"I came home early to find my housekeeper hiding quadruplets—all with my face and my dead wife's warning."

Twelve men dressed in unmarked black tactical gear swept through the marble arches, their assault rifles raised, sweeping the room with red laser sights. Behind them, stepping casually over the body of my fallen front guard, was Dominic.

He wore a dark wool coat, a grey silk tie, and a cold, disappointed smile.

"Alejandro," Dominic called out, his voice echoing smoothly off the high ceilings. "You weren't supposed to come home until five o'clock. You always were terrible at sticking to a schedule."

I stepped out from behind the heavy stone pillar at the top of the sweeping double staircase. My charcoal jacket was unbuttoned, both silver pistols raised, my dark eyes holding him with a lethal, unyielding stillness.

"Dominic," I spoke, my deep baritone carrying an absolute, freezing authority that made his forward tactical squad freeze mid-step. "You brought twenty-year mercenaries into our father's house."

Dominic chuckled, unbuttoning his coat, resting his hands casually on his hips. "Our father's house? Our father gave you everything, Alejandro! The territory, the shipping docks, the corporate trusts! And what did he leave me? A ten percent management share in a trucking firm!"

"So you paid hitmen to run Sofia's car off the coastal road five years ago?" I asked, my voice dropping an octave into a low, terrifying register.

"Sofia found out I was siphoning seventy million dollars from the offshore accounts to fund my own syndicate in Miami," Dominic revealed deadpan, zero remorse in his eyes. "She was smart. Too smart. But she was weak. She ran away and hid like a rat."

He pointed his hand toward the service corridor leading to the pantry.

"Where are the boys, brother?" Dominic asked, his smile twisting into something bitter and grotesque. "I saw the report from Maine. Four identical little bastards. If even one of them survives, the Moretti Trust stays locked in your bloodline forever. I can't allow that."

"You won't touch a single hair on their heads, Dominic," I promised softly.

"Kill him," Dominic commanded flatly to his men.