Chapter 41
Autumn in the Tuscan countryside usually brought a profound, golden tranquility, where ribbons of early morning mist coiled around the gently sloping hills and endless, lush green vineyards awaited the harvest. For Dante, Maya, and little Sophia, life had flowed in absolute, uninterrupted peace for the two years since they left the bloody streets of New York to live in quiet seclusion. Maya, who had once been an exhausted waitress working double shifts to save every penny for a bakery, was now six months pregnant, radiating a serene, maternal glow. She spent her days basking in the Mediterranean sun, completely shielded by the man who was once the most feared and ruthless figure in the New York crime syndicates.
However, that fragile, idyllic peace was violently torn apart on a dreary, rain-soaked night. Dante was sitting comfortably by the roaring stone fireplace, reading a classic fairytale to Sophia, when a deafening, metallic crash echoed from the wrought-iron gates of their sandstone villa. A black armored SUV, its windshield riddled with a terrifying cluster of bullet holes, smashed through the wooden barricades and violently slammed into the central stone fountain in the courtyard.
Dante reacted with the instantaneous, lethal reflex of a seasoned mafia boss. He ordered Sophia to stay put and lunged toward the door, drawing the heavy custom pistol he always kept hidden securely beneath the floorboards. As he kicked the front doors open, the driver’s side of the ruined SUV popped open, and a blood-soaked figure tumbled out onto the wet gravel. It was Matteo—the fiercely loyal brother-in-arms whom Dante had entrusted with total control of his legitimate empire in America.
"Matteo!" Dante roared, dropping his weapon to catch his heavily bleeding lieutenant before his head hit the stones.
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"Boss..." Matteo coughed up blood, his breathing ragged and terrifyingly shallow. "The Corsicans... they swallowed the ports... They know you’re here..."
Dante’s jaw locked tight. His pale gray eyes, which had softened over the past two years, instantly hardened into glaciers of familiar, calculating cruelty. The suffocating darkness he had worked so hard to leave behind had finally found its way to his front door.
