Chapter 17 - The Fall of Revere
The Rossetti safehouse in Revere was a fortified bunker on the edge of the salt marshes. Dominic Rossetti sat in the kitchen, drinking whiskey, convinced his Spade Crew freelancers were currently delivering his leverage.
He had miscalculated. He had evaluated Adrian Moretti by standard mob logic, believing that every man has a price and every asset can be used for negotiation. He didn't understand that for Adrian, legitimacy was a shield, but the preservation of innocent light was his soul.
At 3:00 AM, the Moretti strike force arrived. They didn't hit the front door. They came through the roof and the marsh simultaneously.
Dante led the assault with lethal, clinical precision. The remaining Spade Crew mercenaries put up a fierce fight, but they were outnumbered and outmatched by men who were defending their king.
Dominic Rossetti tried to flee through a back window, but he was intercepted. Not by a bullet, but by Adrian Moretti himself.
Adrian stood in the dark backyard, surrounded by the sound of gunfire and the smell of saltwater and cordite. He wore a dark navy overcoat, his formidable intelligence directed at the pathetic man crawling in the dirt before him. Titan was by his side, his low, steady growl a vibrating sound that reflected the coming judgment.
"You attacked my son’s school," Adrian said, his voice cold and absolute, resonating through the dark night. "You tried to take a five-year-old child to save your drowning empire."
"Adrian, please!" Dominic cried, begging for the mercy he had never shown to others. "We can talk! I’ll give you everything! I’ll leave the city!"
"You had a future, Dominic," Adrian replied, his voice firm and absolute. "I would have left you your legal holdings. But you decided to buy power with the safety of my family."
Adrian nodded to Dante, who stepped out of the shadows.
May you like
"In my world," Adrian said, "loyalty is bought with money. But kindness... kindness is defended with everything we have."
Adrian turned and walked back toward his waiting SUV, not looking back as the final gunshots echoed from the Revere marsh. Titan followed, his tail giving a single, decisive thump against Adrian’s leg. The Rossetti threat was ended, not through legitimacy, but through the primal, defensive violence that had always been the foundation of Moretti power.
