Chapter 10 - A Little Girl Among Wolves
Alejandro stepped from the SUV alone.
Marco hated the plan.
That was obvious from the thirty-minute argument they had shared before arriving.
“You cannot walk into an open yard alone.”
“I won't be alone.”
“You said visible team stays four blocks out.”
“Yes.”
“That is alone.”
“You'll have overwatch.”
“Overwatch does not stop a bullet already fired.”
Alejandro checked his watch.
“If they see twenty vehicles, Carlo's son dies.”
“And if you die?”
Alejandro looked at him.
“Emma still lives.”
Marco's expression hardened.
“Don't say that like it solves everything.”
“It solves the important part.”
“No.”
Alejandro paused.
Marco rarely said no to him.
Not because he was frightened.
Because disagreement had to matter.
“You don't get to find a daughter and decide three days later that dying for her is fatherhood.”
Alejandro stared.
Marco continued.
“Living for her is harder.”
Those words followed Alejandro into the railway yard.
Old tracks disappeared beneath weeds.
Warehouses stood like dark shells.
Rainwater gathered in broken concrete.
A single light burned above a loading platform.
Alejandro walked forward.
“I'm here.”
His voice echoed.
Someone laughed.
Alejandro stopped.
The sound came through an old speaker mounted above the building.
Then a voice.
Older.
Rougher.
But unmistakable.
“Still impatient.”
Alejandro's blood turned cold.
He knew that voice.
Childhood dinners.
Private offices.
The smell of cigar smoke.
A hand resting heavily on his shoulder.
Stand straight.
Never let them see uncertainty.
Compassion is a luxury weak men purchase with stronger men's blood.
Vittorio Moretti.
Alejandro stared at the speaker.
“My father is dead.”
The voice laughed again.
“Yes.”
Alejandro's jaw tightened.
“Whoever you are, imitation is boring.”
A door opened.
An older man stepped into the light.
Alejandro's heart stopped.
Not Vittorio.
Close.
His father's younger brother.
Dominic.
But Dominic no longer wore the soft expression from dinner.
Beside him stood Salvatore Rizzo.
Silver-haired.
Broad.
Alive.
Smiling.
Alejandro's gaze moved between them.
“So much for family.”
Dominic sighed.
“You always were dramatic.”
“Carlo's son.”
“Alive.”
“Bring him out.”
“First we talk.”
Alejandro looked at Rizzo.
“You killed eleven men.”
Rizzo answered, “Collateral.”
Alejandro's expression became empty.
That word decided something.
Dominic noticed.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Become emotional.”
Alejandro almost smiled.
“You have no idea how calm I am.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“You've spent years dismantling everything Vittorio built.”
“I've spent years keeping idiots like you from getting us all imprisoned.”
“Legitimacy.”
Dominic spat the word.
“You turned men into accountants.”
“I turned graves into businesses.”
“And now?”
Dominic smiled.
“Now you bring a child into our world.”
“My world.”
“That is your mistake. You think it belongs to you.”
Rizzo spoke.
“Vittorio understood.”
Alejandro looked at him.
“Understood what?”
“A family survives by being feared.”
“My father died hiding.”
Dominic's smile thinned.
“Eventually.”
Alejandro's attention sharpened.
“You helped fake his death.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He needed distance.”
“To manipulate my life?”
“To test you.”
Alejandro laughed softly.
“You people wasted years worshiping a frightened old man.”
Rizzo's hand moved near his coat.
Alejandro noticed.
Dominic said, “Careful.”
Alejandro ignored him.
“Where is Carlo's son?”
Dominic gestured.
A door opened.
A young man appeared.
Hands bound.
Alive.
Alejandro exhaled slightly.
“You have me. Release him.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“What do you want?”
“The succession corrected.”
Alejandro understood.
“You want me to deny Emma.”
“Publicly and legally.”
“No.”
“You didn't hear the offer.”
“No.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Transfer control of the family council. Declare no legitimate heir. Leave the country.”
“No.”
“And the boy dies.”
Alejandro looked at Carlo's son.
The young man was terrified.
Then Alejandro looked back at Dominic.
