Chapter 10 - THE COMMISSION'S DEMAND
The atmosphere in the study instantly turned freezing.
Dante stepped in front of Grace, instinctively shielding her from Don Carmine’s calculating gaze.
“The Romano family is stable, Carmine,” Dante said, his voice hard as steel. “Silvio was a traitor. I eliminated the threat. The business continues.”
Carmine tapped his silver cane against the floor. “The business is vulnerable, boy. You survived an assassination attempt, but your engagement to the Sterling family is broken. Your alliances are fractured. The other families smell blood in the water.”
“Let them try,” Dante sneered.
“I don’t want a war,” Carmine replied smoothly. “Which is why the Commission has decided to help you rebuild your strength.”
Carmine signaled to one of his enforcers. The massive man stepped back into the hallway and returned a moment later, escorting a stunningly beautiful woman with dark, severe features. She wore a tailored black suit and looked around the damaged study with an air of absolute boredom.
“This is my niece, Valentina,” Carmine announced. “She is twenty-eight, educated in Milan, and possesses the ruthless temperament required to run a syndicate.”
Dante’s jaw tightened. “Congratulations on her resume. What does she have to do with me?”
Carmine smiled, a thin, cruel stretching of his lips.
“You will marry her, Dante. By the end of the month. A union between the Romano and Carmine families will instantly stabilize the Commission and stop any rival bosses from attempting a hostile takeover.”
Grace felt the blood drain from her face. She took a step back, bumping into the edge of the mahogany desk.
A forced marriage. An alliance. This was how the mafia truly operated. They traded people like currency to secure power.
Dante didn’t even look at Valentina. His eyes remained locked on Carmine, burning with a cold, terrifying fury.
“I am not marrying your niece, Carmine,” Dante said flatly.
Valentina raised an elegant eyebrow, clearly insulted, but she said nothing.
Carmine’s smile vanished. “You are not in a position to refuse, Dante. You are weakened. If you reject this alliance, the Commission will vote to strip you of your territory. You will be cast out, hunted, and destroyed. And that includes the little girl sleeping upstairs.”
Dante’s hands curled into fists so tight his knuckles popped.
To threaten Lucy was a death sentence. But Carmine was a Commission Boss. Killing him here would ignite a war Dante couldn’t currently win. His loyal men were exhausted, his defenses compromised.
Carmine saw the hesitation in Dante’s eyes. He knew he had him cornered.
“You have until midnight to sign the alliance papers,” Carmine said, turning toward the door. “Clean up your house, Dante. And get rid of the maid. You have a new queen now.”
Carmine reached for the door handle.
“Wait.”
The voice was soft, but it echoed clearly in the quiet study.
Carmine paused and looked over his shoulder.
Grace stepped out from behind Dante.
She didn’t look frightened. She didn’t look like a maid. She stood tall, her shoulders squared, her eyes blazing with the same fierce intelligence her mother had possessed fifteen years ago.
“Grace, don’t,” Dante warned quietly, reaching for her arm.
Grace gently brushed his hand away. She walked to the desk, picked up a small, charred object, and held it up.
It was the warped silver cross necklace.
“You want s-stability, Don Carmine?” Grace asked, her voice steady despite the slight hesitation on her consonants.
Carmine frowned. “What is that garbage?”
“This is the necklace Silvio stole from my m-mother fifteen years ago,” Grace said. “Dante told you the microdot inside was melted in the fire. He was lying to protect me.”
Dante stared at her, completely bewildered.
Grace reached into the pocket of her jeans.
She pulled out a tiny, perfectly intact digital microdot.
“I switched it before I threw the cross into the fire,” Grace revealed, her eyes locking onto Carmine. “My mother taught me how to hide things when I was a little girl. She was your accountant, Carmine. She didn’t just handle Silvio’s money. She handled yours.”
Carmine’s face went entirely slack.
“I’ve seen the files on this dot,” Grace bluffed seamlessly, her voice gaining strength with every word. “I know exactly how much money you’ve been skimming from the Commission’s joint pension fund. If this dot goes to the other families, you won’t just lose your territory. They will kill you tonight.”
Valentina looked at her uncle in shock. “Is she telling the truth?”
Carmine swallowed hard, a bead of sweat forming on his brow. The great Commission Boss was suddenly terrified of a twenty-two-year-old girl in a gray sweater.
“What do you want?” Carmine rasped.
Grace walked slowly toward him, her head held high.
“Dante Romano is not marrying your niece,” Grace stated, her voice ringing with undeniable authority. “He is keeping his territory. He is keeping his daughter. And you are going to call a Commission meeting right now and declare the Romano family untouchable.”
Carmine glared at her. “And if I refuse?”
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Grace smiled—a cold, terrifyingly calm smile that she had learned from watching Dante.
“Then I’ll drop this microdot in the mail to the FBI, and we’ll see how the Commission runs from federal prison.”
