Chapter 16 - The Devil's Bargain
I stepped fully into the library, letting the heavy doors click shut and lock behind me.
I did not pull my blade. If this man wanted me dead, there would have been ten snipers waiting in the shadows.
"Where is Leo?" I demanded, my voice low and steady.
The Blind King smiled, a chilling expression beneath the featureless golden mask.
He reached blindly across the desk, his fingers moving with perfect, eerie precision, and tapped a silver button.
A large monitor on the wall flared to life.
It was a live feed of a glass cell located somewhere deep within the palazzo.
Inside, my brother Leo was chained to a chair, bruised and exhausted, but breathing.
"He is quite resilient, your brother," the Blind King said smoothly.
"But the High Commission demands payment for Vincenzo's failures. Fifty million, or blood."
I stepped closer to the desk, slamming my hands down onto the polished wood.
"Julian Vance can wire you fifty million right now. Let him go."
The Blind King laughed softly, a dry, humorless sound.
"We do not want Vance's money, Dominic. The High Commission wants a service that only the Ghost of New York can provide."
He slid a thick manila folder across the desk.
I opened it, staring at a photograph of a high-ranking Italian defense minister.
"Minister Rossi," the Blind King explained. "He is cracking down on our shipping routes in the Mediterranean. We need him removed."
I closed the folder, my jaw tight.
"I am out of the life. I do not kill for hire anymore."
"You do if you want your brother to live," the Blind King countered, leaning back in his chair.
"Rossi is attending a private gala at the opera house tomorrow night. Security is impenetrable for our normal operatives. But you are a phantom, Dominic."
He picked up a pocket watch from his desk, tracing the hands with his fingertips.
"You have twenty-four hours to assassinate the Minister. If you succeed, Leo goes free, and your debt is erased permanently."
"And if I refuse?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.
"Then I will mail your brother to your estate in Geneva, piece by piece, until your beautiful wife Elena begs me to stop."
Rage flared inside me, white-hot and violent, but I forced it down.
Reacting now would doom us all.
"I need full schematics of the opera house," I lied smoothly, accepting the contract.
The Blind King smiled, sliding a USB drive across the desk.
May you like
"I look forward to your masterpiece, Dominic."
I turned and walked out of the library, the weight of a horrific choice crushing down on my shoulders.
