Part 8
Inside the hangar, the air smelled of aviation fuel, wet concrete, and fear.
Marcus Valente stood near the wing of a small twin-engine plane, checking his gold watch for the third time in five minutes.
“Where the hell are they?” he muttered to his primary lieutenant. “The cottage was only ten minutes away. They should have been back with her by now.”
The lieutenant didn't answer.
Because the heavy steel doors of the hangar were slowly sliding open.
Marcus turned, a confident, arrogant smile rising to his lips, expecting his men to walk in carrying a bound, defeated Meline Hayes.
The smile died instantly.
Through the opening stepped Dominic Valente.
Alone.
His long coat was unbuttoned, swaying slightly as he walked with a slow, predatory grace across the wide concrete floor.
Behind him, through the rain, Marcus could see the shapes of four more SUVs pulling up, blocking the hangar doors entirely.
Silas stepped into the light right behind Dominic, carrying a tactical submachine gun slung casually over his shoulder.
Marcus’s men inside the hangar immediately reached for their weapons, but before they could even clear their holsters, the laser sights from Dominic’s snipers outside painted red dots across their chests.
“Stand down!” Marcus shouted frantically to his men, his voice cracking with sudden terror. “Stand down! Don't move!”
He turned back to Dominic, his face draining of all color as his cousin stopped exactly ten feet away from him.
“Dominic,” Marcus stammered, trying to force his old, charming smile back onto his face. “You’re… you’re here early. I didn't expect you to leave New York so quickly.”
Dominic didn't say anything for a long time.
He simply stood there, hands in his coat pockets, watching his cousin sweat.
The silence in the hangar was deafening, broken only by the rhythmic drumming of the rain against the metal roof far above.
“You used my biometric token, Marcus,” Dominic said finally. His voice wasn't loud, but it echoed off the steel walls like a physical blow.
“I… I can explain that,” Marcus lied, his eyes darting toward the exit, looking for a way out that didn't exist. “I heard rumors that Meline had surfaced. I was trying to find her for you. To secure her. To protect the family asset—”
“Asset?”
The word cut through Marcus’s speech like a scalpel.
Dominic took a step forward.
Marcus instinctively took a step back, his boots hitting the tire of the airplane behind him. He was trapped.
“She is not an asset,” Dominic whispered, his eyes narrowing into a terrifying focus.
“She is my wife in everything but name. And the child she carries is the future of my house.”
Dominic pulled his hands out of his pockets. He didn't draw a weapon. He didn't need to. The sheer weight of his presence was enough to suffocate the room.
“You wanted to use them to bargain with me,” Dominic said, his voice entirely conversational, as if he were discussing a minor shipping delay.
“You wanted to ask for the Mediterranean ports. Perhaps a seat on the primary council.”
Marcus swallowed hard, his forehead dripping with sweat that had nothing to do with the temperature. “Dominic, please. We’re blood. Our fathers built this company together—”
“My father died because he trusted his brother,” Dominic interrupted coldly.
“I don't make the same mistakes.”
Dominic turned his back on Marcus, walking slowly back toward the hangar doors.
“Silas,” Dominic called out without looking back.
“Yes, Boss?”
“Remove Marcus’s clearance from every database. Freeze his international accounts. And strip him of his family name.”
Marcus gasped, his eyes widening. To a Valente, being stripped of the name and the money was worse than death. It meant being thrown to the wolves without armor.
“Dominic, no! You can't do this! I’m family!” Marcus screamed, stepping forward, but Silas immediately blocked him, the barrel of his weapon pressing firmly against Marcus’s chest.
Dominic stopped at the edge of the hangar, looking out at the black SUV where Meline was waiting.
“You’re wrong, Marcus,” Dominic said quietly over his shoulder.
May you like
“You stopped being family the moment you looked at her as a target.”
He stepped out into the rain, leaving his cousin to the shadows of the crumbling empire he had tried to steal.
