Page 110 of Of Lies and Shadows

I rise slowly, wiping the blade on his shirt, the crimson streak bright against the fabric. My voice is low and tight. “You had a place. You had a purpose. And you chose to burn it to the ground.”

He chuckles bitterly, his breath catching with agony. “I was loyal. I took the beatings. I bled for you. And what did I get? Babysitting duties. Playing lapdog to that Vescari whore.”

“You mean my wife? The woman who saved my son’s life?”

He bares his teeth. “She didn’t save your son. I missed. That’s all.”

My stomach turns, but I don’t flinch. I can’t. Not now.

“I gave you everything I could,” I say. “But respect is earned, Fulvio. And you lost mine the moment you pointed a gun at a child.”

Fulvio’s face twists. “You think this is just about me? About status?” His grin is feral. “You’re blind, Dante. You think you’re better because you’ve found your balls and a woman to love? Salvatore will find someone else. And I was just the beginning.”

I lean in, my face inches from his, and he falters for the first time. “You’ll tell me everything I want to know, and you’ll do it in front of the council,” I growl.

Fulvio shifts his gaze, not to me, but to Vito, who’s standing frozen behind me, pale as ash.

His eyes glint with malice. “Yes, take me to the council. I can't wait to tell them everything. Want to know where I got your secrets, boss? The ones about your warehouses, the drops, the times you’d be weakest?” He smirks, bloody and gleeful. “Your second-in-command moaned them into my mouth. Every time I had my cock down his throat, every time he bent me over and begged for it like the needy little whore he is.”

Vito makes a choked sound behind me, like a wound torn open without warning.

I freeze. I knew, but I didn't want confirmation like that.

“I didn’t even have to ask most of the time,” Fulvio continues. “He gave it all up, whispering sweet nothings while he fucked me like the pathetic, closeted piece of shit he is. And after? He cried. Every single time. Because he knew he wasn’t your equal. Just a hole. Just?—”

I raise my gun and fire.

The shot rings out like thunder in the warehouse, echoing against steel beams and concrete. Fulvio slumps, mouth still parted in that hateful grin, the back of his skull painted across the floor.

Bruno exhales behind me. Vito doesn’t move.

I don’t regret it. Not for a fucking second. Even if it means I don’t have the power to take Salvatore out yet. Fulvio would’ve sold us all out just to humiliate the man I once thought might have betrayed me.

I holster my gun and turn to Vito.

“I’m not ready to forgive you,” I say. “But you’re still mine. And I won’t let him use your shame to burn this family.”

Vito’s eyes fill just slightly. “Thank you, Dante. I…”

I look back at Fulvio’s corpse. “Your mistakes don’t disappear,” I say quietly. “But they don’t define you either. Clean this up. Then we go to war.”

“One down,” I murmur. “Now it’s Mori’s turn.”

And after that? Salvatore. I’ll have him. I’ll have every last one of them.

Because I swear on her blood, I will make the world bleed for what they tried to take from me.

I leave without looking back, but I hear Bruno’s footsteps behind me, steady and close.

At the car, I stop, exhaling hard. “She’s still unconscious.”

When he doesn’t respond, I glance over my shoulder.

“He was your only asset against Salvatore,” he says at last.

“For now.”

He frowns. “I don’t follow.”

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