Chapter 3 - The Foundry Sit-Down
The Old Foundry on the city's industrial edge was a rusting monument to iron and smoke. It served as neutral ground for the syndicate council, overseen by the elderly Don Marcone, the eldest boss in the regional commission.
Vincenzo arrived in a convoy of three black armored SUVs. Per syndicate rules, only two bodyguards were allowed inside the main furnace hall. Vincenzo stepped out into the freezing wind, flanked by Marco and Luca.
From the rear SUV door, a massive shadow emerged. Ghost walked quietly at Vincenzo’s heel, a custom spiked leather harness strapped across his chest.
"You can't bring a wild animal into the council chamber, Caruso," Don Marcone’s chief enforcer warned at the entrance, his hand hovering near his holster.
Vincenzo didn't even slow his stride. "He isn't an animal. He’s my family's security detail. Try to stop him and see how your night goes."
The guards stepped aside, eyeing the monstrous wolf-hound with undisguised dread.
Inside the sprawling, fire-lit foundry floor, Don Leo Valetti was already seated at the head of a heavy wooden table. Valetti was a greasy, arrogant man in a fox-fur coat, surrounded by six armed henchmen. When his eyes landed on Ghost walking alongside Vincenzo, his face twisted into a snarl of rage.
"That's my hound!" Valetti bellowed, slamming his fist onto the table, standing up. "You stole my property from the city shelter, Caruso!"
"He was scheduled to be destroyed because of your sadistic torture, Leo," Vincenzo replied coldly, taking his seat across the table. Ghost sat directly beside Vincenzo, his pale yellow eyes locked onto Valetti with absolute, cold recognition. The dog didn't bark; he simply bared his long white teeth in a silent, terrifying promise.
Don Marcone slammed an iron gavel onto the table. "Silence! We are here to settle the Docks District boundaries, not to squabble over dogs."
"The beast killed two of my men last night!" Valetti spat, his eyes wild.
"Your men breached my home in the middle of the night to execute an eleven-year-old girl," Vincenzo’s voice dropped to a register that made the ambient temperature in the room drop. "The dog merely cleaned up the trash. If you ever send assassins near my daughter again, Leo, I won't use guns. I will let him finish what he started."
Valetti trembled with rage, his fingers twitching near his coat. For two hours, negotiations dragged on under an atmosphere of suffocating tension. Under pressure from Don Marcone, Valetti was forced to concede the eastern piers to the Caruso family, but the venom in his eyes declared that the war was far from over.
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As Vincenzo stood up to leave, Valetti leaned over the table and whispered maliciously, "Enjoy your victory, Caruso. But a mute girl and a stray dog won't keep you alive when the real shadows fall."
Ghost let out a single, thunderous bark that echoed like a gunshot through the steel girders of the foundry, causing Valetti to jump backward and trip over his own chair. Vincenzo smiled faintly, turned his back on his rival, and walked out into the night.
