Semua Bab DEADLY FACADE: I Became His Obsession : Bab 151 - Bab 160

Vincenzo’s POVThe safe house we used that night was one even Giovanni didn’t know about. I carried Francesca inside myself and set her on the reinforced couch while Lenny locked the doors and armed the perimeter alarms. Luca’s remaining men took positions outside, Bressi was already at the private clinic, two of the people I protected were breathing and other more were still in enemy hands.Francesca refused to lie down fully, she sat with her back against the wall, accepting the ice pack Lenny pressed to her swollen eye without comment. Her voice was rough but clear. “They kept me alive because they needed the message delivered in person... Vieri wants the entire Commission to watch you walk in alone tomorrow night. He wants every pure-blood captain to see the half-blood beg.”I stood at the window, watching the dark street. “I’m not begging for anything.”“You will if you want us both breathing,” she answered. “He was very clear. You arrive wit

Vincenzo’s POVThe cold circle of Vieri’s muzzle against my temple should have been the only thing I felt but it wasn’t. Lenny stood in the ruined side doorway with Francesca at her shoulder and Luca’s men fanning out behind them, pistols already up. She had ignored every order I gave her, she had walked straight into the trap I had tried to keep her out of and the sight of her—, eyes locked on the gun at my head sent a wave of possessive fury through me so violent it almost drowned the threat of the bullet.Vieri’s voice remained silk-smooth. “Everyone stay exactly where they are. The first person who fires turns this chamber into a grave for the half-blood and both women.”I kept my hands visible and empty around the long table as the pure-blood captains watched with the hungry stillness of men who had waited years for this moment. Giovanni sat rigid near the head of the table, face carved from stone. He could not move without tipping the entire room int

Vincenzo’s POVThe south-side storage facility sat behind a chain-link fence and a closed iron gate that should have been locked after midnight but It wasn’t. I killed the headlights a block early and coasted the SUV to the curb under a dead streetlamp. Lenny sat beside me in the passenger seat, already checking the magazine in her pistol. Francesca occupied the back with two of Luca’s best. The second vehicle held four more men and Sofia had been left at a secondary location under heavy guard— she had given us the address, and that was all the exposure she was getting tonight.I stared at the dark rows of metal units through the windshield. Unit 417 was near the back, according to the crude map Sofia had sketched. The entire place felt wrong and was too quiet.“Cameras,” I said.Francesca moved forward between the seats. “Two at the gate, one on each corner of the main building. Old system, I can loop them from here if the signal is still analog.

Vincenzo’s POVGiovanni’s residence sat behind high walls and old money in the quietest part of the city. I had walked through those gates a thousand times as a boy and as a man. Tonight the iron felt different under my hand when I pushed the pedestrian door open… Two of my soldiers were already inside the perimeter, exactly as ordered. They nodded once and melted back into the shadows of the garden.Lenny walked on my left as she had not spoken much since we left the burning storage facility, but her presence was steady. Francesca followed with the duffel containing the encrypted copies of Ricci’s files. The original paper trail was ash, the digital poison was already in the bloodstream of the family. The front door opened before I could knock. One of Giovanni’s longtime housemen stood there, face carefully blank. He took one look at my expression and stepped aside without a word.Giovanni waited in the study.The room smelled of old leather, cig

Vincenzo’s POVThe old Moretti compound sat on the north side of the city behind walls that had stood for forty years. I had not lived there since I was a boy, but the place still answered to my blood. Tonight those walls were the only thing standing between the last pure-blood crews and the two living pieces of my life I had left unguarded— Bressi, still stitched and recovering, and Shadow, who had already taken one bullet that should have been mine. I drove like the devil was on the hood. Lenny sat in the passenger seat, reloading both of our pistols with steady hands. Francesca occupied the back with the duffel of file copies and a rifle across her lap. Luca’s voice came through the earpiece in short, clipped updates.“Two vehicles confirmed on the access road. Possibly the third hanging back. They’re not trying to be quiet. They want the gate.”“How many men on the compound perimeter?” I asked.“Six of ours, including the two inside with Bress