Chapter 1 Blood That Was Not Chosen
The guy in the chair kept saying the same three words like they were a prayer.
“I didn’t know.”
Alessandro De Luca didn’t blink.
The basement was clean. Not “hospital clean.” Clean like a room that had seen enough blood to respect it. Concrete floor. One drain in the center. A metal table with nothing on it but a bottle of water—untouched—because fear made people suspicious of kindness.
A single bulb hung from the ceiling, throwing hard light and harder shadows.
The man’s hands were zip-tied behind his back. Not because Alessandro needed him helpless.
Because Alessandro liked the truth without extra movement.
Raffaele leaned on the wall, arms crossed, looking bored but he wasnt. He was waiting for the moment the man cracked.
Two guards stood by the door with guns.
Alessandro sat across from the man, elbows on his knees, posture relaxed like this was a casual chat.
“What do you mean you didn’t know?” Alessandro asked. His voice was calm. Not cold. Calm was worse. Cold meant emotion. Calm meant certainty.
The man swallowed. Adam’s apple bobbing like it was trying to escape his throat. “I swear. I was told it was a message. Not… not a hit. Not on him.”
Alessandro tilted his head slightly. “On who.”
The man’s eyes flicked up, then down. “Your father.”
A beat of silence.
Giovanni De Luca almost died while eating pasta in a restaurant.
That was the point. That was the message. You are not safe. Not now not ever.
Alessandro kept his face still. But inside, something hard tightened.
“You were told it was a message,” he repeated. “By who.”
The man’s mouth trembled. “I don’t know a name. I swear. I was paid. Cash"
Raffaele snorted softly. “cash” he repeated, like the word offended him.
Alessandro didn’t look at Raffaele. His attention stayed locked on the man.
“Walk me through it,” Alessandro said. “Slow.”
The man nodded too fast. “Two nights ago. I get a text. Burner number. Coordinates. I go. There’s a bag in a trash bin. Inside—phone, instructions, a gun.”
Alessandro’s eyes didn’t change. “You used that gun.”
“I didn’t—” The man’s voice climbed, panicked. “I didn’t shoot! I swear on my mother, I didn’t pull the trigger. I was just… I was supposed to watch. Confirm. Report.”
“Report what,” Alessandro asked.
“That you were there,” the man blurted. “That your father was there. That he sat down. That the security was normal. That it was… routine.”
Routine.
That word made Alessandro’s jaw tighten.
Because that was exactly what they’d attacked: Normal. Safe.
They didn’t hit his father during a shipment. Not at a meeting. Not at a handoff.
Just To prove that nothing was safe.
Alessandro leaned back slightly. “And then.”
The man’s voice dropped. “Then I sent the message.”
“To the burner,” Alessandro said.
“Yes.”
“And then someone else shot my father.”
The man nodded. Tears were starting now. The kind of tears grown men hated. “Yes.”
Alessandro stared at him for a long moment, so long the man started shaking.
“I’m going to ask you one last time,” Alessandro said. “Who paid you.”
“I don’t know,” the man whispered. “I don’t know, I don’t—”
Alessandro stood up. Smoothly. Unhurried.
The guards stiffened, not because Alessandro was unpredictable, but because they knew what came next.
Alessandro stepped around the table and crouched in front of the man, close enough that the man could smell him—clean soap, faint cologne, and something darker that wasn’t a scent so much as a warning.
“I believe you,” Alessandro said.
The man blinked through tears. “You… you do?”
“Yes,” Alessandro said, quiet. “Because you’re not important enough to lie this badly.”
The man made a choked sound that might have been relief.
Then Alessandro said, “But you were important enough to be used.”
Relief died in the man’s eyes.
Alessandro straightened, turned, and walked toward the door like the conversation was over.
Raffaele pushed off the wall. “Boss?”
Alessandro paused at the threshold and looked back at the man.
“You’re going to do something for me,” Alessandro said.
The man’s voice cracked. “Anything. Anything, I swear.”
“You’re going to make a phone call,” Alessandro said.
The man froze. “I—I don’t have—”
Raffaele stepped forward and tossed a burner phone onto the table. It clacked against metal and spun to a stop like fate.
Alessandro nodded at it. “You’re going to call the number that paid you. And you’re going to say the job’s done.”
The man stared at the phone like it was a snake.
“And when they ask questions,” Alessandro continued, “you’re going to answer like you’re proud.”
The man’s hands flexed behind his back. “They’ll know something’s off.”
Alessandro smiled slightly. Not warmth. Just teeth.
“No,” he said. “They won’t. Because they think you’re stupid.”
The man swallowed hard. “And if they don’t pick up?”
“They will,” Alessandro said. “Because they wanted this to be loud.”
He stepped out.
Raffaele followed him into the corridor, lowering his voice. “You think it was Marco?"
Alessandro didn’t answer immediately.
Marco Romano was the obvious name. Always the obvious name. But obvious was lazy—and lazy got people killed.
He reached the stairs and headed up.
