Too Late For Regret, Mr. Mafia Boss

Elena's POV

I pushed the casino monopoly contract-a priceless document-across the mahogany table.

In exchange, the man I had bled for over the past five years tore the silver badge from my chest.

"Hand this operation over to my fiancée, or you won't leave this room." Gabriel Moretti didn't even look at me.

His gaze was locked onto the double doors at the end of the room, as if waiting for a highly important guest.

For five years, I was his right hand. It was my advice that helped him expand half of his territory; it was my hands that signed those agreements; it was my blood that was spilled on the floors of enemy warehouses, all so he could sit at the head of this table.

He had promised me that once the casino contract was signed, I would become the underboss.

Yet now, in front of twelve family capos, he was stripping me of my power.

The gap in the heavy mahogany doors gradually widened, and a pale fluorescent light from the hallway pierced through the smoke.

Gabriel stood up, the cold, hard lines of his face relaxing into a sickeningly flattering smile.

He crossed the room to welcome Serena Bianchi.

She was wearing a pure white silk gown. In this room filled with the heavy scent of cigar smoke, she looked incredibly out of place.

She clung tightly to Gabriel's arm, scanning the men gathered in the room.

Gabriel cleared his throat, his voice breaking the silence.

"I have decided to appoint Serena as the co-commander of the S-Class territory."

A heavy silence fell over the twelve family capos.

I maintained my expressionless demeanor, sitting exactly as I had been, but a chill crept into my heart, extinguishing the very last shred of my loyalty to him.

"Bringing an outsider into the inner circle violates family rules," I said in a low voice.

Serena flinched, burying her face into Gabriel's suit and letting out a small, dramatic gasp.

Gabriel slammed his hand onto the polished wooden table, his eyes locking onto me, the muscles at the corner of his eyes twitching from the force.

"I am the head of this family, Elena!" he snapped.

"My word is law, and you will not question me on my turf."

Serena peeked out from behind him, offering the men in the room a fragile, teary-eyed smile.

"Gabriel said that only my name needs to be on the territory's title deeds, so we can secure our power."

Beneath the table, my hands clenched into fists.

She wanted everything-the credit, the turf, the wealth, even the safe houses-yet she had never even touched a gun.

Gabriel reached into the ashtray, picked up my badge with two fingers, and tossed it into the trash can at his feet, like it was a piece of garbage.

"This family is mine," he declared, wrapping a fiercely possessive arm around Serena's waist.

"Next month, Serena and I are getting married."

He looked down at me, the lines of his face hardening once more.

"Before tomorrow, you must hand over the encrypted master drive to her."

"If you dare to disobey my orders, Elena, I will make sure you never find work in this city again. You won't even have the chance to breathe."

My gaze shifted to the trash can, where the silver badge gleamed dully.

I thought of the scar on my left shoulder, the mark left by a bullet I took for him. Now, it seemed that scar had only bought me a spot in the trash.

Just as Gabriel and Serena turned to leave, I reached into the trash can, retrieved the badge, and quietly slipped it into my pocket.

But my thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.

Downstairs, a motorcade waited silently in the rain. It belonged to Dante Falcone-the head of the Falcone family.

Dante was the kind of man who could wipe out two rival families overnight just to flex his power.

More importantly, he was Gabriel's deadliest nemesis.

I knew Dante was waiting. He would be surveilling this building, waiting for a signal that the asset he desired was finally within reach.

Serena leaned over the table, a small smile curling on her lips. "Thank you for stepping aside, Elena."

I stood up, the legs of my chair letting out a soft squeak against the floor.

I took a deep breath, the cold air rushing into my throat and triggering a dry cough. I covered my mouth with my hand.

"You will have the master drive tomorrow."

I said calmly, my voice betraying no hint of what I was plotting inside.

Elena's POV

The monitors in my safe house cast a faint blue glow across my face, adding a touch of tension to the room.

My fingers flew across the mechanical keyboard, the crisp clacking echoing in the silent space.

I was preparing the master drive for Gabriel and Serena.

I systematically stripped away the real offshore account routing numbers and political protection codes, replacing them with a decoy program-a digital logic bomb.

Once activated, it would expose every single one of their routes to the federal authorities.

I unplugged the silver drive, tossed it into the desk drawer, and sealed their fate.

A few hours later, the silence of my safe house was replaced by the low hum of a ballroom. The air was thick with the scent of cigars and luxurious perfume.

Tonight was the underworld's annual masquerade ball.

Gabriel stood in the center of the room, holding a glass of champagne, introducing Serena to the city's corrupt politicians and high-ranking mobsters.

He announced that Serena would become the new head of the S-Class operations.

Serena wore a diamond necklace around her neck. I stood in the shadows near the bar, watching all of this coldly.

My heart felt hollow. The place where emotions should have been was entirely dead.

The string quartet suddenly stopped, the music coming to an abrupt halt in the air.

