Chapter 67 The council's chain
Carlino’s POV
The gates groaned shut behind us.
The house felt different when we returned—too quiet, too aware. My boots echoed across marble as men snapped to attention. No one spoke. No one dared.
“Bring Bella,” I ordered.
Neil walked beside me, phone in hand, already issuing quiet commands.
“Perimeter doubled. All staff detained for questioning. Laundry driver secured.”
“Good.”
We entered the command room. Monitors flickered with feeds of corridors, gardens, gates—every corner of my empire except the one that mattered.
Bella was pushed inside.
She looked smaller than usual. Pale. Hands twisted together. But she lifted her chin when she saw me.
“Signor.”
I didn’t sit.
“How did she know about the service lift?”
Her eyes widened. “I—I don’t know.”
Neil stepped forward, voice calm. “The lift hasn’t been used in years. It’s not on the visible blueprints. Only senior staff know.”
“I swear,” Bella said quickly, “I never told her.”
I circled her slowly. “Then how did she find it?”
Silence.
I slammed my palm on the table. The sound cracked through the room. Bella flinched.
“She was too weak to stand,” I said. “Yet she reached the east drainage gap. She found the one blind spot in my walls. That’s not luck.”
“She watches,” Bella whispered.
I stilled.
“She watches everything, Signor. She counts steps. She listens when guards change shifts. She notices who carries which keys. She’s… she’s not careless.”
Neil glanced at me. “The laundry driver said she approached him directly.”
Bella nodded faintly. “She asked me once. Said she liked knowing who worked for her.”
“For her?” I repeated coldly.
“She said a Donna should know her household.”
The word Donna twisted in my chest.
“You expect me to believe she planned all this alone?”
Bella swallowed. “Yes.”
I leaned closer. “Think carefully before you answer again.”
She met my eyes this time. Fear trembled there—but so did something else. Loyalty.
“I did not help her.”
Neil slid a tablet across the table. “Camera in the west corridor glitched for three minutes. Right when she left the room.”
Bella shook her head violently. “I don’t know anything about cameras!”
“You were the only one with her,” I pressed. “What did she say before she left?”
“She… she said she needed air.”
“That’s all?”
“And…” Bella hesitated.
“And?”
“She said if she stayed another day, she’d lose herself.”
The room went still.
I turned away.
Neil’s voice cut through the silence. “Did she mention anyone? A name? A contact?”
“No,” Bella said quickly.
“Did she have a phone?”
“No.”
“Did she seem… afraid?”
Bella paused.
“Yes.”
“Of what?”
“Of you.”
The words landed sharp.
I faced her slowly. “Explain.”
“She thought you wouldn’t listen anymore,” Bella said, voice shaking. “That you would cage her tighter.”
My jaw flexed.
Neil stepped between us slightly. “Bella. Think carefully. Did she say anything else? Anything unusual?”
Bella’s lips parted.
She looked at me. Really looked at me. “Signor… there’s something—”
My phone rang.
The sharp vibration sliced through the tension like a blade.
“Unknown number.”
Every man in the room froze.
I answered without breaking eye contact with Bella. “Speak.”
A low chuckle.
“Well,” the voice purred. “You look better angry, Carlino.”
The room vanished.
“Kailen.”
Applause crackled faintly through the line. “Very good. Glad you haven't forgotten me. I told you I would take her from under your nose. You should have listened.”
Neil’s head snapped up at the name.
“Where is she?” My voice was steady. Too steady.
“Oh, she’s spirited,” Kailen said lightly. “Bit me, actually. You chose well.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“If you’ve touched her—”
“Relax,” he cut in mockingly. “She’s my sister. She's valuable. I’m not a barbarian.”
I signaled Neil silently. Trace it.
“You orchestrated this,” I said.
“She ran beautifully,” Kailen replied. “All I did was open a door.”
Rage pulsed hot behind my eyes.
“You manipulated her.”
“Manipulated?” He laughed. “No. I understood her. Something you never bothered to do.”
Bella shifted behind me. Neil was typing rapidly.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“You.”
Silence stretched.
“You’ve been very comfortable lately, Carlino. Expanding. Crushing. Forgetting that balance exists.”
