Chapter 3 3

Isabella POV

Catherine's threat hung in the suffocating air of the apartment, a heavy guillotine waiting to drop. But if she thought the name of Constantine Gallo would cower my father, she was gravely mistaken.

Marco Falcone let out a low, dangerous snarl. "You think I fear the Don's wrath more than I love my daughter?" He shoved past Sean, his eyes blazing with a reckless, suicidal fury. "I am going to The Old Man right now. I will lay my Caporegime title at his feet and tell him the Brennans are harboring a viper who planned to murder my blood."

"Are you insane?" Sean lunged, his fingers digging into my father's arm with the desperate strength of a dying man. "Marco, you bring this to the Don, and he will slaughter us all! We can fix this! Don't burn our families to the ground over a girl's jealousy!"

"Take your hands off me, Sean, before I blow your head off," my father warned, his hand hovering over his holster.

The room was a powder keg, seconds away from a bloodbath. I needed a weapon to cut through this madness, and fate, it seemed, decided to hand me a scythe.

The temperature in the room plummeted as the splintered door was pushed open entirely.

Silence crashed over us. Sean froze. My father's hand dropped from his gun.

Standing in the doorway was Damien Costello. The Phantom. Don Gallo's chief Enforcer and the most feared man in Chicago. The silver half-mask covering the upper right side of his face caught the dim light, but it was his eyes-hollow, dead, and utterly merciless-that paralyzed the room. Two massive Soldiers flanked him, their hands resting casually on their Tommy guns.

Sean swallowed hard, stepping away from my father. "Damien... we were just handling a minor domestic dispute-"

I didn't let him finish. I broke free from my mother's grasp and sank to my knees on the scuffed floorboards right before the Enforcer.

"He is lying," I said, my voice trembling but clear. I pointed at Jason and Elena, who were cowering by the bed. "Jason Brennan has been bedding my adopted sister. They planned to marry me, poison me slowly, and steal the Falcone dock routes."

Damien looked down at me. There was no pity in his gaze, only a chilling boredom. "A broken heart and a cheating boy," his voice was a low, gravelly rasp that sent shivers down my spine. "What is this to me?"

This was it. The gamble of my life.

"Please," I whispered, looking up into his cold eyes. "Allow me one word in private."

For a agonizing second, he didn't move. Then, he gave a microscopic tilt of his head. I leaned forward, my lips inches from the cold silver of his mask, and breathed the deadly secret I had ripped from my nightmares.

"This isn't about a broken engagement. It's about treason. Alistair Gallo is using them to start a war."

I felt the immediate shift in him. The boredom vanished, replaced by a lethal, terrifying sharpness. Damien straightened, his eyes locking onto mine with a piercing intensity that made my breath hitch. He didn't ask how I knew. In our world, actionable intel was all that mattered.

"Take the boy and the girl," Damien commanded his Soldiers, his voice cracking like a whip. "They are Rats."

Jason screamed as a Soldier grabbed him by the hair. Elena sobbed hysterically, thrashing against the grip of the other man.

Damien turned his dead gaze to our fathers. "You two. With me. The Old Man is waiting at the Drake."

Thirty minutes later, the stench of the West Loop apartment was replaced by the scent of aged whiskey, expensive cigars, and absolute power.

Don Constantine Gallo's penthouse office at the Drake Hotel overlooked the glittering Chicago skyline. The Old Man sat behind a massive mahogany desk, his weathered face unreadable as Damien gave a clipped, emotionless summary of the arrests.

When Damien finished, I crawled forward on the thick Persian rug, keeping my head bowed.

"Don Gallo," I pleaded, letting the raw desperation bleed into my voice. "I beg for your justice. They did not just betray me; they spat on the union you personally blessed. They planned to murder a Falcone to steal the territory you entrusted to us. I ask you to dissolve this cursed engagement and restore my family's honor."

The heavy silence that followed was deafening.

Constantine Gallo did not answer immediately. He leaned back in his leather chair, his hawkish eyes drifting from my kneeling form to the towering, silent figure of Damien standing by the door. The Don's gaze narrowed, a dangerous, calculating curiosity sparking in his eyes as he silently weighed why his most merciless weapon had suddenly decided to play savior to a Capo's daughter.