Chapter 378: The Covenant Wants To Kill Eve

"Tell me what happened today," the voice on the other end said.

Dante’s mind raced. Had they already heard about the extraction attempt? How fast was their intelligence network?

"The extraction operation in New York was executed this morning," Dante said carefully. "It was designed to test Dimitri’s security infrastructure. To probe for vulnerabilities."

"It was reckless," the voice said flatly. "It was exactly the kind of move that draws attention we don’t need right now."

Dante felt something defensive rise in his chest.

"It was strategic," Dante countered. "We established that we can reach his woman. We proved that his defenses are vulnerable. We demonstrated that I’m a threat he needs to take seriously now that I have your backing."

"You demonstrated that you’re impulsive," the voice said coldly. "You demonstrated that you’re willing to escalate on your own timeline instead of following operational parameters. You demonstrated that you don’t fully understand the level at which we operate."

The rebuke stung, but Dante forced himself to remain calm.

"What would you have me do?" Dante asked. "Stand down? Accept that I have Covenant backing but no freedom to use it?"

"For now, yes," the voice said. "Stand down. No major operations for the next two weeks. We’re finalizing something significant. Something that will reshape the entire dynamic between you and Dimitri."

Dante’s pulse quickened.

"What are you finalizing?" Dante asked.

There was a pause on the line. The kind of pause that suggested the voice on the other end was calculating whether to answer the question or dismiss it.

"You asked if we had plans involving his woman," the voice finally said.

Dante hadn’t asked that specifically, but he understood the implication immediately. They had read his intentions. They knew that taking Eve was part of his strategy. They were acknowledging it.

"Do you?" Dante asked carefully.

"We have plans that will destroy him completely," the voice said. "We’re going to teach Dimitri Valentino the same lesson we taught his father years ago."

Dante’s breath caught.

Years ago. The Covenant had killed Claire. They’d killed Dimitri’s mother as a response to Antonio’s defection from their partnership. They’d taken the woman Antonio loved most and they’d eliminated her as a message: This is what happens when you cross The Covenant.

Dante understood with absolute certainty what the voice was implying.

"You’re going to kill her," Dante said quietly. It wasn’t a question.

"We’re going to eliminate the one thing that matters to him most," the voice confirmed. "The same way we eliminated the one thing that mattered to Antonio. We’re going to make him understand that Covenant doesn’t forgive. Covenant doesn’t forget. And Covenant always extracts payment in the currency that hurts most."

Dante felt his heart skip.

Not metaphorically. Not just fear or concern. But an actual physical skip in his heartbeat as the full implication settled over him.

The Covenant wasn’t planning to use Eve as leverage. They weren’t planning to kidnap her and use her to control Dimitri. They were planning to murder her. To kill her permanently. To execute her as an act of revenge against both Dimitri and Antonio.

"When?" Dante asked, and his voice was different now. Smaller. Less certain.

"Soon," the voice said. "We’re coordinating logistics. We’re establishing optimal timing. And you’re going to help us."

"How?" Dante asked.

"By standing down," the voice said. "By not making any more moves on Eve. By not interfering with what we’re about to do. By understanding that she’s no longer part of your game. She’s part of ours. And our game ends with her dead."

The line went silent except for the sound of breathing on both ends.

"Do you understand?" the voice asked.

"Yes," Dante said, though understanding and accepting were two very different things.

"Good," the voice said. "Two weeks. No operations. No moves against Dimitri or his operations. You wait. You prepare. And when we’ve eliminated Eve, when we’ve taught Dimitri the lesson his father never fully learned, then you’ll be positioned to take everything he’s lost."

"And if I refuse?" Dante asked quietly.

"Then we eliminate you," the voice said simply. "We’ve invested significant resources in you, Dante. But you’re replaceable. Eve is the real leverage point. Dimitri is the real target. You’re a tool. And tools that don’t function as intended get discarded."

The implication was absolute. The threat was clear.

"I understand," Dante said.

"Two weeks," the voice said, and the line went dead.

Dante sat in the darkness of his office for a long time.

The city of Rome spread out below him, millions of people living their lives, unaware that an organization was orchestrating murders, that governments were complicit in bioweapon research, that the entire structure of power they believed in was corrupt at its foundation.

Dante had come into this alliance thinking he understood the stakes. He’d thought that backing from The Covenant meant resources and support for his vendetta against Dimitri. He’d thought that he’d finally have the power to balance the scales, to avenge Salvatore, to prove that he was Dimitri’s equal.

He hadn’t understood that he was a pawn in a game far larger than himself.

He hadn’t understood that The Covenant’s primary goal wasn’t his victory. It was Dimitri’s destruction. And more specifically, it was the destruction of everyone Dimitri loved through the same mechanism they’d used against Antonio.

They were going to kill Eve.

Not as a side effect of war. Not as collateral damage. But as the primary objective. As the lesson that needed to be taught. As the payment Dimitri owed for destroying their facility, for killing their people, for standing against them.

And Dante was supposed to stand by and watch it happen.

The thought made something twist in his chest.

He wanted Eve. He wanted to possess her, to make her understand that Dante was more powerful than Dimitri, to prove through her that he’d ascended above his former rival. But he’d never wanted her dead. He’d never wanted her erased from existence.