Chapter 2 - Blood on the Crest
The security building was a brutalist concrete structure near the main gates. Damiano approached silently, noting the absent exterior guards. He slipped through the side maintenance door, a ghost in his own empire.
Voices echoed down the concrete hallway.
"Keep her quiet. The Boss won't leave the main house until noon. We handle the kid, we handle him."
Damiano stepped around the corner. Two men wearing the Vitale family crest stood outside the holding cell. They didn't even have time to reach for their weapons. Damiano fired twice—suppressed, efficient, lethal. Both men dropped to the floor with hollow thuds.
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He stepped over their bodies, hiding the little girl's face against his shoulder, and kicked open the heavy steel door of the holding cell.
Bound to a metal chair, her lip split and her dark hair plastered to her sweat-soaked forehead, was Clara. Ten years hadn't erased the fire in her eyes. When she looked up and saw Damiano standing in the doorway with her daughter in his arms, a shattered sob broke through her bloody lips.
