"The most powerful mafia boss in Queens brought his deadliest dog to a little girl’s funeral—only for the beast to refuse to leave her coffin and growl at the boss’s most trusted underboss. Everyone thought the dog had lost control, until one phone call exposed a betrayal tied to the child’s death. But the real nightmare began when Bruno pressed his ear back to the coffin… as if something inside was still alive.

While Elena recovered in the hospital over the next two weeks, the underworld of New York experienced a earthquake.

With Victor Harlan captured and his main lieutenants wiped out at the slaughterhouse, his empire collapsed like a house of cards. But I didn't just take his territory; I dismantled it.

I summoned every capo, every underboss, and every family leader from the five boroughs to a grand summit at my flagship restaurant in Little Italy.

The dining room was filled with heavy men in dark suits, their faces grim, their eyes nervous. Rumors had spread about what happened at Pier 19. They knew I had wiped out Harlan’s entire organization in a single night. They knew I had discovered a traitor in my own inner circle.

I sat at the head of the long mahogany table. Bruno sat right beside my chair, his gold eyes watching every movement in the room.

"Gentlemen," I spoke, my voice carrying over the gentle clinking of wine glasses. "We have lived by a certain code in Queens for forty years. But recently, men got greedy. Men forgot the rules."

I picked up a glass of red wine, swirling it slowly.

"Victor Harlan tried to bring chemical weapons, human trafficking, and child endangerment into our streets," I continued, my voice turning icy cold. "And my own underboss, Marco Ricci, helped him."

A quiet, nervous murmur ran through the room.

"Marco Ricci and Victor Harlan are currently sitting in a concrete room ten feet beneath the earth," I said, letting the words settle heavy in the air. "They have enough air to breathe, enough water to survive... but they will never see the sun again. They will spend the rest of their natural lives in the dark, remembering the seven-year-old girl they tried to put in a box."

The capos swallowed hard. Not a single man dared to speak.

"This is my new law," I declared, slamming my hand down onto the mahogany table with a loud crack that made half the men jump. "If any man in this room, or any man working for you, touches narcotics aimed at kids, touches human trafficking, or brings violence near a school... I will not shoot you. I will not give you a quick death. I will hand you to Bruno... and then I will put you in the dark with Marco."