Chapter 159
Chapter 159
Dominic’s POV.
My arms were crossed against my chest.
I didn’t say a word. I just stood there, jaw tight, listening.
The silence in the room was deliberate–no one dared speak until I gave the nod. Every man in that spate had seen me pissed before. This wasn’t that. This was worse. Controlled. Dangerous.
Julian broke the silence first. “We’ve swept every goddamn corner from Eastbrook to Silver District. Nothing.”
I didn’t react.
Luca looked up from the table, dragging a red marker across the city map. “But then we checked the surveillance from two nights ago at the Verde Lounge. Guess who was caught entering from the back entrance–around the same time Victoria’s car was seen there too?”
He tapped the screen of the tablet and turned it to face me.
Nico.
Clear as day. Hoodie down, head tilted toward her like they were whispering secrets. My stomach turned.
“Play the audio,” I said.
Julian hesitated. “Dom-”
“I said play it.”
He obeyed. The sound quality was shit–grainy and distorted–but Nico’s voice carried through anyway.
“You think he knows yet?” he asked.
Then Victoria’s voice: smooth, cold, amused. “If he did, I’d already be dead.”
A pause.
“Keep feeding me information,” she added. “And I promise, when Dominic falls–you won’t be left behind.”
I didn’t need to hear the rest.
I swiped the tablet off the table. It hit the floor, shattering, but no one flinched. No one moved.
Because they knew what came next.
“I trusted him,” Imuttered, almost to myself. “I treated him like family.”
“He was family,” Luca corrected carefully.
“No. Family doesn’t stab you in the back for a throne that isn’t theirs.” My voice came out low, deadly calm. “Family doesn’t feed your enemy play–by–pla details about your home. Your woman. Your goddamn life.”
“Victoria got to him,” Julian said. “You always said she would.”
I shook my head. “No. She didn’t get to him. He was always waiting for a reason to switch sides. She just lit the fuse.”
Julian stepped forward, more serious now. “There’s more.”
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I looked up. “Speak.”
“We tapped into one of Victoria’s backup lines the ones she thinks are buried too deep to trace. And there was a conversation from last night
He slid a file across the table. A transcript.
“She’s planning to take over Mikael’s territories. What’s left of them anyway. She needs Nico control is slipping.”
to
stabilize the chaos, make it look like Dominic De Luca’s
Lúca added, “And guess who’s leading the fake narrative? Nico. Feeding whispers to the press. Paying off key men to act like you’ve gone soft since Aria. Like the king has turned into a sentimental fool.”
I leaned over the table, hands planted flat.
“Where is he?”
Luca looked me in the eye. “We found him. An old villa in Belmire. Secluded. Guarded. But nothing we can’t handle.”
“Tonight,” I said.
“Tonight?” Julian echoed. “You want to go now?”
“I’ve waited long enough.”
I straightened up, looking around the room at my men. These weren’t pawns. These were the ones who’d bled with me, bled for me. The ones who had every reason to hate Nico for what he’d done.
“Anyone here scared of a little blood?” I asked dryly.
They all shook their heads.
“Good. Because we’re going in fast and quiet. No flashy entrance. I want Nico breathing when I get there, but just barely.”
Luca smirked. “I’ll get the toys.”
“Bring the van,” I said. “We’re not dragging him back in the trunk of a sedan.”
As the others began to move, I stayed back for a moment, letting it settle.
Nico. My brother in everything but blood. The one I’d once trusted to handle my life if I dropped dead.
He betrayed me for a woman who couldn’t even love herself.
He chose power over loyalty.
And now?
Now I was going to show him just how wrong that decision was.
I didn’t speak much on the drive. The silence inside the van was thick, broken only by the occasional hum of radio chatter between our men. Julian was beside me, gear strapped tight, his fingers twitching for action. Luca sat across from us, casually loading rounds into a pistol like it was a mor
We all had our ways of preparing. Mine was silence. Focus. I needed my head clear for this.
Because tonight? I wasn’t just going to capture Nico.
I was going to ruin him.
chore.