“You think I'm going to sacrifice somebody else's child to protect power?”
“I think you'll choose your daughter.”
Alejandro slowly smiled.
“That is the problem.”
Dominic frowned.
“You never understood her.”
“Who?”
“Emma.”
Alejandro's hand slipped into his pocket.
He felt the red stone.
“She sat beside me when I told her not to.”
Dominic stared.
“She decided I was sad and apparently that gave her authority.”
Rizzo muttered, “What are you talking about?”
“A house.”
Alejandro's smile faded.
“She taught me something.”
Dominic's patience snapped.
“You came here to discuss children's games?”
“No.”
Alejandro looked at Carlo's son.
“I came because the people following you are the reason men like my father destroyed everything they touched.”
He raised his hands.
“Take the businesses.”
Dominic blinked.
“What?”
“Take the council.”
“Alejandro.”
“Take my shares in every old Moretti operation. Warehouses. Routes. Anything illegal.”
Rizzo stared.
Dominic whispered, “You're bluffing.”
“No.”
“You'd give it away?”
“For him.”
Alejandro nodded toward Carlo's son.
Dominic looked stunned.
Then angry.
Not because Alejandro resisted.
Because he did not.
Power was only leverage if the other person wanted it.
Alejandro finally understood that.
His father had built a kingdom around the assumption that no Moretti would willingly surrender the throne.
Alejandro was about to prove him wrong.
“Release the boy.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You think walking away makes you righteous?”
“No.”
“Your hands are still dirty.”
“I know.”
“You think a little girl changes what you are?”
Alejandro looked at him.
“No.”
He paused.
“She changes what I choose next.”
A sound came from the darkness.
Marco's voice through Alejandro's hidden earpiece.
Positions confirmed.
Alejandro had not truly come alone.
Dominic did not know that.
Yet.
Rizzo moved toward Carlo's son.
Alejandro's body tightened.
“Don't.”
Rizzo smiled.
“Or what?”
Alejandro's gaze turned cold.
“You've spent your whole life confusing restraint with weakness.”
Rizzo pulled a weapon.
Everything happened instantly.
A light shattered.
Marco's team moved.
Alejandro tackled Carlo's son behind a concrete barrier.
Shots cracked through the yard.
Dominic disappeared inside the warehouse.
Rizzo fired toward the shadows.
Alejandro cut the young man's bindings.
“Run east.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
The boy ran.
Marco reached Alejandro.
“You promised living was harder.”
Alejandro looked at him.
“I'm trying.”
They moved through the building.
Rizzo escaped through a side door.
Dominic vanished.
But Carlo's son was safe.
No Moretti men died.
That mattered.
Back at the house, Emma was asleep.
Alejandro returned at two in the morning.
Isabella waited near the stairs.
“You're bleeding.”
“Not mine.”
She closed her eyes in relief.
“Carlo's son?”
“Safe.”
“And Dominic?”
“Gone.”
“You gave up the businesses?”
Alejandro looked at her.
“The old ones.”
“You meant it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked upstairs.
“Because Marco was right.”
“About?”
Alejandro smiled faintly.
“Living for somebody is harder.”
Isabella stared at him.
For the first time, she saw the man he might have become if Vittorio Moretti had not spent decades teaching him fear.
Alejandro climbed the stairs.
Emma's door opened.
She stood there half asleep.
“You came back.”
“Yes.”
She walked toward him.
Alejandro crouched.
She touched his face.
“You look tired.”
“I am.”
“Did the rock work?”
He pulled the red stone from his pocket.
“Yes.”
Emma smiled.
Then she whispered, “Good night, Dad.”
This time Alejandro was ready.
Almost.
He kissed her forehead.
“Good night.”
Emma went back to bed.
Alejandro remained in the hallway.
Isabella stood below.
Their eyes met.
Neither spoke.
But something inside the Moretti house had changed permanently.
Alejandro had surrendered pieces of his empire.
May you like
And every man inside now understood the reason.
By morning, the underworld would hear that Alejandro Moretti had chosen a child over power—and someone would decide that made Emma the perfect way to destroy him.
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