Chapter 8 - The Interrogation
The failed midnight raid on the safehouse proved to be the final straw for the Vitale organization. With his elite hit squad eliminated and his location compromised, Carmine Vitale was forced to retreat into his heavily fortified personal stronghold in an industrial estate along the East River. But Vincent Rossi was already moving faster than a freight train. Following the interrogation of the sole surviving assassin from the safehouse breach, Dominic Hale secured the exact floor plan and security shift rotations of Carmine’s headquarters. By 3:30 AM, twenty black SUVs converged on the industrial estate, sealing off every exit and cutting the compound's power grid before the guards even realized they were under siege. Vincent walked through the shattered front gates of the compound, his charcoal suit jacket buttoned, his face carved from impenetrable stone. Enforcers scrambled in panic inside the courtyard, dropping their weapons as Vincent’s men poured over the walls with overwhelming force. Dominic kicked open the heavy oak doors of the executive office on the top floor, where Carmine Vitale sat behind his mahogany desk, frantically trying to burn paper documents in a metal wastebasket. Vincent stepped into the office, his shadow falling heavily across the desk. Carmine froze, looking up with wide, bloodshot eyes, realizing that his war had finally reached its absolute, inescapable conclusion. “Vincent...” Carmine stammered, forcing a sickly, nervous smile. “We... we can talk about this. It was just business. A misunderstanding—” “You touched my family, Carmine,” Vincent interrupted quietly, walking around the desk and grabbing the front of Carmine’s silk shirt, hauling him out of his chair with one hand. “You made me bury an empty box. You forced the woman I love to live in the dirt for seven months.” Carmine clawed desperately at Vincent’s wrists, choking for air. “Please... spare me, Rossi! I’ll give you my docks! I’ll give you my casinos!” “You’ll give me nothing,” Vincent said, his voice dropping into a lethal whisper. “Because you have nothing left to offer.” With a final, brutal heave, Vincent threw Carmine across the room, leaving his fate to the cold, unforgiving justice of the New York underworld.
