THE WAITRESS YANKED A MAFIA BOSS UNDER A DINER TABLE SECONDS BEFORE A BULLET TORE THROUGH HIS BOOTH—BUT SAVING DIMITRI VULOV’S LIFE MADE HER THE ONE WEAKNESS HIS ENEMIES COULD NOT WAIT TO USE

While I sat in the sunlit suite overlooking the ocean, five miles away in a soundproof basement boardroom beneath a hotel in Manhattan, Dimitri Vulov was setting the city on fire.

The room was filled with twelve senior captains of the Vulov syndicate—men who controlled the docks, the unions, the casinos, and the construction syndicates across the East Coast.

Dimitri sat at the head of the dark mahogany table, wearing a crisp charcoal suit, his bare right hand resting flat on the polished wood.

Beside him lay a single object: the crushed casing of the high-caliber sniper round pulled from the diner's leather booth.

"Julian Moretti crossed the river," Anton reported, standing to Dimitri's right. "He hired a Serbian strike team through a broker in Queens."

An elderly captain named Viktor slammed his fist onto the table.

"This is war, Dimitri!" Viktor roared. "We hit their shipping hubs in Brooklyn today! We wipe out their captains before sunset!"

"No," Dimitri said quietly.

The entire boardroom went completely silent. When Dimitri Vulov spoke in that low, controlled tone, men with forty years of street violence learned to listen.

"A full-scale war brings the federal task force down on our ports," Dimitri explained, his storm-gray eyes sweeping over the captains. "Julian wants a chaotic war because his family is broke. He wants us to overreact."

"Then what do we do, Boss?" another captain asked.

Dimitri picked up the crushed bullet casing, turning it between his long fingers.

"We take Julian’s money," Dimitri whispered dangerously. "We seize his four illegal casinos in Queens, we take his docks in New Jersey, and we leave him stranded with no payroll for his men."

"And the girl?" Viktor asked carefully. "The waitress who saved you? Word is already spreading across the street that you brought a nobody into your private estate."