Chapter 374: Then Let’s Take Brooklyn

The line went dead.

Dante set down the phone and moved to the window of his study, looking out at Rome spread below him.

His legs carried him with perfect balance. His body was strong. His mind was clear. His motivation was absolute.

Dimitri had killed Salvatore. That debt remained unpaid, and paying it had become Dante’s entire reason for existing. Every breath, every heartbeat, every action was directed toward that single goal: making Dimitri understand what it meant to come against Dante Romano.

And now he had The Covenant backing him. Federal resources. Government protection. Intelligence that rivaled any agency. The kind of support that made the difference between winning and losing.

***

LATER THAT EVENING

Dante was in his office when Luca appeared in the doorway.

Luca had been beside him from the beginning, had extracted him from dangerous situations, had stayed loyal when loyalty was the most dangerous choice available. Luca was the only person Dante truly trusted.

"The Covenant contact called," Dante said without preamble.

"And?" Luca asked, moving to sit across from Dante.

"And we’re escalating," Dante said. "We’re taking Brooklyn. We’re moving against Dimitri’s secondary operations. We’re accelerating the timeline."

Luca’s expression didn’t change, but Dante could see something shift in his eyes. Concern, maybe. Or calculation.

"That’s fast," Luca said. "Brooklyn is well-defended."

"Not well-defended enough," Dante said. "Not when we have The Covenant behind us. The voice on the phone made it clear: they’re all-in. Full resources, full support, full commitment. They believe we can do this."

"And do you believe we can?" Luca asked.

Dante stood and walked to the window, looking out at Rome.

"Yes," Dante said simply. "I believe we can. Because Dimitri doesn’t understand what he’s facing. He thinks he’s fighting me. But he’s fighting an organization with government backing. He’s fighting an enemy that has resources that rival small nations. He’s fighting something he can’t possibly comprehend."

"And that makes him vulnerable," Luca said.

"It makes him finished," Dante corrected. "By the time he understands what’s really happening, by the time he figures out the scope of what he’s really fighting, it will be too late. He’ll already be broken. He’ll already be falling. And I’ll be the one standing over him when he goes down."

Luca was quiet, processing this.

"What do you need me to do?" Luca asked.

"I need you to move against Brooklyn," Dante said. "I need you to coordinate with the operations teams. I need you to take the territory systematically. Not with violence if we can avoid it, most of Dimitri’s Brooklyn operators can be bought or scared away. But with force if necessary."

"And the timeline?"

"End of the week," Dante said. "We have seven days to control Brooklyn."

Luca nodded slowly, understanding the aggressive timeline and what it meant.

"Okay," Luca said. "We can do this. But boss, you understand that once we make this move, once we take Brooklyn, Dimitri is going to know we’re a serious threat. He’s going to escalate. He’s going to come at us with everything he has."

"Let him," Dante said, and there was absolute certainty in his voice. "Because The Covenant will be ready. Because we have resources he can’t overcome. Because this time, I’m not alone. This time, I have an entire organization backing me."

Dante turned from the window to look directly at Luca.

"My brother is dead because of Dimitri," Dante said. "And that wound hasn’t closed. But now I have the means to close it. Now I have the power to make him understand what it cost to kill Salvatore. And I’m going to use that power."

Luca understood. He’d been with Dante long enough to understand that this wasn’t just about business or territory. This was about the kind of vendetta that consumed a man completely, that drove him through impossible odds, that made him capable of things others couldn’t imagine.

"Then let’s take Brooklyn," Luca said simply.

***

POV: ENZO

The pharmaceutical company building was in EUR, the modern district of Rome where corporations and government agencies blended together so seamlessly that you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

Enzo had been watching it for three days.

The building itself was nondescript...glass and steel, five stories, professional signage indicating it belonged to a company called "BioAdvance Research Solutions." The kind of name that meant nothing and everything simultaneously. The kind of name designed to not attract attention.

But Enzo had found it by following money trails.

The money from The Covenant’s government contracts had to go somewhere. It couldn’t just disappear into federal accounts and vanish. At some point, it had to be transferred, distributed, redirected toward actual operations. And when Enzo had begun tracing those transfers, they’d led him here.

To BioAdvance Research Solutions.

To a facility in Rome that shouldn’t exist.

Enzo’s contact at the ministry of health had been very careful when he’d mentioned the company. Had said things like "I can’t officially confirm anything" and "You didn’t hear this from me" and "Be very careful asking questions about this organization."

Those were the kinds of warnings that told you you’d found something real.

The breakthrough came when Enzo managed to get inside the building.

Not through the front door. Not through official channels. But through the back entrance used by maintenance staff, through a connection he’d cultivated with a janitor who needed money badly enough to overlook his conscience.

The janitor had given him a key card that worked on the service elevators. Had told him the security systems had blind spots in the basement and sub-basement levels. Had warned him that there were cameras on the upper floors but not below ground level.

Enzo had waited until 2 AM, when the building was mostly empty, when only skeleton security staff was present, when the darkness made movement easier.

He’d gone down to the sub-basement.

What he found there made everything else he’d discovered seem like pieces of a puzzle that suddenly formed a complete picture.