Chapter 9 The Choice

It was just past midnight when the heavy doors of Club Inferno creaked open.

Inside, the air was thick with money and silence. A pianist played slow jazz in the corner, but no one listened. No one spoke unless they had something worth saying.

At the back of the room, a man sat alone in a dark leather booth.

Black shirt. Black gloves. Gold rings that caught the light like tiny flames.

Dominic Pendragon.

The guards dragged someone in. A man with blood on his collar and panic in his eyes.

Dominic didn't look up at first. He poured himself a drink - whiskey, slow and quiet.

"What's his name?" he asked.

The man tried to speak, but one of the guards answered for him. "His name's Tomas. One of ours."

Dominic finally looked.

His stare was cold. Measured. The kind that made men forget how to breathe.

"Tomas," Dominic said calmly. "You were responsible for Locker 9."

Tomas's eyes widened. "I-I checked it this morning. Everything was in place."

Dominic raised an eyebrow.

"Was it?"

He leaned forward. His voice didn't rise, but the weight of it filled the room.

"Because tonight... it's empty."

Tomas stammered. "I don't know how. The key was never used-"

Dominic waved a hand. "Stop."

Silence.

"I don't want excuses," he said softly. "I want truth. And I want blood."

Tomas dropped to his knees. "Please, I swear, I didn't-"

The word died in his throat as one of the guards stepped forward.

Dominic took a slow sip of whiskey. He didn't watch. He didn't have to.

When it was done, he stood and adjusted his cuffs.

"Whatever was in that pouch was meant to stay forgotten. Find out who touched it. I want names. I want motives. And I want it back."

One of the men asked quietly, "What if they already opened it?"

Dominic's eyes turned cold as steel.

"Then they've just declared war and I will gladly sip more blood."

----------

Back inside the warehouse, silence had settled like dust.

The three figures stood where Matteo had left them, watching the door he'd just walked out of.

The woman was the first to speak.

"He said yes."

The tall man in the leather coat let out a short laugh. "Of course he did. They always do when they've got someone to lose."

The third man - the one Matteo had first met in the car - stepped forward slowly. He stared at the empty doorway, eyes thoughtful.

"He's smart," he said. "Quick. And desperate. The perfect kind of broken."

The woman smirked. "We don't need perfect. We just need him close enough to Pendragon to start the fall."

She walked over to the crate and picked up the extra copy of the flash drive - the backup Matteo didn't know existed. She turned it over in her gloved hand, her smile cold.

"When Dominic finds out what was taken from him, he'll be looking in every direction but the right one."

"Until it's too late," the leather coat man added.

The third man finally looked away from the door. "What about the boy?"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Matteo?"

He nodded. "What if he starts asking questions?"

She gave a light laugh. "Then we lie. Or we remind him who's keeping his little brother alive."

They all went quiet again.

For a moment, only the sound of wind outside the broken warehouse window filled the room.

Then the woman stepped closer to the shadows, her voice low and dangerous.

"We've played by Pendragon's rules for too long. It's time to rewrite the board."

The tall man smiled, sharp and slow. "And Matteo Rossi just became our first move."

Matteo slipped into the apartment quietly.

The door creaked - same as always. The hallway light still flickered. And from the bedroom, he heard the soft, steady sound of Leo's breathing.

Safe. For now.

He closed the door behind him, leaned against it, and exhaled. His legs felt weak. His hands were still trembling from the warehouse, though he tried to hide it.

He walked to the small kitchen, opened the fridge. He put in the items he got from the store. He shut it again.

In the bedroom, Leo coughed.

Matteo rushed in.

Leo was sitting up now, his face pale but smiling. "You're back."

"Yeah," Matteo said, forcing a grin. "Told you I wouldn't be long."

Leo looked at him closely. "You look weird."

Matteo laughed nervously. "It's the lighting."

"You only look like that when you're scared."

Matteo sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not scared. Just tired."

Leo didn't believe him, but he didn't press. He leaned his head on Matteo's shoulder. "Did you find any money?"

Matteo hesitated. "Not yet. But I'm working on something."

Leo nodded sleepily. "You always do."

Matteo looked down at his little brother - the only good thing in his life. The reason he was doing any of this. He wanted to protect him from everything. From sickness. From the world. From Pendragon.

But he couldn't protect Leo from what was coming.

Because Matteo had just stepped into a war.

And he wasn't sure who the real enemy was.

---

Across the Street – Watching

A man stood in the shadows, across from the apartment building. Smoking.

He held a small radio to his mouth. "Target is inside. He's alone. The brother's here too."

A crackled voice replied, "Stay on him. Orders from the top."

The man smiled. "Pendragon doesn't even know who we're watching yet."

He crushed the cigarette under his boot and faded back into the dark.

---

Matteo was losing it.

He sat on a milk crate on the rooftop, staring at a crushed soda can like it held the answers to life. His hoodie was half-zipped. His brain? Fully fried.

"Okay," he whispered, "how do you become best friends with a guy who probably murders people between breakfast and lunch?"

He pulled out a stolen notebook - the one with Leo's math homework on the first page - and flipped to the back.

In all caps, he wrote:

HOW TO GET CLOSE TO DOMINIC PENDRAGON

(Without Getting Murdered)

Option 1:

Crash his car and pretend it was an accident.

✅ Will get his attention.

❌ Will also probably get a gun pointed at my face.

Option 2:

Sneak into his club dressed as a waiter.

✅ Spies do it in movies all the time.

❌ I can't balance a tray. I'll spill wine on someone's mob wife and die in a very embarrassing way.

Option 3:

Fake a business idea. Something like... "Mafia Coffee: A Shot You Can't Refuse."

✅ Clever.

❌ Sounds like a fast way to end up in a trunk.

Option 4:

Become a stray cat. Cats always get in anywhere.

✅ Low risk.

❌ Problem: I am not a cat.

He groaned and dropped his head back against the wall.

"What kind of lunatic plan is this? How am I supposed to just... walk into Pendragon's world like, 'Hey, need a new bestie?'"

A rat ran by.

Even the rat looked more organized than him.

Then the most ridiculous thought popped into his brain.

"What if," he said slowly, "I pretend to worship the guy? Like-become his number one fan? Start a fan page? Call it 'Dommy Daddy'? Wait. No. That sounds-too weird. Delete that."

He crossed it out violently with Leo's crayon.

Then added:

Option 5:

Wing it. Smile. Lie. Act like I belong.

✅ It's worked before.

❌ If it doesn't work this time... goodbye lungs.

He looked up at the sky.

"God, if you're listening, and you happen to like me today... maybe keep all my body parts attached this week."

From the window above, Leo called out, "Matteo! Are you coming? I'm starving!"

Matteo blinked, startled out of his spiral of terrible ideas. He looked up and forced his voice to sound casual.

"No, I'm not trying to change the topic," he called back. "I'm coming up to make dinner. Hold on!"

Then he muttered to himself as he stuffed the notebook back into his jacket:

"Sure. I'll make dinner now. Potential death later."

He rubbed his face with both hands and sighed dramatically, like a man preparing to enter a shark tank in flip-flops.

"God, I hope Dominic likes spaghetti."