Chapter 5: Ashes to Ashes
The emergency backup lights flickered on, casting a sickly yellow glow over the blood-slicked concrete.
Marcus was crawling toward the exit, his leg shattered by a ricochet. He left a thick crimson trail behind him.
A heavy boot slammed down on his shoulder, pinning him to the floor.
Marcus looked up into the barrel of Vincent’s rifle. The young man’s face was pale, stripped of all arrogance, leaving only the terrified boy Vincent had taken in twenty years ago.
“Uncle... please,” Marcus choked out, spitting blood. “It wa
s just business. The world is changing. You were stuck in the past!”
“Family isn’t business, Marcus,” Vincent said, his voice completely devoid of emotion. “It’s blood. And you spilled ours first.”
A single gunshot echoed through the cavernous warehouse. Then, silence.
Vincent stood over the body for a long time, the rain drumming relentlessly against the tin roof above. He finally lowered the weapon and turned.
Elena was standing ten feet away, her gun lowered, watching him carefully.
Vincent reached into the inner pocket of his ruined suit coat. He pulled out a small, encrypted titanium flash drive.
He tossed it through the air. Elena caught it instinctively.
“The Genesis Ledger,” Vincent said, his voice tired, sounding every bit of his sixty years. “Everything your agency wants is on there. The corrupt cops, the cartel ties, the politicians. All of it.”
Elena looked at the drive, then back at the mob boss. “If I turn this in, the Torino crime family is finished. Your empire burns to the ground.”
Vincent looked around at the bodies of the men who had betrayed him, and finally at the nephew who had broken his heart.
May you like
“It’s already ashes,” Vincent said softly.
He turned his back on the federal agent, zipping up his jacket against the cold, and walked out into the pouring rain, leaving the ruins of his life behind him, disappearing into the dark.
