Dante Cavallaro POV
The private jet sat on the tarmac like a bird of prey coiled to strike.
The engines whined, a rising scream that harmonized with the chaos in my own skull.
Rocco and Luca were already on board.
Rocco was sharpening a knife.
The rhythmic rasp of stone against steel cut through the silence.
He was vibrating with a lethal, contained energy.
"She took the money," Rocco muttered, his eyes fixed on the blade. "My money. Her money. The family money. She took it all."
Luca was staring out the window.
He remained silent.
But his hands were clenched into fists so tight his knuckles had turned bone-white.
"She left the ring," Luca said softly. "She never takes it off. But she left it in the ashtray."
I sat down in the leather seat across from them.
I poured a drink.
My hand was steady.
Too steady.
"We land in five hours," I said.
"What's the plan, Boss?" Rocco asked. "We drag them back by their hair?"
"No," I said.
Rocco looked confused. "No?"
"If we drag them back, they will just run again," I said, swirling the amber liquid in my glass. "Elena... Elena is not a dog you can leash. She is a wolf."
I took a sip of the whiskey. It burned going down.
"We don't drag them," I said. "We corner them."
"And then?" Luca asked.
"And then we remind them who they belong to," I said.
"Vegas is open territory," Rocco warned. "The Commission won't like us operating there. The local gangs are feral."
"Let them try to stop us," I said.
I pulled a folded piece of paper from my pocket.
It was the note Elena had left behind.
I unfolded it.
Her handwriting was elegant, sharp as a blade.
I release you.
Three words.
She thought she could release me.
She didn't understand.
I was the darkness that stalked her.
I was the shadow stitched to her heels.
"She thinks I chose Sofia," I said to the empty air.
Rocco looked at me. "Did you?"
I looked at my Underboss.
"Sofia is a ghost," I said. "Elena is the blood in my veins. You don't choose your blood. It just is."
I crumpled the paper in my fist.
"I made a mistake, Rocco. I let her think she was secondary."
"So we go to apologize?" Rocco sneered.
I looked at him, my eyes cold.
"We are Cavallaros," I said. "We don't apologize."
I stood up and walked to the cockpit door.
"But for her," I whispered, the words meant only for the ghosts in the room. "I would burn the world to ash just to see her smile again."
I turned back to my men.
"Wheels up," I ordered.
The plane began to move.
The hunt was on.
