Dante Moretti POV:
The order was given. The purge began.
By midnight, the Outfit's elite cleaner squads flooded the streets of New York like a plague of black locusts. I didn't believe in mercy. I didn't believe in warnings. If you touched my family, I erased your entire bloodline from the face of the earth.
In Brooklyn, the rival family's underground casino was packed with their soldiers. My men locked the heavy steel doors from the outside. They planted C4 charges along the load-bearing pillars. The explosion turned the night sky orange. Anyone who managed to crawl out of the burning rubble was immediately put down by my snipers positioned on the rooftops.
In a luxury high-rise in Queens, the acting boss of the rival faction was frantically stuffing bricks of cash into a duffel bag.
My head of security kicked the apartment door off its hinges. The boss turned, raising a pistol.
My captain didn't say a word. He racked his shotgun and pulled the trigger, blowing the man's chest open and painting the expensive wallpaper with his insides.
By 3:00 AM, a line of unmarked black vans parked at an abandoned pier along the Hudson River.
The heavy sliding doors opened. Dozens of thick black body bags were dragged out. Heavy cinderblocks were chained to their ankles. My men pushed the bodies off the edge.
They hit the freezing, black water with heavy splashes. A few bubbles rose to the surface, and then nothing. Complete silence.
By dawn, the rival family no longer existed. The message to the East Coast underworld was written in blood: challenge Elena, and you will be buried in the ocean.
***
Elena Moretti POV:
The soft, golden light of dawn spilled through the massive windows of the Long Island estate's top-floor study.
I stood by the glass, wearing a long silk robe. I held a cup of warm lemon water in my hands, looking out over the sprawling green lawns and the distant city skyline. I had crawled out of the mud of Chicago with nothing but scars. Now, this entire city belonged to me.
The heavy oak doors clicked open.
Dante walked in. He wore a dark suit, but his tie was gone. The faint, metallic smell of gunpowder and blood clung to his clothes.
He walked to the mahogany desk and tossed a thick, blood-stained folder onto the wood. The casualty report.
Dante crossed the room and wrapped his massive arms around me from behind. He pulled my back flush against his hard chest and rested his chin on my shoulder, sighing deeply.
"The trash is cleaned up," he murmured, kissing the curve of my neck. "New York is quiet again."
I turned in his arms. I reached up and used my thumb to gently wipe a single drop of dried blood from his jawline.
I looked at the folder on the desk, but I didn't smile.
I pulled away from him and walked to the desk. I opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a large, laminated map. I unrolled it over the bloody report. It wasn't a map of gang territories. It was a political and corporate power map of the United States.
I picked up a thick red marker. I pressed the felt tip down and drew a heavy, bold circle around Washington, D.C.
Dante leaned against the edge of the desk, crossing his arms. He raised an eyebrow. "What is this, Elena?"
"Pure violence is effective, Dante," I said calmly, tapping the red circle. "But it is never permanent. There will always be another rat trying to plant a bomb."
I looked up, meeting his intense blue eyes. "I refuse to let Leo grow up dodging bullets. We have too much cash and too much power to stay entirely in the shadows."
I pointed the marker at the map. "We are going to launder the mafia's assets into the legal sector. Real estate, tech, pharmaceuticals. I want to buy the politicians who sit in the sun and write the laws."
Dante stared at me. The raw, obsessive hunger in his eyes was blinding. He worshipped my ambition.
He pushed off the desk, walked over, and grabbed my face in his hands, kissing me hard. "The entire Moretti empire is yours to command. Whatever you want, we take."
I tossed the red marker onto the map and looked out the window at the rising sun.
"I will make the laws of this country bow to us as well."
