Kraven’s POVThe boardroom door clicked shut behind me as I left there, sealing in the heat of politics and power that seemed to just play out. I didn’t look back. I never do.My pace was calm and confident, but calculated.Giovanni thought he could humiliate others without tasting the same poison. Today, he had a spoonful and he wasn’t even ready for dessert.As I made my way through the corridor, I adjusted my cuffs, still hearing the silence I’d left behind. That silence… that’s what fear sounds like when it swallows a room whole. The kind that lasts longer like the last note of a funeral hymn.Sunlight hit my face as I stepped outside and I braced up, knowing fully well that I have won this one. My matte-black Benz sat under the awning, looking all sleek. I came along and I wanted it that way. Confidence is louder when it’s quiet.My phone buzzed. I looked at it and it was Mia.I answered, smirking.“Miss me already?”“I was wondering if he cried,” she said, with her voice smoot
Giovanni's POVI finally embraced up with the last part of me that I had left, walked out of the boardroom like I had control. Like Kraven hadn’t just pulled the rug from under my feet in front of my own people. My steps were measured, shoulders squared and also my expression was composed—because perception was everything in this business. But inside, my chest was burning.The bastard came in with that smug calm and just laid out contracts like he owned the place. Because apparently, now, he did.He caught me off guard and I’ll admit that. I didn’t see him coming. But nobody humiliates me in my house and walks away untouched. Not even the Devil himself.I turned left down the hallway, eyes scanning for movement, and slipped into the service stairwell. I pulled out a burner phone from my inside coat pocket. The same one I kept for moments just like this.I dialed a number I had missed his calls thrice while I was at the board room, and it was picked on the first ring.“Yeah?”“Are you
Kraven’s POVThey called it an emergency board meeting, but I knew it was already masterminded down to the last breath.Before I got in, the projector hummed softly like it had something to say.The air itself was too still like it could sense what was about to play out.I couldn't just wait for that moment when everything would just play out before him, like everyone was already waiting for him to walk in and lose.Because, I guess he just didn’t know it yet.I didn’t bring an entourage as I didn’t need the dramatic entrance. My presence was enough, you know.My name had been a ghost in their halls long before I decided to show my face today.I stood just outside the glass doors, listening to the muffled murmurs of men who I guess, had spent years pretending to respect Giovanni.They’d cheered his rise and also might have toasted his influence.But now, the case is different.Now they waited for the kill.Simon’s voice cracked in my earpiece. “He’s arrived.”I gave a simple nod.The
Giovanni’s POVThey called the emergency board meeting, but nothing about it felt rushed.Everything was already prepared—seats assigned, coffee placed on the tables and the damn projector warmed up.Even the air felt staged,like the room had been waiting for me to walk in and lose.The boardroom was full with twelve gentlemen who had smiled with their teeth for years but now wouldn’t meet my eyes. I knew what this was. I just didn’t know who was about to deal the blow.Simom stood when I entered. Always the polite one.“Mr Giovanni,” he said, clearing his throat. “We… uh… we received correspondence from the new primary investor. He’s requested to join the meeting in person.”I paused by the end of the table where my seat was and stared at it for a beat longer than I should have.“Fine,” I said. “Let’s hear from the invisible man then.”Simon gave a nervous nod, then tapped his earpiece. “Send him up.”I didn’t sit as there was no need for that.My heart wasn’t racing and my hands did
Giovanni’s POVBy the time I got to Il Cavallo Nero this afternoon, the street was crawling. They were news cameras and also sirens cutting the air.Agents were everywhere. I could literally see navy jackets, gloves and also evidence boxes. My goddamn name was printed bold on half of them.Reporters pressed behind yellow tape like they were watching a royal funeral. Some looked like they pitied me but then, most didn’t even try. They actually came for this when the city was loud.I think they wanted an audience and that was deliberate.I couldn't even walk in just like that as I believe they came for my club, maybe to see me particularly.I just stood across the street after I parked my car in a little parking space I found right there as their vehicles were blocked everywhere already. I only managed to put my hands in my pockets as I watched with cold eyes the raid unfold like I was at someone else’s crime scene. People were talking and kept pointing."That’s him," I heard one of th
Giovanni’s POVThe photograph stayed in my mind all night.Even when I finally closed my eyes, I could still see it behind my lids—Marco sitting across from that nameless man, an espresso cup untouched between them. His face was unreadable. But not unfamiliar.I hadn’t confronted him yet. Not out of fear—but because I wanted to be sure. I wasn’t the kind of man who threw stones without knowing where the ripple would land. So I had to wait till the next day.By morning, I showered and got dressed in my black two-piece suit with the wine label pin on my lapel. Same routine, you know. Same face in the mirror. But something underneath felt altered. More like a fracture invisible to the eye.I didn’t sleep more than two hours, but I looked like I’d had ten. That’s the thing about experience—it teaches you how to hide exhaustion better than concealers ever could. The deeper the wound, the quieter the man becomes.I drove to Marco’s office myself.No driver or even escort. Just me.The city