Chapter 3

Too late.

The two hot-tempered Dons had already assembled their forces and were heading straight for Garcia territory.

Each one thought Garcia was backing the other, and each planned to wipe out the alliance at the source.

This was exactly what Garcia wanted.

Leon and I rushed to meet up and raced to the Garcia underground casino.

By the time we got there, the casino was already in chaos.

The Garcias had both Dons' forces pinned down in a dead end.

Snipers were positioned all around.

Victor Garcia, head of the family, laughed maniacally.

"Cosimo, Romanov, you've been at each other's throats for twenty years. Today, you both die here!"

He waved his hand.

"Open fire!"

At the last possible second, Leon and I charged in with our people.

I led a team to break through from the left flank while Leon flanked from the right.

Through the hail of bullets, I spotted my father and Dmitri crouching behind the same card table.

Vittorio and Dmitri were still screaming at each other.

"You old bastard! Did you set me up with Garcia?"

"Bullshit! Your men are the ones ambushing us!"

I tossed a smoke grenade their way.

"Dad! Stop arguing! Move!"

Leon was yelling at Dmitri too.

"Dad! Over here!"

The scene was absolute chaos.

Leon and I had a decision to make.

If we rescued both fathers at the same time, our cover would be blown.

Garcia's firepower was too heavy. We each had to cover our own father's retreat.

During the retreat, one of Garcia's men lobbed a grenade.

It landed right between the two Dons.

Leon threw himself at my father without hesitation and tackled him to the ground.

I kicked over a slot machine and shielded Dmitri behind it.

Boom!

The blast was deafening.

The smoke cleared.

My father was untouched, just struggling to breathe under Leon's weight.

Dmitri was shielded by the slot machine, with only a scrape on his leg.

Each Don stared at the enemy's child who had just saved him. Neither knew what to make of it.

We made it out safely.

Leon and I immediately launched into damage control.

I jabbed a finger at Leon's face.

"What were you doing running around like that? You almost got my father killed!"

Leon fired right back.

"What do you know? If I hadn't reacted fast enough, your father would've been blown to pieces!"

"And you! What was that with the slot machine? You nearly broke my father's legs!"

In front of everyone, we argued viciously.

But my father's eyes had lost a few shades of their usual murderous edge when he looked at Leon.

Dmitri no longer looked at me like he was sizing up a corpse.

Neither would admit it out loud, but they both knew perfectly well that if it hadn't been for the other man's child, they'd be dead.

The ambush shifted something in both Dons.

They were still trading insults, but when it came to dealing with Garcia territory, they started cooperating without a word.

Leon and I seized the opportunity to go back to the casino ruins.

In the safe inside Victor's office, we found a top-secret file.

It was the complete record of the case from twenty years ago.

It turned out that neither family had double-crossed the other.

Garcia had bought off high-ranking insiders in both the Cosimo and Romanov families.

The two moles had each forged their boss's orders, creating the illusion of a mutual massacre.

I stared at the two forged orders in the file.

"These used encryption keys that only the top brass of both families would know."

Leon's face went pale.

"That means the moles are real, and they're probably still alive, right under our noses."

The last page of the file was missing. The moles' identities had been erased.

Leon held the documents, visibly agitated.

"This is enough! We show this to our fathers. Prove the whole thing was a setup."

"Then we can finally be together, out in the open!"

I snatched the file from him.

"No! The moles are still out there. Going public now is too dangerous."

Leon snapped.

"Sylvia, what are you so afraid of?"

"Do you even want to go public? Are you still suspecting my family?"

I took a deep breath, forcing my temper down.

"I'm not suspecting you. But if we don't flush out the moles, they could set up another trap and get our people killed."

Leon laughed bitterly.

"Excuses. You just think the Cosimo family is above everyone else. You look down on me."

I was trembling with fury.

"Leon, you bastard!"

We had a massive fight in the ruins and stormed off in opposite directions.