“You think kidnapping my Donna restores balance?”
“I think,” Kailen said softly, “watching you unravel will.”
My knuckles whitened.
“She fought,” he added casually. “Even drugged. She told my men you’d burn cities for her.”
A flicker of heat ran through me.
“Was she wrong?”
A pause.
“Come for me,” Kailen whispered. “I’ll be waiting.”
The line went dead.
The room exhaled all at once.
Neil looked up. “Trace failed. Routed through three countries.”
Of course.
I turned back to Bella. Her face had gone even paler.
“You heard him,” I said quietly.
She nodded.
“She ran straight into his trap.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “She didn’t know.”
“No,” I agreed coldly. “She didn’t.”
Neil stepped closer. “Don, we can mobilize Sector Four and Six. Hit Kailen’s known warehouses before he relocates.”
“Yes,” I said instantly. “Prepare the men. Full deployment. I want his ports blocked, his shipments seized, every associate questioned.”
Neil took his phone. “Right away.”
“Wait.” He stopped.
“We don’t search for a missing Donna anymore,” I said. “We hunt an enemy.”
“Yes, Don.” he began to bark orders into his phone.
Bella’s voice trembled behind me.
“Signor… please.”
I didn’t turn.
“She was trying to protect—”
“Protect what?” I snapped.
“You wouldn’t understand if you don’t let her speak!”
The words echoed.
Neil stiffened.
I pivoted slowly. “Careful.”
Bella stepped forward anyway.
“She’s not your enemy.”
“She ran,” I said.
“She was scared!”
“She exposed herself to a rival family!”
“She didn’t know!” Bella shouted, then clapped a hand over her mouth.
The room crackled with danger.
I walked toward her until she had to tilt her head back to meet my gaze. “Then tell me what she knew,” I said softly. “Tell me what she was so desperate to say.”
Bella’s lips trembled.
“She wanted to tell you before—”
Before what?
My phone buzzed again.
Not Kailen.
An encrypted line.
Neil checked his own device, frowning. “Don… it’s the Council.”
The room shifted.
I answered.
A familiar, aged voice filled the speaker. Calm. Heavy. “Carlino.”
“Speak.”
“There has been… movement tonight,” Marcio continued. “We’ve been informed of Kailen’s actions.”
“Then you know what I’m about to do.”
A pause.
“You will do nothing.”
Silence dropped like a guillotine.
“My Donna has been taken,” I said evenly.
“We are aware.”
“Then you are aware this is war.”
“Not yet,” Marcio replied. “Kailen is still recognized under Council protection. You move without sanction, you break oath.”
My jaw tightened.
“You expect me to wait?”
“We expect you at an emergency session. Immediately.”
I glanced at Neil.
He shook his head subtly. This was bad.
“Kailen abducted my Donna.”
“And if you retaliate without vote,” Marcio said, colder now, “you fracture the Cosa Nostra itself.”
The line clicked off.
For a long moment, no one spoke. Neil finally said what the others wouldn’t. “If we move now, we stand alone.”
I looked at the monitors again.
At the empty corridors.
At the house she’d run through.
Bella whispered behind me, barely audible, “She was trying to tell you she’s—”
“Enough,” I cut her off.
She fell silent.
My empire stood ready.
My enemy was exposed.
And now the Council demanded obedience.
I turned to Neil.
“Prepare the car.”
“For the meeting?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And the men?”
“Stand them down. For now.” The words tasted like ash.
Bella stared at me, disbelief written across her face. “You’re just… going?”
I met her gaze. “No.”
My voice was quiet. Controlled. “I’m choosing which battlefield to start with.”
Neil opened the door.
As I stepped out, Bella’s unfinished sentence echoed in my mind.
She was trying to tell you she’s—
The gates opened again. This time, not for a chase.For a reckoning. And somewhere out there, Kailen believed he’d cornered me. He thought the Council would chain my hands.
He thought Lina was leverage. He thought wrong. But as the car pulled into the night, one truth settled like iron in my chest: If the Council sides with him…I won’t just be fighting for my Donna. I’ll be fighting the entire Mafia.
And I don’t lose wars.