“Belmire’s old villa is covered on three sides,” Julian murmured, tapping the tablet. “Main gate, back entrance, and the balcony route. No guards on the
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east wall. It’s our way in.”
“Body count?” I asked.
“Seven inside. Two roaming the perimeter.”
“Anyone you recognize?”
“One.” Luca said. “Jarek. He used to work for Mikael.”
Of course. The rats always found new ships to crawl onto.
The van came to a stop. No screech. No headlights. Just a soft halt in the middle of overgrown gravel, trees casting shadows tall enough to swallow us whole.
I stepped out first..
The air was sharp with salt–Belmire sat just off the coast, a quiet estate once used for retreats and weddings. Now it housed cowards playing pretend with power.
“Headsets in,” Julian said, handing me mine.
I took it. Slipped it on. “Clock starts now. Fifteen minutes tops.”
We split. I took east like we planned. The wall was lower there, not much of a climb, I jumped, landed quiet, boots hitting stone like I’d done it a thousand times. Because I had.
Two guards patrolled the west. I saw their shadows shift behind the hedges.
Julian’s voice came through my earpiece. “West perimeter clear.”
Luca’s followed. “North secured. Back entrance locked, but I’m working.”
I slipped through an open window on the second floor, quiet as sin. A hallway stretched out before me–dim, dust–laced. I moved fast.
Downstairs, I heard voices. Laughter. Clinking glasses. Nico was drinking. Of course he was. Celebration always came before a downfall.
I found the stairwell and descended, careful not to make the wood creak. My gun was drawn, safety off.
Then-
Crash.
From the west end.
I tensed.
“False alarm,” Julian muttered, “One down. Quiet kill.
I moved. Turned the corner. Saw two of Nico’s men. One was nodding off with a glass in hand. The other–awake.
Too bad for him.
I hit him before he could blink. Elbow to the throat. Gun to the skull. He went down without a sound.
Julian and Luca joined me seconds later.
“Living room’s just ahead,” Luca whispered. “He’s in there. Confirmed.”
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“You sure?”
Luca held up a phone. “Live feed. Our guy hacked the villa’s external cams”
I looked at the screen.
There he was. Nico. Legs crossed, laughing at something Victoria wasn’t even around He was alone with his drink. Surrounded by men who
didn’t know this house was already on fire.
“Let’s end this,” I said.
We burst in like ghosts. No warnings. Three shots–center mass. Two guards dropped. The others rani.
Nico stood. Frozen.
He reached for something–too slow.
Julian slammed him against the wall. “Try it,” he snarled. “Please.”
Nico stared at me.
“I was wondering when you’d show,” he said with a smirk.
I punched him. No words. Just flesh meeting bone. His smirk vanished.
“I trusted you,” I said, breathing hard. “You broke that.”
“You chose her,” he spat. “Over everything we built-”
“Don’t you dare make this about her.”
“I had no choice!”
“There’s always a choice. And you chose betrayal.”
He tried to lunge. Luca stopped him with the butt of his gun to Nico’s stomach.
“I should kill you,” I said, voice low. “Right here. But I want answers first.”
He looked at me through bloodied teeth. “Then ask.”
“Where’s Victoria?”
He laughed. “Already gone. She doesn’t stick around for the wreckage.”
“And you?”
“I was waiting.”
“For what?”
“For you. For this.”
I stared at him. “Get up.”
He didn’t move.
Luca dragged him up.
08:54 Wed, 28 May WW.
Chapter 159
“Time’s ticking,” Julian warned. “We’ve got five minutes before we lose the blackout.”
“Cuff him,” I ordered. “He walks out alive–but barely.”
I got close.
“So help me, Nico… if 1 find out you touched Aria-
“I didn’t.”
His voice was bitter. “Victoria did all the planning. I just… let it happen.”
I nodded. One last thing.
I pulled the chain from my pocket–Aria’s. The one she lost when she was taken. I held it out.
“She survived. Despite you.”
His eyes flickered.
“I hope you rot in whatever cell we put you in.”
Then I turned to my men.
“Let’s go.”