An aura of genuine terror swept through the crowd-Dante Falcone had entered the hall, flanked by six of his soldiers.

His perfectly tailored black suit clung to his broad, imposing physique-a body born for violence. His sharp jawline and cold, calculating eyes only made his ruthlessness more apparent.

Gabriel puffed out his chest and took a step forward, but Dante didn't even spare him a glance.

He walked right past Gabriel, completely ignoring the head of the Moretti family.

Dante's tall figure blocked the light from the wall sconces above, casting me in a shadow tinged with the scent of cedarwood and a faint hint of gunpowder.

He reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a heavy black-and-gold card, and pressed it into my palm. His large hand completely enveloped mine.

"My family's consigliere seat has been empty for three years. That position is waiting for you."

I looked down at the card, then tilted my head up to meet his gaze. A faint smile touched the corners of my lips.

"I have to clean up a mess first."

The corner of Dante's mouth twitched slightly.

He pulled back, his fingers deliberately brushing against my wrist.

He slowly turned his head, finally looking at Gabriel, who was standing a few steps away with a flushed red face.

"You treat gold like garbage, and glass like treasure," Dante's voice echoed through the silent hall.

Gabriel's jaw clenched so tightly that I could see the muscles in his cheeks twitching.

Dante adjusted his cuffs, his gaze locked firmly on Gabriel. "Wishing your new S-Class operation a swift and sudden death."

Dante turned and left, his soldiers following him in perfect synchronization.

Before the door even fully closed, Gabriel stormed over and grabbed my arm in a vice-like grip.

He dragged me down a hallway and shoved me into an empty reception room. The heavy doors closed behind us with a muffled thud.

"Are you conspiring with Dante Falcone?" Gabriel roared, his face mere inches from mine.

I calmly brushed off the spot where his hand had touched me, looking at him expressionlessly.

"Gabriel, the only reason you can sit on that throne today is because of my trigger finger."

He grabbed a crystal decanter and smashed it violently against the wall. The sound of shattering glass was sharp and ear-piercing, shards scattering across the carpet.

"If you don't hand over those drives, I'll make sure you can't take a single step in the underworld," he said, pointing a trembling finger at my chest. "I will have you killed."

I glanced at the broken glass on the floor, then back up at his face, which was filled with desperation.

"Fine, you'll get it."

Elena's POV

At ten o'clock the next morning, the hinges of my office door let out a dry, metallic screech as it was pushed open.

Serena strutted in, her heels clicking sharply against the polished floor.

She was accompanied by Gabriel's chief enforcer, a man with a face full of scars.

On the lapel of her designer jacket, she wore a gold-trimmed "Capo badge."

She crossed her arms and swept her gaze across my command center, a smug expression on her face.

"Gabriel sent me to get the S-Class master drive."

I feigned indifference and pulled open my desk drawer.

I took out the silver hard drive and casually tossed it onto the glass desk. It slid across the surface, coming to a stop near her hand.

Serena snatched it up, clutching it to her chest like a trophy.

"Gabriel is going to announce my promotion to underboss tomorrow."

She leaned over the desk, a venomous smile curling on her lips.

"Once the casino alliance is signed, he'll also announce our marriage."

I leaned back in my chair, pressing my fingertips together lightly.

"Assuming you live to see that day."

Serena's smile faltered for a second, but she quickly recovered, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"Gabriel has already given me this headquarters."

She pointed toward the door. "Pack your things and get out of my office."

I stood up without saying a word.

My finger grazed the edge of the keyboard, my pinky pressing a hidden macro key-a silent trigger.

I pulled a foldable cardboard box from under my desk and began packing my personal weapons.

I placed my custom Glock, my tactical knife, and several burner phones into the box.

Serena rolled her eyes, turned around, and tapped her foot impatiently.

"Hurry up," she snapped, leaving her enforcer to watch me pack.

The terminal screen behind me flickered. Days ago, I had already encrypted and packaged the real master roster-the very lifeblood of the family organization.

I had transferred the authentic files onto a micro-drive smaller than a fingernail, hiding it in a secret pocket inside my boot.

The macro I had just triggered launched a delayed replacement protocol, gradually overwriting the gang's servers with dummy data. To an amateur, everything looked normal, but in reality, it was a ticking time bomb.

It wasn't until I picked up the box that Serena finally walked out of the office, taking the enforcer with her to inspect the rest of the floor.

Ten minutes later, I walked out of the command center, the heavy box in my arms.

Gabriel was walking down the hallway with Serena, his hand resting gently on her waist.

When he saw me, a look of disgust instantly crossed his face. As he stopped in front of me, he used his shoulder to block my path.

"Go to the holding cell in the basement, Elena."

He crossed his arms, trying to dominate me with his posture.

"You stay there and behave until I decide what to do with you."

I didn't stop walking. I slammed my shoulder hard into his chest, making him stumble.

Gabriel roared, "Elena, get back here!"

I didn't care in the slightest.

I just wanted to see how he would beg me when the time came!