Chapter 2 - The Shadow of Geneva
The security detail at the Lake Forest estate was immediately tripled. Dominic did not tell Elena the full truth—he couldn't bear to see the terror return to her eyes—but she was too smart to be fooled by his excuses of "routine security upgrades."
"Who is he, Dominic?" she asked that night, standing by the French doors of their bedroom, watching the armed guards patrol the moonlit lawn. "You haven't slept in forty-eight hours. You look at our children as if they are about to vanish."
Dominic walked over and wrapped his arms around her from behind, burying his face in her hair. "An old shadow from my father's past. A ghost who thinks he has a claim to what we’ve built. I won't let him touch you. I swear it on my life."
"We face it together," Elena whispered, turning around to face him, her eyes fierce with determination. "No more secrets, Dominic. We survived Matteo because we were united. Don't shut me out."
"I won't," Dominic promised, though the weight in his chest felt heavier than ever.
The next morning, Dominic met Gabriel at a secluded warehouse near the Chicago River. Gabriel looked exhausted. He threw a dossier onto the table.
"Lucian Moretti," Gabriel said, spitting the name like poison. "It’s real, Dom. Vincent married Isabella Vancini in secret in the late eighties. When Vincent’s father found out, he forced Vincent to divorce her and marry your mother to consolidate power with the Sicilian families. Isabella was sent to Switzerland, pregnant. Vincent paid her a massive allowance to keep quiet. Lucian was raised in boarding schools, fueled by hatred and the belief that he was the rightful heir to the Moretti throne."
"Where has he been all this time?" Dominic asked, his eyes scanning the dossier.
"Building his own empire in Eastern Europe," Gabriel explained. "He’s known in the Balkans as 'The Alchemist'. He specializes in synthetic drugs and high-tech smuggling. He didn't strike while Vincent was alive because Vincent threatened to erase him. He didn't strike during your war with Matteo because he wanted both of you to weaken each other. Now that you’ve gone legitimate and Matteo is behind bars, Lucian thinks Chicago is ripe for the taking."
Suddenly, Dominic’s phone rang. It was an unknown international number. Dominic answered and put it on speaker.
"Little brother," a smooth, cultured voice with a faint European accent echoed through the warehouse. "I must say, your new estate is beautiful. The dandelions your daughter picks are lovely this time of year."
Dominic’s breathing stopped. "If you so much as breathe near my family, Lucian, I will dismantle you piece by piece."
May you like
"Such fire," Lucian laughed softly. "But you are playing a game you’ve already lost. You abandoned the underworld, Dominic. You left a vacuum, and I am simply filling it. I don't want your legitimate shipping company. I want what our father promised me: the crown of Chicago. And to get it, I will burn down everything you love. Let’s start with your precious shipping hub in Genoa."
The line went dead. Seconds later, Dominic’s tablet flashed with an emergency alert. A massive explosion had just rocked the Moretti Logistics terminal in the Port of Genoa, Italy.
