CHAPTER FIVE: BLOOD IN HIS HANDS

His shoes echoed as he walked into the den.

Some people called it the lion’s den except that whoever entered never came out alive.

The sound of cane whips and distant gunshots greeted anyone foolish enough to step inside.

Underworld boss.All famous dead-shot. Second-in-command. A man who despised anyone who dared compete with or challenge him. Under his rule, the Aurelian empire had become the most powerful force in Italy,both in business and in the underworld.

The lights flickered on as he stepped fully into the room. Dominic stopped at the center, where a young man was strapped to an electric chair. The man was tattered,shirtless, trembling, wearing only his pants.

A tattoo covered his back: the Aurelian insignia–an eagle’s eye with a red cross at its center.

The man was sweating. Crying. Breaking.

“Boss! Boss, please give me a second chance!” he sobbed. “I swear I didn’t do it”

“I delivered the drugs exactly as you ordered. It wasn’t me!”

Dominic tilted his head slightly.

“Are you yelling at me?”

His voice was quiet low and sharp yet it echoed off the walls like a blade striking stone.

The man began shaking violently, urine staining his pants as fear consumed him and the smell on Ammonia filled the house.

“And the money was transferred to a foreign account,”A guy standing by his side read aloud.

Silence fell.

Not a breath was heard.

Then Dominic laughed.

Not a warm laugh. Not even an amused one. It was dark, menacing. Evil.

The young man knew then that he was dead.

“So, David,” Dominic murmured as he crouched to eye level with him, “not only did you leak information… you also stole my money.”

David shook his head furiously, tears streaming down his face.

“Marcisci nell’inferno,” Dominic whispered.

Rot in hell.

He raised his gun and fired a single shot straight between David’s eyes…his signature.

The room remained graveyard-silent, broken only by the rapid breathing of the men standing nearby.

He spat on the body.

“Burn it. Send the ashes to his fiancée and his mother,” he said coldly.

“Yes, boss,” his men chorused.

He walked out in silence, just as he had entered.

That was the man he had grown to become.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Where next Ceaser?? Dominic asked watching the buildings pass by as they drove.

“Antonio’s apartment”Ceaser replied and began reading out the details.

“Antonio “The Viper” Lazzari, a mid-tier rival,a middle man in the Scorpion tail clan,was sent to kill…..

“Ready the weapons”Dominic deadpanned almost too silent and Ceaser nodded.

He understood.

Antonio’s safe house was a warehouse near the docks, the smell of the harbor mixing with the rot of garbage along the streets.

The place was surprisingly not well-guarded for a man of Antonio’s stature, but Dominic had anticipated it.

“Two guards,” he muttered under his breath, scanning the rain.

He hadn't noticed the pattering sound of rain as hit wet his coat.

He got out of the car alongside his guards who immediately gunned down the two guards giving him a smooth entry.

He walked in just in time to see Antonio trying to jump a window.Immediately Antonio saw him,he knelt down.He knew this was his last breath on Earth.

Dominic moved like a shadow in the dark.

He stepped forward, his boots silent on the concrete floor. Antonio froze as the figure emerged towards him menacingly.

Antonio looked at his sweaty hands as he continuously rubbed them over his pants reapeatedly. He began shaking violently.

“No,no Antonio..you don't do that with me”Dominic whispered.

“It was.. wasn't me”Antonuo stuttered breathing heavily.

“You shouldn't have crossed my path Antonio,it was a very wrong move to make”Dominic tutted and suddenly smiled.

Antonio laughed nervously, trying to back away. “D-Dominic… I… I didn’t mean”

“Save it,” Dominic interrupted, raising his gun.

The room seemed to shrink, the tension pressing down like a physical weight. “You’ve been playing with fire.”

Antonio’s eyes darted, calculating escape routes, but Dominic had already blocked every path. He noticed the slight tremble in Antonio’s hands and the sweat forming at his temples. Fear.

“You think you’re clever,” Dominic continued, stepping closer, “but clever isn’t enough.”

Antonio stumbled backward toward a stack of crates. “Please… I can make it worth your while…” His voice was shaking, desperate.

Dominic cocked his head, studying him. “Money doesn’t matter. Power doesn’t matter. What matters is respect, and you’ve been disrespectful to me for far too long.”

Antonio tried to lunge for a hidden pistol, but Dominic was faster. The gun never left his hand, a single shot echoed through the warehouse, and Antonio crumpled to the floor.

Dead.

The bullet landed in between his eyes,that was the famous dead-shot Dominic was known for.

He swiped a speck of Antonio's blood off his watch.

He lowered his gun gently and smirked

He inspected the body a little and pushed it with his shoe so it turned to it's side.

Antonio was no more. Dead. Cold within seconds all because of ”The devil”.

“Pack it up and send it to his clan”he muttered, turned and walked out.

The guards all stood motionless,of course Dominic knew what he was asking for.

The mission was complete. No one will hear of this and dare cross his path again,after all he had killed “The viper”.

Dominic chuckled at the thought.

The devil had killed the viper.How interesting.

He didn’t feel pride, neither did he feel regret. He was numb from feelings. Killing wasn’t about emotion,it was about survival.

Power was survival.

Fear was survival.

And tonight??

Tonight he proved that.

For a brief moment, he thought of Her.But the memory of her, of the fragility she carried, flickered in the back of his mind like a candle struggling against the wind. He pushed it aside.

There was no room for softness.

It was being weak and weak was foolishness.

This…

This was the beginning of war.