them see that you don't need to behave like a butcher to maintain your power."
Alessandro held his breath for a long, agonizing moment. Slowly, incredibly slowly, he lowered the gun. He didn't holster it, but the immediate threat of execution passed.
He looked down at his uncle with utter disgust. "Marco," Alessandro barked, not taking his eyes off Lorenzo.
Marco, pale and bleeding, leaned against the wall. "Yes, Boss."
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"Bind him. Call the contacts in the federal prosecutor's office. Hand him over on a silver platter. Let him rot in a supermax prison where he can never touch the families again."
Lorenzo's smile finally vanished, replaced by a look of absolute horror. Death was quick. Irrelevance was a torture he couldn't bear.
