Chapter 4 - Blood on the Circuit Board
The barrel of Vincent’s Walther PPK held steady, aimed dead center at Dominic’s heart. In the tight, humming confines of the server room, the air grew thick with the smell of ozone and impending death.
Dominic didn't flinch. For a man who had survived decades in the violent underbelly of New York, betrayal was an occupational hazard, but this cut straight to the bone.
“Thirteen years, Vinnie,” Dominic said, his voice dangerously low, a lethal rumble vibrating in his chest. “Thirteen years we watched each other’s backs through turf wars, federal indictments, and hospital beds. And you traded Isabelle’s life for a seat at the commission table?”
“It wasn't just a seat, Dom,” Vincent replied, his finger resting lightly on the trigger. “It was the survival of the entire organization. You stopped seeing the big picture the day you put a ring on her finger. But don't worry—I’ll take good care of the girls. Once you're out of the picture, I’ll relocate them to a nice boarding school in Switzerland. They’ll forget all about you within a month.”
Mentioning his daughters snapped the last thread of Dominic’s control.
With blinding speed, Dominic kicked his chair backward, sending it crashing into Vincent’s shins while simultaneously drawing his Sig Sauer from his shoulder holster.
Bang!
The suppressed Walther barked, a high-pitched phut-phut sound as a 9mm round chewed through the leather back of Dominic’s abandoned chair, missing his chest by inches.
Dominic rolled hard to the right, diving behind a heavy steel server rack as a second round sparked against the metal casing, showering him in red-hot shrapnel.
“You're getting old, Dom!” Vincent shouted over the hum of the cooling fans, his footsteps crunching stealthily across the concrete floor as he stalked around the opposite side of the rack. “You should have stayed in Brooklyn playing godfather!”
Dominic pressed his back against the vibrating metal server, his breathing slow and controlled. He checked his magazine—ten rounds left. He couldn't kill Vincent in a blind firefight; the server room was a labyrinth of electronics, and a stray bullet could destroy the master cryptographic drives containing every financial record, enemy ledger, and security backup the family possessed.
He needed to draw him into the open.
Dominic unclipped a heavy, heavy-duty brass fire extinguisher mounted to the wall beside him. With a swift twist of his wrist, he pulled the safety pin and hurled the heavy cylinder across the floor down the intersecting aisle.
Clatter-clatter-clank.
The extinguisher slid across the smooth concrete, slamming into a metal cabinet on the far side of the room.
Phut!
Reacting on pure predatory instinct, Vincent fired toward the sound, sending a bullet through the empty space where he thought Dominic was hiding.
That single wasted second was all Dominic needed.
He vaulted around the end of the server rack, closing the ten-foot gap between them in two explosive strides. Before Vincent could re-acquire his target, Dominic slammed the heavy butt of his Sig Sauer directly into Vincent’s wrist.
Crack.
The Walther clattered uselessly onto the concrete floor.
Before Vincent could recover, Dominic grabbed him by the lapels of his expensive Brioni suit, lifted him off his feet with savage strength, and slammed his back against the reinforced steel door.
“You talk about survival, Vinnie?” Dominic snarled, pressing the cold barrel of his gun directly under Vincent’s chin, pushing upward until Vincent’s feet dangled inches off the ground. “Let’s see how well you survive this.”
Vincent coughed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but a sick, twisted smile spread across his lips. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘄𝑒𝑏𝑛𝗼v𝑒𝗹.𝐜𝗼𝐦
“You... you think killing me solves everything?” Vincent wheezed, his eyes bulging as the gun barrel bit into his skin. “Check... check your private terminal upstairs, Dom. While you were down here playing detective... my automated contingency protocol just uploaded every single encrypted ledger of your offshore accounts to the FBI’s public tip line.”
Dominic froze. The gun hovered millimeters from Vincent’s skin.
“What did you say?”
May you like
“If I die... federal agents will be kicking down your front door before midnight,” Vincent laughed, a wet, choking sound. “Your empire... your money... your daughters... they’re all going down.”
---
