Chapter Ninety-Six – Blood Oaths

Chapter Ninety-Six – Blood Oaths

They walked through the narrow streets, the cold biting through their coats. Giulia broke the silence first.

“Do you ever think about what happens after?”

Bianca glanced at her. “After what?”

“After we find her.”

Bianca hesitated. “If we find her,” she corrected softly.

Giulia stopped walking. “Why do you keep saying that? You don’t believe it, do you?”

Bianca turned to face her. “I believe she existed. I believe we’re close. But the girl we find might not be the sister you remember.”

Giulia swallowed hard. “Then I’ll remind her who she was.”

Bianca shook her head slowly. “You can’t fix everything, Giulia.”

“I can try,” she said, voice trembling. “She’s my sister.”

Bianca reached out, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Just remember — if we find her, she’s not the only one who’s been broken by this.”

Giulia didn’t answer. She just nodded and kept walking.

The wind picked up, scattering trash across the cobblestones. Somewhere in the distance, a church bell rang.

Bianca pulled her coat tighter. “We leave for the coast tomorrow.”

Giulia looked ahead. “Good. The sooner we find him, the sooner we find her.”

As they disappeared down the street, a man at the café window lowered his newspaper and made a call.

“They’re heading east,” he whispered. “Yes. Both of them.”

He hung up, finished his drink, and left the café — following the same direction Bianca and Giulia had gone.

By the time Bianca and Giulia reached the next city, their faces were already on someone’s list.

And somewhere along the Black Sea coast, Sergei Volkov poured himself a drink, glancing at a faded photo on his desk — a young girl with Giulia’s eyes.

The safehouse was quiet. The kind of quiet that made every sound seem louder than it should be.
Dante sat on the couch, elbows on his knees, staring at the photo of Geneva on the table. The edges were worn from how often he’d picked it up and put it down.

Isabella came out of the small kitchen with two cups of coffee. “You haven’t eaten all day,” she said, setting one in front of him.

He didn’t look up. “I’m not hungry.”

“You said that yesterday too.”

“I meant it yesterday. I mean it now.”

She sighed and sat across from him. “You’ll make yourself sick if you keep doing this.”

“I don’t care.”

“You should,” she said. “You’re no use to anyone like this.”

He leaned back, rubbed the side of his face, and finally looked at her. “You don’t get it, Isabella. They took everything. Our people, our name, our home. And now this.” He tapped the photo. “She’s alive, but they’ve got her chained up like an animal.”

“I get it,” Isabella said quietly. “But you’re acting like you’re the only one who lost something.”

He didn’t reply.

She leaned forward. “You can be angry, Dante. Just don’t take it out on yourself.”

He gave her a quick look, then stood up and started pacing. “We need to move. We can’t stay here. They’ll find this place sooner or later.”

“I called Marco,” she said. “He’s bringing whoever’s left.”

Dante stopped. “You what?”

“I called him. We need help. We can’t do this alone.”

He frowned. “I don’t want them here.”

“Too bad,” she said. “They’re already coming.”

He didn’t answer.

Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock. Three short taps — their signal. Isabella checked the peephole before opening the door.

Marco walked in first, followed by Lucio and two other survivors. One of them had his arm in a sling. They all looked exhausted.

“Boss,” Marco said. “You look worse than we do.”

Dante gave a short nod. “You’re still breathing. That’s something.”

Lucio sat on a chair. “We lost everything, Dante. The trucks, the weapons, the cash reserves. They hit every front we had.”

Dante’s jaw tightened. “How many dead?”

Marco hesitated. “Too many.”

The man with the sling spoke quietly. “Consortium’s got men on every route. They’re cleaning up what’s left of your people.”

Dante didn’t move. “My people?”

The man looked down. “What’s left of them, yeah.”

Isabella glanced at Dante before saying, “We’ll rebuild. Maybe not the same way, but we’ll start again.”

Lucio laughed bitterly. “Start again with what? We’ve got nothing.”

“Then we find something,” she said.

Dante spoke suddenly. “We’re not done. Not yet.”

Marco leaned forward. “You got a plan?”

“We find out who’s paying for this,” Dante said. “Someone’s funding the Consortium. Someone who knows our routes, our accounts, everything.”

“Inside job?” Lucio asked.

Dante looked at him. “Has to be.”

They sat in silence for a few seconds. Then Isabella stood. “We’ll check our old business contacts. Maybe someone slipped somewhere.”

“You think they left a trail?” Dante asked.

“They always do,” she said. “People get greedy. They get careless.”

Marco took out his phone. “We’ve been tracking a few transfers that looked off. I’ll show you.”