Damien POV
The air in the Syndicate’s Chapel on the Island smelled of melting beeswax, damp stone, and the lingering, metallic tang of death. It was an ancient place, built into the side of a cliff, where the waves of the Mediterranean crashed against the rocks below in a relentless, mourning rhythm.
I stood near the back, my bespoke charcoal suit a stark contrast to the tactical gear and silver masks of the Island’s assassins. I wasn't supposed to be here. The New York Mafia didn't mingle with the Syndicate’s "ghosts" unless blood or money was changing hands. But I needed to see it with my own eyes. I needed to see the end of the only person who had ever made me feel like I was the one being hunted.
On the altar rested a black, closed casket. Above it hung a grey, grainy photograph of a girl with eyes like a winter storm. 'Nine'.
Even in a static image, her defiance was palpable. She was the only assassin to ever survive my blade. Two years ago, in a rain-slicked alley in Rome, we had danced on the edge of a knife for twenty minutes. It had been a brutal, bloody stalemate that ended with both of us bleeding out in the gutter, staring at each other with a strange, twisted respect before our respective teams pulled us apart. I had hunted her shadow across three continents ever since, obsessed with the idea of a rematch.
Now, she was dead. A "mechanical failure" on a speedboat. What a pathetic, pedestrian end for an apex predator.
'Two', a massive brute of a man with a neck thicker than my thigh, stood by the casket. His fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white, his breath coming in ragged, unhinged hitches. He looked ready to murder the priest, the Butler, and anyone else who dared to speak of Nine in the past tense.
I walked down the center aisle, my leather soles echoing on the stone. The Syndicate soldiers tensed, their hands dropping to their holsters in a synchronized wave of hostility, but no one drew. They knew the Falcone name. They knew the cost of killing a guest. I stopped beside 'Two'.
"Watch your back, Falcone," 'Two' snarled, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that vibrated in the small chapel. "This isn't your territory. You have no business at her wake."
I didn't look at him. My eyes were fixed on the girl in the photo. A strange, twisted void opened in my chest—a sensation I hadn't felt in years. The game was over, and I hadn't been the one to claim the prize. I felt cheated.
"I came to pay my respects to a worthy opponent," I murmured dismissively, my voice carrying a quiet authority that made 'Two' stiffen. "Something you wouldn't understand. You were always just a hammer, 'Two'. She was the scalpel."
I reached out, my fingers tracing the cold edge of the wooden frame holding her picture. "What a waste of a beautiful monster. To be taken by a faulty engine instead of a blade... it’s an insult to her legacy."
I turned my back on the room full of killers and walked out into the freezing sea air. The sun was setting over the Mediterranean, casting long, bloody shadows across the docks. The chapter was supposed to be closed. The obsession was supposed to die with her.
But as I boarded my private jet for the flight back to New York, a nagging sensation clawed at the back of my mind. Silas was a man who didn't believe in accidents. He believed in utility. And a dead 'Nine' had no utility.
"Leo," I said to my Capo as the engines roared to life.
"Yes, Boss?"
"When we land, I want a full sweep of every new arrival in the Five Families over the last forty-eight hours. I don't care if it's a cousin from Sicily or a long-lost aunt from Vegas. If someone moved into the city, I want their biometric data."
"You think she's alive?" Leo asked, his brow furrowing.
"I think the Syndicate is a house of mirrors," I replied, staring out at the darkening horizon. "And I think I’m not done dancing with that girl just yet."
