Chapter 7 - The Romano Syndicate
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Across the city, in a smoke-filled room behind a high-end meatpacking facility, Don Carmine Romano slammed his fist onto a wooden table. The remaining men in the room flinched.
"You let a secretary get the drop on you?" Carmine roared, glaring at the thug with the broken collarbone.
"It wasn't her, Boss! It was Marco. Beluchcci's attack dog," the man stammered, sweating profusely. "They took her."
Carmine dragged a hand over his scarred face. For years, the Romanos had been slowly losing territory to Damian Beluchcci. Damian was smart, ruthless, and modernized. But Damian didn't have access to the old vault. The vault held the master blackmail files on the city's judges, police commissioners, and politicians. Whoever held those files owned New York.
"My inside man at the tower confirmed it," Carmine sneered, pacing the room. "The vault opened for her. That means Isabella's bastard child survived. She is the key."
His right-hand man, a vicious killer named Sal, stepped out of the shadows. "If Damian gets her to open the vault, he'll use the files to wipe us out completely. We have to strike the estate."
"The Beluchcci estate is a fortress," Carmine muttered.
"Fortresses can be breached," Sal replied, racking the slide of his pistol. "We hit them tonight. Full force. We don't just kill the girl. We kill Damian. We take the throne."
Carmine smiled, a twisted, ugly thing. "Call every man on the payroll. Equip them with heavy artillery. Tonight, the Beluchcci name dies."
Meanwhile, back at the estate, Norah was pacing the library. She couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom. She had spent eighteen months managing Damian's life, and she knew one thing for certain: when it was quiet in his world, it meant a storm was coming.
She turned to Damian. "Your internal security is compromised. Someone at the tower told the Romanos about the vault."
Damian looked at her, impressed. "You've been paying attention."
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"I'm a secretary. Paying attention is my job."
Suddenly, the estate's power grid failed, plunging the library into absolute darkness.
