Chapter 16 - The Price of Treason
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Inside the dark, shuttered study, Victoria realized she was completely trapped. She didn't try to negotiate. The professional infiltrator took over. She lunged for a hidden derringer strapped to her thigh beneath the heavy layers of her wedding dress.
She raised the tiny weapon, aiming for Dante's face.
Dante fired first.
His suppressed bullet shattered her right kneecap. Victoria screamed—a raw, agonizing sound that ripped from her throat—and collapsed onto the floor, clutching her ruined leg, her pristine white dress rapidly soaking with bright red blood.
Dante walked slowly around the desk, his face devoid of any mercy. He kicked her dropped weapon away.
"You arrogant bastard," Victoria spat, sobbing in pain, glaring up at him with pure hatred. "You knew. You let me stand there and say vows to you."
"I wanted you to feel exactly what it is like to be gutted," Dante replied coldly, towering over her bleeding form. "I wanted you to open that safe, thinking you had won, only to realize you had walked into your own grave."
He reached down, grabbing her roughly by the hair, forcing her to look him in the eye.
"Ivan is dead," Dante whispered lethally. "Your men in the ballroom are dead. The Bratva is leaderless, and you have failed them."
Victoria’s face went chalk-white as the realization dawned on her. She had nothing left. No backup, no escape, no empire.
"Kill me," she hissed defiantly. "Just do it."
"Killing you is too easy," Dante said, releasing her hair and standing back up. "You stole a dead girl's name. You played house with my life. You threatened a child in my home."
He looked at the door. "Nico!"
The heavy doors opened. Nico stepped in, looking at the bleeding bride on the floor with utter disgust.
"Take her to the deep basement," Dante ordered, turning his back on her completely. "Have the doctor stabilize her leg. She doesn't get to die tonight. She is going to spend the rest of her miserable life locked in a concrete box in the dark, answering questions about every single remaining Bratva operation in the country."
"No! Please! Dante, kill me!" Victoria shrieked hysterically as Nico grabbed her by the arms and dragged her backward out of the study, leaving a thick trail of blood across the expensive Persian rug.
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Dante listened to her screams fade down the hallway. He bent down, picked up the encrypted hard drive, and locked it safely back inside the biometric vault. The empire was secure.
Now, he needed to secure his heart.
