The Mafia Boss Called Her a Thief—So She Broke the Necklace and Showed Him What Was Inside

Luca screamed—a horrific, agonized wail as the concentrated nitric acid struck his eyes and skin, searing through flesh like liquid fire. He dropped his weapon, clawing at his face as he fell to his knees.

*BANG!*

Sebastian didn't hesitate for a microsecond. His Sig Sauer barked twice, the rounds tearing through Luca’s chest before the traitor could even hit the ground.

"Kill them!" Dominic shrieked, diving behind the thick brick archway of the wine cellar.

The vault erupted into absolute chaos.

The four mercenaries opened fire, heavy automatic rounds splintering the cherrywood jeweler's bench and sending jars of acid, flux, and metal shavings exploding into the air in a cloud of toxic dust.

Sebastian grabbed Norah by her collar, throwing her behind the heavy cast-iron safe in the corner as bullets ricocheted with ear-splitting clangs off the metal.

"Stay down!" he roared.

Norah coughed through the blinding smoke, but her hands were already moving. On the lower shelf of the bench beside her was a heavy pressurized canister of acetylene—fuel for the jeweler’s melting torch.

She grabbed the brass wrench from her pocket, clamped it onto the master valve, and cranked it wide open.

The pungent, sweet smell of volatile gas hissed furiously into the confined room.

"Sebastian!" Norah screamed over the deafening gunfire. "The torch! The pilot light!"

Sebastian saw the gas cloud expanding into the room. Understanding flashed in his eyes. He leaned around the iron safe, fired three rapid rounds to suppress the advancing mercenaries, then turned his weapon toward the tiny, blue pilot flame glowing on the wall mount.

"Cover your head!" he shouted.

He fired one round directly into the base of the burner.

The spark met the expanding acetylene cloud in a catastrophic, concussive fireball.

*BOOM!*

The shockwave tore through the vault, blowing out the remaining brick partitions and slamming the mercenaries backward into the stone walls like ragdolls. The blast tossed the heavy iron safe three inches, showering Sebastian and Norah in brick dust, burning embers, and shattered tools.

Ears ringing with a deafening, dead whine, Sebastian pulled himself up through the thick, choking smoke.

Two of the mercenaries lay motionless, crushed beneath collapsed ceiling masonry. A third was crawling toward the exit, groaning.

Dominic was limping frantically up the stone stairs, his camel-hair coat smoldering, dragging his broken cane behind him. In his left hand was the lockbox containing the fake ruby that he had snatched from the bench during the confusion.

"Norah, are you hit?" Sebastian yelled, grabbing her shoulders through the dust.

"I'm fine! Go! He has the decoy, but he's getting away!"

Sebastian pulled her up, and together they sprinted up the stairs, following the trail of blood and soot left by his uncle.

They burst through the service door into the blinding white fury of the blizzard.

The wind shrieked off the lake, throwing needles of ice into their faces. Fifty yards ahead, Dominic was scrambling toward the edge of the stone pier—the very pier where Sebastian’s mother had died seventeen years before.

A sleek, twin-engine offshore speedboat was idling in the black, churning water below the pier, its spotlights cutting through the driving snow. Dominic’s backup extraction team.

"Dominic!" Sebastian’s voice boomed over the storm, carrying the weight of a decade and a half of buried rage.

Dominic reached the edge of the pier and turned around, cornered. He pulled a compact snub-nosed revolver from his waistband, his face blackened by soot, his eyes wild with the desperation of a cornered rat.

"Stay back, Sebastian!" Dominic screamed, his voice shredded by the wind. "I built this empire! You owe everything you are to me!"

"I owe you my mother’s life," Sebastian said, walking forward steadily through the snow, his gun lowered at his side. He didn't run. He walked with the terrifying inevitability of a grim reaper. "I owe you my father’s life. And I owe you David Collins."

Dominic raised his revolver, aiming straight at Sebastian’s chest. "You think you can rule Chicago without me? The Morettis will burn the city to the ground before they let you sit on the throne!"

"Let them try," Sebastian said.

*Crack!*

Dominic fired.

The bullet tore through Sebastian’s left shoulder, the impact spinning him slightly. Norah screamed, running forward, but Sebastian didn't fall. He barely flinched. He simply stepped forward, his eyes locked onto his uncle with a cold, merciless finality.

"You missed, Uncle," Sebastian whispered.

Sebastian raised his Sig Sauer and fired once.

The round struck Dominic square in the forehead.

The old man’s eyes rolled back. His body stiffened, and then he tipped backward, falling off the edge of the stone pier into the freezing, churning black abyss of Lake Michigan—swallowed by the very same waters that had claimed Elena Romano.

The lockbox slipped from Dominic's dead fingers, smashing onto the icy stones of the pier. The fake ruby popped out, tumbling over the ledge and vanishing into the deep.

The speedboat below throttled up instantly, its crew realizing their boss was dead, and fled into the blinding storm, leaving behind only the howling wind.

Sebastian stood at the edge of the pier, staring down into the black water. The snow gathered on his shoulders, melting against the hot blood soaking through his torn navy suit.

Norah reached him, wrapping her arms around his uninjured side to steady him. "Sebastian... you're bleeding. We have to stop the bleeding."

Sebastian slowly looked down at her. The lethal, terrifying darkness in his eyes slowly receded, replaced by an exhaustion so profound it seemed to pull at his very soul.

He looked at the blood on her hands, then back out at the lake.

"It's over," he murmured, his voice barely audible over the wind.

"No," Norah said, looking up into his pale, striking face. "Dominic is dead. But the Commission is meeting tonight. If we don't finish this in the city, the Morettis will take everything you have."

Sebastian managed a faint, bloody smirk. "You're a ruthless woman, Norah Collins."