Tu es tombé dans mon piège !
Vous mourrez tous les deux ensemble !
« Si vous appuyez sur ce détonateur », dit Vincent sans ralentir son approche régulière, « vous mourrez vous aussi. »
Et quel que soit le fantasme tordu que vous nourrissez de reconstruire l’empire de notre père, il s’évanouit dans les décombres.
«Je m’en fiche !»
Arthur hurla, la salive jaillissant de ses lèvres.
« Si je ne peux pas avoir Moretti Global, personne ne l’aura ! »
« Arthur, regarde tes mains », ordonna Vincent, sa voix fendant soudain l’air comme un fouet.
Arthur cligna des yeux, jetant instinctivement un coup d’œil au détonateur dans sa paume gauche.
Un minuscule point laser écarlate dansait directement sur le dos de la main d’Arthur.
Avant même qu’il puisse comprendre ce que cela signifiait, un craquement supersonique retentit au-dessus des puits de lumière brisés.
Une balle de sniper de gros calibre a traversé le toit ondulé, atteignant le poignet gauche d’Arthur avec une précision dévastatrice.
Le détonateur lui fut violemment arraché des mains, projeté sur le sol en béton et glissant dans un fossé de drainage inondé, sa lumière rouge disparaissant sans danger sous l’eau sombre.
Arthur laissa échapper un hurlement de rage et de douleur, serrant son poignet brisé tandis que du sang giclait sur sa veste.
« Tuez-les ! »
Arthur poussa un cri strident en direction des ombres des portiques supérieurs.
Quatre mercenaires armés qu’Arthur avait dissimulés dans les combles se penchèrent soudain par-dessus la rambarde, levant leurs fusils automatiques.
“Dominic, clear the rafters!”
Vincent barked through his concealed comms.
From the high walkways, the sound of silenced submachine guns erupted in synchronized bursts.
Dominic Rossi and an elite squad of Moretti operators, who had infiltrated through the underground rail vents minutes before Vincent, opened fire from the blind spots.
The four mercenaries dropped from the gantries like stones, crashing onto the lower levels with heavy, dull thuds.
Arthur, wild with agony and realizing his plan was collapsing in ruin, raised his revolver with his remaining functional hand, aiming point-blank at Emma.
“Die, you bitch!”
Emma didn’t freeze.
The moment Arthur raised the gun, she remembered the training Vincent had quickly drilled into her that morning.
She lunged forward, closing the distance rather than retreating, and drove her heel down directly onto Arthur’s broken wrist.
Arthur shrieked in blinding pain, his shot veering wildly into the concrete floor, sending sparks flying near Emma’s feet.
Before Arthur could adjust his grip, Vincent closed the distance like a striking panther.
Vincent caught Arthur’s gun arm, twisting it with brutal, calculated force until the joint popped out of its socket.
The revolver clattered harmlessly to the ground.
Vincent drove his knee into Arthur’s chest, lifting his elder brother completely off his feet and slamming him down onto the rusted iron floor.
Arthur lay pinned beneath Vincent’s boot, gasping for breath, coughing blood onto the floorboards.
The madness in his eyes had been replaced by the pathetic, hollow terror of a vanquished dog.
“Do it…”
Arthur wheezed, glaring up at Vincent with pure hatred.
“Put a bullet in me… show the world you’re just like father… just like me…”
Vincent stood over him, breathing steadily.
He drew his custom sidearm from his coat, the barrel aimed squarely between Arthur’s brows.
Chapter 29 – The Shadow of Justice
Emma stood ten feet away, watching Vincent’s finger tighten on the trigger.
She saw the darkness swirling in his eyes—the generational curse of the Moretti bloodline, the desire to eradicate threats with permanent, bloody finality.
If Vincent pulled that trigger, Arthur would be dead, but Vincent would forever cross a line into the very monster his brother claimed he was.
“Vincent,” Emma spoke softly.
Vincent didn’t look at her, his sights locked onto Arthur’s forehead.
“He threatened Liam, Emma.
He kidnapped an innocent woman.
He tried to kill you twice.
There is only one sentence for men like him.”
“If you execute him in cold blood, Arthur wins,” Emma said, stepping closer, her voice calm, gentle, yet commanding.
“He wants you to become him.
He wants you to prove that Moretti Global is built on murder.
Don’t give him that victory.”
Arthur chuckled wetly from the ground.
“Listen to the waitress, little brother… show her what a coward you really are…”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
For three agonizing seconds, the world hung in the balance.
Then, with a cold, deliberate motion, Vincent flicked the safety on his weapon and holstered it.
He looked down at Arthur with utter disgust.
“Dying here is too easy for you, Arthur.
You want to be a martyr for our father’s sins.
But I am stripping you of that.”
Vincent stepped off Arthur’s chest as Dominic and four tactical operatives secured the perimeter, surrounding the broken fugitive.
