Chapter 220
POV: Matteo
I opened the vault myself..
It was nearly midnight, and the steel door beneath the house groaned when I turned the lock. It was thick and cold, the kind of metal that never warmed. No one else had the code. Not tonight. I didn’t want second hands touching anything I might need to pull the trigger with.
Inside, it was colder. Cement floor. Dim lights. No windows. The smell of oil and metal stayed in the air, like it belonged to the room more than the walls did.
I laid everything out on the table one by one.
Two handguns. One silenced. One clean.
A short–barrel shotgun. Tight and dirty.
Two blades. One curved, one straight.
An earpiece. Low frequency. Secure.
I loaded the clips by hand. Slid bullets in slow. Checked the weight. Checked the slide. Checked everything again. Then I changed the grip tape. Not because
it needed it, but because I didn’t like the idea of someone else’s sweat sitting where my hand was going to be.
Luca and Rami came in after I was finished.
They said nothing. Just stood there waiting.
I nodded once.
“We move at twenty–two hundred. All black. No GPS. You speak only if spoken to. Stay light. Stay close. Stay behind me unless I say otherwise.”
They nodded back.
“We don’t call anyone. Not unless it’s done. If we leave a shadow behind us, we burn it. Got it?”
“Got it,” Luca said. Rami just grunted. That was enough.
I zipped the duffel closed. The weight of it felt right on my shoulder. Clean. Balanced.
I left the vault. Locked it behind me.
Back upstairs, the house felt too quiet again. Like it knew something was coming.
I walked into my room to get the second earpiece and my backup clip. Aria was already there. Leaning against the dresser. Arms crossed. Eyes sharp,
I didn’t flinch.
She looked at the bag. Then at me.
“You’re going after him.”
I didn’t answer.
Chapter 220
She stepped forward slowly. Voice low.
Are you sure?”
I said nothing. Just looked at her. That was my answer.
Her jaw tensed. She walked over and took my wrist. Pressed my hand against her waist. Her skin was warm. Her pulse was fast.
Then she kissed me.
It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t rough either. It was quiet. Like she wanted to memorize the shape of my mouth. Like she thought maybe this would be the last time.
I kissed her back. Deep. Steady. No words. Just weight.
She pulled back and looked up at me.
“You’re not built for war,” she whispered.
I didn’t blink.
“That’s why I win them,” I said.
She didn’t smile. Just stepped away and walked out.
She didn’t say goodbye.
We rolled out at 9:18. No lights. No radio.
I drove.
Rami sat up front. Luca behind me. Nobody spoke.
The streets were half–dead. Yellow lights flickering on cracked poles. Storefronts boarded up. Rats and ghosts and old graffiti. I didn’t need a map. I knew this route better than I knew the names of half my family.
In my mind I replayed the warehouse layout.
Three entrances. One back alley. One office. One roof access. There was a freight lift, maybe working, maybe not. A tunnel below the south wing, dug when the place used to run drugs in the nineties. Long since sealed. Maybe.
I remembered every creak in those floors. Every metal beam that echoed wrong. Every shadow that looked like a man until you got too close.
“We parked a block away. Killed the lights.
I slung the bag over my shoulder and handed Luca the silenced piece. Rami took the blade. I kept the rest.
We moved on foot. Black hoodies. Gloves. Masks tight.
The warehouse stood like a dead lung at the end of the alley. No lights. Just dark steel and silence. But the padlock on the loading bay was scratched. Not broken. Just marked. Subtle./
Someone had touched it. Someone had wanted it to look untouched.
That was a message. The kind only careful people send.
I held up my hand. Luca split off. Circled/wide to the alley. Rami stayed with me.
Chapter 220
I whispered into the mic. “On my mark.”
We moved in.
The air inside was stale. Too clean. No dust in the corners. No smell of old wood of rust. It smelled like bleach. Like blood had been here and got wiped
away fast.
I kept low. Gun out. Rami flanked left. We knew the drill.
Nothing moved. Not even a rat. That was wrong.
We hit the back office in under four minutes. The desk was empty except for a single phone. Burner. Buzzing softly on the glass.
I picked it up.
One text on the lock screen.
> “I said don’t make me wait.”
I looked at Rami. His face was tight.
Then my earpiece hissed.
“Matteo,” Luca’s voice said, low and fast. “There’s-”
The signal cut.
Silence.
I didn’t move.
I looked down.
There was a wire on the floor. Thin. Almost invisible against the concrete, Taped flat. It ran under the desk. Back behind a crate I hadn’t checked.
I froze.
Bomb.
I didn’t say it loud. Just breathed it.
Then I grabbed Rami by the jacket and shoved him toward the hall.
“Go. Now.”
We ran. Hard. Boots slamming the floor. I didn’t care about sound anymore. I just cared about getting out.
The door blew open in front of us. We hit the alley just as the air cracked behind us like God breaking a window.
The warehouse exploded.
Concrete lifted. Fire rolled.
Glass tore through the night like knives. The sound hit after. A deep, brutal roar that shook the street.
I hit the pavement hard, Rami crashed beside me. Coughing. Bloody. Still breathing.
I sat up. Head ringing. Couldn’t hear anything except the pulse in my neck.
Chapter 220
Luca was gone.
I didn’t see him. I didn’t hear him. Just black smoke curling out of a metal skeleton where the building used to be.
I stood. My side was bleeding. I didn’t care.
They knew we were coming.
Not just Marco. Someone else. Someone smarter. Someone who watched us prep for this like it was a show they wrote the script for.
Sirens were coming now. City ones. That was no coincidence.
Someone tipped them off too.
I reached up. Yanked the earpiece out. Dropped it. Crushed it under my heel.
Rami was still coughing. Still dazed.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him up.
“We move,” I said.
And we disappeared into the smoke.
Chapter Comments
