Chapter 14 - The Final Verdict
-14-
The underground holding facility beneath the Rinaldi Manhattan headquarters was cold, dark, and utterly devoid of mercy. The concrete walls echoed with the dripping of water pipes and the occasional, muffled groan of broken men.
Massimo Rinaldi walked slowly down the central corridor, his heavy boots clicking against the floor, leaning slightly on his steel cane. He wore a tailored black overcoat, his face carved from cold, unyielding stone.
Marcus pushed open a heavy iron door at the end of the hall, revealing a stark interrogation room illuminated by a single overhead bulb.
Tied securely to a steel chair in the center of the room was Vince, his face bruised, his left arm wrapped in a makeshift bandage where a sniper’s bullet had grazed his shoulder. When the door opened and Massimo stepped into the light, Vince’s eyes widened with primal terror.
Massimo didn't speak immediately. He walked slowly around the chair, running a gloved hand along the backrest before stopping directly in front of the prisoner.
"You chose a very expensive target, Mr. Bellandi," Massimo said softly, his voice carrying a lethal, quiet frost. "You could have targeted my docks, my warehouses, my personal accounts. You could have tried to settle our war on the streets like men."
"Go to hell, Rinaldi," Vince spat, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "You're a dead man walking anyway. The Bellandi family will never stop until your entire bloodline is wiped out."
Massimo let out a low, humorless chuckle. He leaned down, bringing his face inches from Vince’s.
"My bloodline?" Massimo murmured, his gray eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. "You attempted to kidnap a three-year-old child because your underboss lacked the competence to kill me himself. That is not war. That is cowardice."
Massimo straightened up, stepping back and signaling to Marcus.
"Take him and his men to the quarry in upstate New York," Massimo ordered flatly. "Tie them to the concrete pillars before the demolition charges go off this evening. Let the Bellandi family try to collect their pieces from the bottom of a limestone crater."
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"No! Please! Rinaldi!" Vince screamed, thrashing wildly against the chair as Marcus and two guards hauled him up by his shoulders. "Have mercy! Mercy!"
"Mercy," Massimo said quietly as the heavy iron door slammed shut, cutting off the prisoner's screams, "is what I showed Dean Foster when I let him live for twelve years. I have none left to spare."
