CHAPTER 7 – THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
CHAPTER 7 – THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Rain poured across Black Harbor's execution yard.
Lightning split the sky as Vincent Romano stepped through the massive steel gate alone, Elena's unfinished letter tucked inside his coat and the ledger resting beneath one arm.
Floodlights snapped on.
More than sixty armed Castano soldiers surrounded the courtyard from every direction.
Snipers occupied every watchtower.
Machine guns overlooked every exit.
At the center stood Matteo Castano.
Beside him...
A small figure knelt with her hands tied.
"Papa!"
Isabella cried.
Vincent's heart nearly stopped.
Matteo rested a pistol against the little girl's head.
"You actually came."
"I told you I would."
Vincent never took his eyes off Isabella.
"Let her go."
Matteo laughed.
"You still think you're making demands?"
"No."
Vincent replied calmly.
"I'm making promises."
Lightning flashed again.
For a split second...
Another figure appeared on the upper catwalk.
A woman.
Bruised.
Thin.
Covered in chains.
Elena.
"Mama!"
Isabella screamed.
Elena struggled against the guards holding her.
"Vincent!"
"Don't give him the ledger!"
Matteo smiled.
"Touching, isn't it?"
He raised his pistol toward Elena.
"You have one minute."
"The ledger..."
"...or your family dies."
Vincent slowly lifted the leather book.
Every eye followed it.
Then...
He threw it into the middle of the courtyard.
Matteo frowned.
"That's it?"
Vincent nodded.
"You wanted it."
"It's yours."
Matteo ordered one of his men forward.
The guard picked up the ledger and handed it over.
Matteo opened the first page.
His smile vanished.
Blank.
Every page.
Blank.
He flipped faster.
Nothing.
Only empty paper.
"You..."
Vincent smiled for the first time.
"The real ledger never left my mansion."
"You invaded Black Harbor for a fake?"
"No."
Vincent answered.
"I came for my family."
Suddenly—
The prison lights exploded.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Tony's voice roared through loudspeakers.
"NOW!"
Hidden explosives planted throughout the prison detonated simultaneously.
Smoke engulfed the courtyard.
Romano soldiers burst from underground maintenance tunnels.
Gunfire erupted everywhere.
The final battle had begun.
Vincent sprinted straight toward Isabella.
Bullets screamed past him.
One struck his shoulder.
He never slowed.
Another hit his side.
Still he ran.
Matteo fired twice.
Vincent dove, shielding Isabella with his own body.
The bullets slammed into his back armor.
He ripped the ropes from Isabella's wrists.
"Run to Tony!"
"I won't leave you!"
"You obey me!"
For the first time...
She did.
Meanwhile...
Tony fought toward Elena's platform.
Three guards.
Four.
Six.
He dropped them one after another.
Finally reaching Elena, he shattered her chains with bolt cutters.
"Can you walk?"
She nodded.
"Barely."
"Good."
"Because we're getting out."
Across the courtyard...
Matteo and Vincent finally stood face to face.
No soldiers.
No bodyguards.
Just two old enemies.
Matteo pulled a combat knife.
"You should've died twenty-three years ago."
Vincent answered by throwing away both pistols.
"No."
"You should've."
The two men collided like freight trains.
Punches.
Elbows.
Blood.
Rain.
Hatred decades old exploded into brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Matteo slashed Vincent's arm.
Vincent answered by breaking two of Matteo's ribs.
Neither man stopped.
Finally...
Matteo drove the knife toward Vincent's chest.
Vincent caught his wrist.
Twisted.
SNAP.
The knife fell.
Matteo screamed.
Vincent picked up the blade.
He pressed it against Matteo's throat.
"It ends."
Matteo smiled through broken teeth.
"You still don't know."
"Know what?"
"The traitor..."
"...is still alive."
BANG!
A gunshot echoed.
Vincent turned instinctively.
Tony collapsed.
Blood spread across his chest.
Standing behind him...
Holding the smoking pistol...
Was Romano's oldest adviser.
Antonio Bellini.
The man Vincent had trusted for twenty-five years.
Everyone froze.
Bellini smiled coldly.
"I finished what Rafael started."
Vincent's eyes widened.
"You..."
Bellini laughed.
"I sold Rafael to the cartel."
"I told Marco where Elena was."
"I destroyed both families."
"I wanted the empire."
The missing page.
The missing name.
Bellini.
He had been the traitor all along.
Before anyone could react—
Matteo lunged for a dropped pistol.
Bellini raised his own weapon.
Both men fired simultaneously.
BANG!
BANG!
Matteo staggered backward.
Bellini stumbled forward.
Both collapsed onto the rain-soaked concrete.
Dead.
Twenty-three years of betrayal ended in two gunshots.
Silence fell across Black Harbor.
May you like
The war...
Was finally over.
