Chapter 8 - The Fall of Rossini
By 3:00 AM, the Hanover Street estate was secured by fifty heavily armed loyal Moretti guards.
Inside the basement vault beneath the mansion—a dark room carved from stone—Vincent Rossini sat tied to an iron chair, his face pale under the dim yellow light.
Dominic walked into the vault. He didn't carry a weapon. He wore a crisp black suit, stepping slowly across the concrete until he stood two feet from his former lieutenant.
"Dominic... please," Rossini stammered, his bravado completely gone. "It was Ashford's idea! He wanted revenge! He promised me the harbor shares—"
Dominic raised one hand. The room fell dead silent.
"You broke the code, Vincent," Dominic said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "You went after women and children."
"I was desperate, Dominic!" Rossini wept. "You brought a maid into the inner circle! You degraded our family name!"
Dominic leaned down, his dark gray eyes pinning Rossini to his chair.
"That maid," Dominic said softly, "stood alone in the dark against three armed men to protect my daughter. She has more honor in her little finger than you have in your entire pathetic bloodline."
Dominic turned his back on Rossini, walking toward the heavy vault door.
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"Marco," Dominic said quietly without looking back. "Clean the room."
"Yes, Boss," Marco replied, drawing his weapon as the heavy steel vault door swung shut.