“You don’t hit a man like Giovanni De Luca at dinner unless you’re making a statement,” Raffaele said.
Alessandro’s voice stayed steady. “They want the city to feel it.”
They emerged into daylight.
The estate grounds were quiet, Alessandro crossed the courtyard and entered the main house.
Inside, Emilia—a woman who’d helped raise him—stood near the hallway with a face too controlled.
“He’s awake,” she said quietly.
Alessandro nodded and walked toward the study.
He didn’t knock.
Giovanni De Luca sat behind his desk like a man refusing to admit weakness, even to the walls. His jacket was off. White shirt. Bandage under his ribs. A faint line of dried blood where it had seeped through last night.
He looked older today. Not in years. In weight.
“You look like you didn’t sleep,” Giovanni said.
Alessandro’s mouth twitched. “You look like you tried to die at a restaurant.”
Giovanni gave him a tired stare. “Funny.”
Alessandro stood across from him. “Why weren’t there more men.”
“I had two,” Giovanni said. “Because it was dinner.”
“That’s the problem,” Alessandro replied. “It was dinner.”
Giovanni’s eyes sharpened. “Tell me what you have.”
Alessandro didn’t bother with softness. “We caught one of the watchers. He didn’t pull the trigger. He was placed there to report.”
Giovanni’s jaw tightened. “A message.”
“Yes.”
Giovanni leaned back slowly, wincing. “Marco is getting bold.”
Giovanni’s gaze went distant for a moment, like he was looking at a past that still had teeth.
“That’s how it started,” Giovanni said quietly.
Alessandro didn’t ask what he meant. He already knew. Everyone did. A deal gone wrong. A betrayal. A misunderstanding that became a graveyard.
But he didn’t want history right now.
He wanted the next move.
“Your security changes today,” Alessandro said. “No more ‘normal.’ No more ‘just dinner.’ You don’t step outside without my clearance.”
Giovanni’s mouth tightened. Pride flaring. “I’m not your child.”
“You’re my father,” Alessandro said. “And they just proved they can touch you when you’re chewing bread.”
That landed.
Giovanni’s eyes hardened. “Then touch them back.”
Alessandro nodded once. “soon.. very soon.”
Giovanni stared at him. “You sound like me.”
Alessandro didn’t smile. “I sound like someone who’s tired of burying people.”
Giovanni’s gaze softened—barely. “This war is older than you.”
“And I’m ending it ,” Alessandro replied.
He turned to leave.
“Alessandro,” Giovanni called.
Alessandro stopped.
Giovanni’s voice was quiet now. “Don’t let this make you reckless.”
Alessandro looked over his shoulder. “It’s not making me reckless.”
It was making him sharp.
He left the study and headed down the hall.
His phone buzzed.
Raffaele.
“Boss,” Raffaele said. “He made the call.”
“And?”
“They answered.”
Alessandro’s steps slowed slightly. “Put it on speaker.”
A crackle. A low voice. Distorted, but confident.
“You did your job?” the voice asked.
The man in the basement—trembling—forced his voice into something steady. “Yeah. He bled. People screamed. It was beautiful.”
Alessandro’s jaw tightened.
The voice chuckled softly. “Good. Stay quiet. Keep your head down.”
The man hesitated—exactly as Alessandro expected.
“What about… payment?” the man asked.
A pause.
Then the voice said, “Payment is you staying alive.”
The line went dead.
Raffaele’s breathing changed on the other end. “That’s it.”
Alessandro’s voice stayed calm. “They never planned to keep him.”
“He’s disposable.”
“Everyone is disposable to someone,” Alessandro said.
He ended the call and continued walking.
Another buzz. A different number. Unknown.
He stopped in the hallway under a portrait of a De Luca ancestor who’d died young, eyes painted like he was still judging.
Alessandro answered. “Speak.”
A woman’s voice. Professional. Smooth. “Mr. De Luca. A private invitation has been delivered to your office” she said. “Palazzo Serafini. Charity gala.”
Alessandro’s eyes narrowed. The timing was too neat.
“Why now,” he asked.
A pause. "Because they need you"
The line ended.
Alessandro stared at the phone for a long second.
A gala.
After an attempt on his father in a restaurant.
A public stage wrapped in crystal and music.
Neutral ground—the most dangerous kind.
He walked into his study, found the envelope waiting exactly where it was meant to be waiting, like someone had placed it with the confidence of a person who knew he couldn’t say no.
Thick paper. Heavy seal. Expensive.
He didn’t open it right away.
He simply held it and felt the weight of what it meant.
This wasn’t charity.
A room full of enemies pretending to be civilized.
A place where the wrong glance could start a massacre.
Alessandro broke the seal and read the invitation once.
Twice.
Then he looked up at the window, at the city beyond, and felt something colder than fear settle under his ribs.
Because this time, the danger wasn’t in a warehouse or a dark alley.
It was going to be under chandeliers.
In front of everyone.
And in that kind of light, even kings could bleed.