Chapter 319: You Can Not Kill Isabella

"Can you narrow it down further?" Dimitri asked.

"Working on it," Marco said. "But boss, if I’m right about this, they’re holding her in an underground facility. Completely sealed. Completely isolated. Which means extraction is going to be extremely complicated."

"Nothing about this situation is simple," Dimitri said. "Which is why we’re going to plan it perfectly."

He turned to Mike.

"I need you to contact your connections in law enforcement," Dimitri said. "I need to know if anyone in the NYPD or federal agencies has gotten any reports of unusual activity in Jersey City. Underground construction. Basement access. Anything that suggests an operational facility."

"I’m on it," Mike said immediately, already pulling out his phone.

Dimitri turned back to the monitor, staring at the frozen image of Eve’s face from the final video segment.

Her expression was absolutely resolved. Absolutely certain that he was going to save her.

And Dimitri understood, in that moment, what Dante had fundamentally miscalculated.

He thought that taking Eve would break him.

That it would force him to surrender.

That it would weaken him enough to be vulnerable.

But Dante didn’t understand the depth of his obsession with protecting her.

Didn’t understand that Eve being taken didn’t weaken him.

It focused him.

It gave him absolute clarity of purpose.

It made him into something far more dangerous than he’d ever been.

"Marco," Dimitri said quietly. "Find the facility. I don’t care what resources you need. I don’t care what surveillance you need to activate. I want that location. And I want it within 12 hours."

"Yes, sir," Marco said, already mobilizing.

Mike hung up with whoever he’d been calling.

"I have two leads," Mike said. "One in Jersey City, one in Newark. Underground construction permits filed in the past six months. I’m having them researched now."

"Good," Dimitri said. "Because in the next 24 hours, Dante is going to learn a lesson."

"What’s that?" Mike asked.

"That taking Eve didn’t give him leverage," Dimitri said coldly. "It gave me a direction. And when I have a direction, when I have a target, when I have someone to hunt, there’s nothing that can stop me."

He turned to look at Mike directly.

"Your sister is going to come home," Dimitri said with absolute certainty. "And everyone involved in this kidnapping is going to die. Not quickly. Not cleanly. But painfully. That’s a promise."

Mike nodded, understanding the weight of that commitment.

"Then let’s get to work," Mike said.

***

Dimitri stood on the penthouse balcony, looking out at the Manhattan skyline.

The city was quiet at this hour. Just the hum of traffic below, the distant sirens, the endless pulse of New York after dark.

His phone rang.

The screen showed: Father

Dimitri considered not answering for a moment. Considered letting it go to voicemail. But that would be a strategic mistake. His father didn’t call without purpose. And right now, Dimitri needed every asset he could get.

He answered.

"Yes," Dimitri said without preamble.

"Dimitri." Antonio’s voice came through the line "I’m hearing things about Isabella being in New York."

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. A probe. Antonio’s network was vast, and information flowed through it like water. Of course he’d heard.

"Yes," Dimitri confirmed, his voice absolutely steady. "She’s in New York. With Dante Romano. That fuck. They’ve put hands together to kidnap Eve, which is going to lead to me killing them both"

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

A long pause.

Then: "What do you mean it will lead to her death?"

Dimitri could hear the shift in his father’s voice. Not alarm exactly, but a sharpening of focus. Understanding that the situation had escalated beyond Isabella’s personal drama into something that could have political consequences.

"The moment Isabella joined with Dante to kidnap my woman, she signed her own death sentence," Dimitri said flatly. "That’s what I mean."

"You cannot kill Isabella." Antonio’s voice was sharp now. "Isabella is Lorenzo’s only child. He won’t let it go. You understand what killing her would start?"

Dimitri felt something cold settle in his chest. Not emotion. Just the recognition that his father was thinking about political fallout instead of the violation that had been committed against him.

Of course his father was thinking about Lorenzo.

Of course he was calculating the cost of Isabella’s death.

That was who his father was. Strategic. Ruthless. Incapable of understanding why Dimitri would choose Eve over the alliance with the Russo family.

"Then he should have done better keeping his daughter off my territory and off my woman," Dimitri said, his voice dropping to something dangerous. "That’s not my problem to solve."

"It will become your problem," Antonio said flatly. "The Russo family is the second most powerful in Italy. If you kill Isabella, Lorenzo will retaliate. You understand this, yes?"

"I understand," Dimitri said. "And I don’t care."

A smirk played at the corner of his mouth, even though his father couldn’t see it.

"But I’ll tell you something, Father. I don’t plan on killing her easily like that. That would be too easy for her. Too quick. Too merciful." Dimitri paused, letting that sink in. "I plan on delivering her to her father when I kill Dante. I plan on returning her completely intact physically. But destroyed in every other way. I want Lorenzo to look at his daughter and understand that she made a choice. And that choice cost her everything."

"Do you understand how you’re talking about your fiancée here, son?" Antonio’s voice carried something that might have been warning. Might have been something else.

"Ex-fiancée," Dimitri corrected coldly. "I told you I wanted nothing to do with Isabella. I’ve told you multiple times. Stop pushing it, Father."

There was another pause.

Longer this time.

When Antonio spoke again, his voice had lost some of its edge. Not softness, just calculation.

"Do not kill her," Antonio said, and his tone was different now. More measured. "I’m not saying you can’t do it. I’m saying it because Lorenzo won’t let it go. He will come for you. He will come for your interests. He will make your life significantly more complicated than it already is."