Chapter 9 - TRIAL BY FIRE
The cold wind roared around the high-rise balcony, whipping rain across our faces sixty stories above the pavement. Victor hung suspended over the precipice, his feet dangling in empty air, his hands clutching my forearms in sheer, paralyzing terror.
"Please, Damian! Please!" Victor sobbed, all of his bravado and arrogance completely gone. "I'll give you everything! I have sixty million in gold bullion hidden in the Bahamas! I'll leave the country! You'll never see me again!"
"Where was your mercy when you ordered your men to shoot a five-year-old child in an alleyway?" I asked, my voice chillingly calm.
"Marco planned it! It was all Marco!" Victor cried out, tears mixing with the rain on his cheeks. "He came to me six years ago! He said you were getting weak because of that girl! He paid the federal agents to create the fake file! I just funded the operation!"
"I know," I said. "And Marco paid for his treason with his life. Now it's your turn."
"Damian, wait! If you kill me, the Commission will declare an all-out blood war against you! You won't survive the retaliation!"
I pulled out my satellite phone, activated the speaker, and held it up to Victor’s ear.
On the line was Don Salvatore, the eldest and most revered member of the Five Families Syndicate Commission.
"Salvatore," I spoke into the phone without looking away from Victor. "Did you hear the confession?"
"We heard everything, Damian," Salvatore’s raspy, ancient voice replied from the speaker. "Marco broke the sacred code. Victor conspired against a seated Don and targeted an innocent child carrying Moretti blood. The Commission recognizes Victor’s syndicate as illegitimate and stripped of all protection. His life is forfeit."
Victor’s face went completely ghostly white. "Salvatore, no! You can't do this!"
"The Commission has spoken," Salvatore said, and hung up the call.
Victor looked up at me, his eyes filled with the realization that no power on Earth could save him now.
"Any last words, Victor?" I asked quietly.
"Burn in hell, Moretti," Victor spat.
"After you," I replied.
I released my grip.
Victor fell into the stormy void, his screams swallowed by the howl of the Chicago wind until he vanished into the dark mist below.
I turned away from the edge, walking back into the ruined penthouse. I dropped my empty weapons onto the bloodstained marble floor and stripped off my tactical vest.
May you like
As I walked out toward the emergency staircase, the first light of dawn was beginning to break across the eastern horizon over Lake Michigan. The long night was finally over.
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