Chapter 5 - The Blood Oath
Dante kept the gun leveled at Alessandro's heart.
Camille screamed and pulled Sophie behind a heavy steel dumpster.
Alessandro did not flinch, his eyes locking onto the man he had trusted with his life for a decade.
"Are you collecting the bounty, Dante?" Alessandro asked, his voice entirely devoid of fear.
Dante's jaw clenched, his finger resting dangerously close to the trigger.
Suddenly, Dante pivoted sharply to his left and fired twice into the shadows at the end of the alley.
A sniper tumbled from the fire escape, a heavy rifle crashing onto the pavement.
Dante lowered his weapon and let out a long, exhausted breath.
"Your uncle put a tracker on my van, boss, I had to make it look like I was turning on you," Dante explained quickly.
Alessandro nodded, immediately trusting his old friend again.
"Get them in the van, now," Alessandro ordered, pushing Camille and Sophie toward the open doors.
Dante threw the vehicle into gear the second they were securely inside.
"The entire commission knows you are alive, Alessandro," Dante warned from the driver's seat.
"Your uncle told the families that you went rogue and murdered his men at the airport."
Alessandro realized the sheer scale of the manipulation his uncle had orchestrated.
"He wants to legitimize my assassination," Alessandro stated grimly.
"He put a ten-million-dollar bounty on your head, and another five on the woman and the child," Dante added.
Camille covered her face with her hands, trembling uncontrollably in the back seat.
Alessandro moved to sit beside her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I will not let them touch you, Camille, I swear it on my life," he promised softly.
Before she could answer, Alessandro's burner phone began to ring.
The caller ID displayed a blocked number, but Alessandro knew exactly who was on the other end.
He answered the call and put it on speakerphone for Dante to hear.
"Hello, nephew," a smooth, aging voice echoed through the dark van.
"Uncle," Alessandro replied, his tone as cold as ice.
"It is a shame about the mess at the airport, it really did not have to end this way," the old man sighed artificially.
"You made a mistake coming after my family," Alessandro threatened, his grip tightening on the phone.
His uncle let out a dark, rattling laugh that sent a chill down Alessandro's spine.
"I think you should check the back seat of your van very carefully, Alessandro."
Alessandro spun around, his heart dropping entirely into his stomach.
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Camille was sitting there, bleeding profusely from a grazing bullet wound on her shoulder.
And the seat next to her, where Sophie had been sitting just seconds before the sniper fired, was completely empty.
