The Sentence of a Dead Man

The echoing footsteps echoed like a hammer striking Dino's consciousness. His breathing was shallow, his jaw clenched, but his mind was spinning a thousand miles an hour, searching for a way out.

He had failed in his attempt to overthrow the capo Alejandro Moretti.

No matter how well he had calculated every move, the outcome was clear: his plan to rid himself of Alexander and make Isabela his executioner crumbled before his eyes.

The Queen was still standing, he could see that her knuckles were white from her pressure on the trigger, but not because she hesitated to fire. Her gaze did not have the confusion of a woman caught between two paths.

It wasn't that, Isabela knew exactly who she was and whose side she was on. For a second she thought she could pierce her loyalty for Alejandro and get her to be the one to eliminate him.

That would have been her victory, but she came closer to shooting him than her husband. And if she had... She certainly wouldn't have missed.

The sound of a lighter breaking the silence made everyone tense up. A small spark lit up Alejandro's face as he lit his cigarette as calmly as others lit a candle at mass.

Dino felt a shiver run down his spine.

That was the problem with Alejandro.

He didn't shout. He didn't threaten, his silence and his cool, calculated calm were torture.

But when he took a puff of smoke and looked up with an intimidating, dangerous half-smile, you knew you were completely fucked.

-Do you know what bothers me the most, Dino? -He asked in a soft voice, exhaling the smoke slowly. It's not that you tried to kill me. That was predictable. I almost respected it.

Dino swallowed hard. He didn't move, but he could feel the sweat sliding down his back.

-What bothers me," Alejandro continued, "is that you tried to use my wife against me.

That last word sounded like a death sentence.

Alejandro took a step forward. Then another.

Dino was not just any man. He had been in the drug war, he had seen men die with a crooked smile and a bullet between their eyes. But he had never felt the threat of death as close as he did at that moment.

Isabela was no longer there, Alejandro could say whatever he wanted and act with his usual cold cruelty.

Dino was suffering from a horrible nightmare, memories hitting him in quick bursts. His wife, his children and grandchildren appeared in his memory like ghosts haunting him and accusing him of not getting away from Alejandro in time, before plunging into his dark business.

While he tortured Dino with his presence, Alejandro thought of his wife Isabela.

Holding her in his arms on a stormy night, whispering in her ear how much he loved her.

Kissing her forehead after making love to her, promising her that he would never let anything happen to her. While calling her "my queen" with the same devotion with which a soldier pledges allegiance to his flag.

And now Dino had shattered the whole perfect world she had built around her marriage and family life.

Staring at him, as if her eyes were blades, she said: Did you really want her to shoot me?

- Her husband? The father of her children? ....

- Have you gone mad, Dino?

An absolute chill came over him.

The gun in the triggerman's hand was held steady, pointed in the direction of Dino's head, just waiting for the boss's order.

Dino looked down the barrel of the gun, but refused to express his fear, containing his fear in a bubble of courage.

- You can kill me if you want Alejandro... but today I defeated you... well, you lost something very important to you .... Isabela's unconditional love," he growled. I won.

Alejandro laughed softly.

-Ah, Dino... You still think you can beat me... Don't you know me Dino? I never... I never lose.

Alexander's men took a step forward in unison. They didn't need orders. They were like trained dogs, waiting for their master to give the signal to bite.

They had tied up all the men accompanying Dino in the tunnel and the others were dead in the mansion.

- I will leave here, I will disappear... I promise," Dino tried to negotiate, his tone tense but still defiant. You cannot kill me, Alejandro. My allies will know, they will look for you, and all hell will break loose….

- It's in your best interest to let me go.

Alejandro took his phone out of his pocket. He unlocked it with a couple of taps and turned the screen toward Dino.

The video began to play.

Cameras hidden in a bouquet of flowers had captured everything.

Every word, in that meeting. Every order.

Every attempt at manipulation. Every single thing. Dino had been betrayed by one of his closest men.

Dino blanched.

-This is...

Alejandro put the phone away.

-Irrefutable. You've been in this business for years Dino, but you're still naive... In this business... You can't trust anyone!

The silence in Alejandro's mouth was not the same in his eyes.

Dino's heartbeat thundered in his ears.

Dino blinked, processing the information at speed, he was a man who knew the ground was crumbling beneath his feet.

-Wait..." he tried, but Alejandro was no longer listening to him.

The capo de capos turned around and walked towards the tunnel exit.

He stopped in front of the exit door and raised his hand, he signaled with his fingers, the order was given.

Dino's fate was sealed.

Giving his car keys to one of his trusted shoulders he said:

-Take me to my queen.

The man nodded.

Seeing himself in half-light with the gun pointed at his head, Dino didn't scream. He did not beg.

But his breathing was erratic, his heart a ticking time bomb in his chest.

Alejandro gave him one last look, with the calm of one who has already decided another man's fate.

Before crossing the door he said: -You didn't have to die Dino….

The spark of hope illuminated the traitor's eyes.

-But if I were you," added Alejandro, with a lethal smile, "I would warn my friends and family, so that from now on... they sleep with one eye open.

Dino felt an emptiness in his stomach.

Wouldn't they kill him there, in the tunnel? - That didn't mean he was alive. Alejandro was giving him the chance to flee, to run... but not to escape.

In the world of the capos, sometimes it was worse to live in fear than to die with dignity.

Dino felt his world closing in.

He knew he was still breathing...

But his sentence was already written.

Alejandro enjoyed hunting his enemies and Dino had become the worst, destroying what he had built around his wife Isabela and their small children.

She was the purest thing he had in his life, by her side he remembered his humanity, enjoyed love and the feeling of freedom.

Dino had broken the dome of lies he had built as a cage of gold and protection for those he loved the most, his queen and his beautiful children.

And that would cost Dino dearly.