Chapter 89 Black chamber
Carlino's POV
The Black Chamber had never been meant for negotiation. It was where the truth was forced out of people when words stopped working.
The air down there always felt heavier than anywhere else in the house, thick with the faint metallic scent of old blood and the damp chill of stone. The room sat beneath the bungalow like a buried secret. Everyone on the council seat knew it existed.
No one ever wanted to see it.
Until tonight.
Niel was already waiting when I walked in. He leaned casually against a concrete pillar, flipping a serrated blade through his fingers with slow, practiced ease. The metal caught the dim light each time it turned.
He didn’t ask questions.
He never did.
My guards dragged them inside.
Marcio, Elara, and Chris stumbled across the floor, their polished shoes slipping slightly on the stained concrete. Their expensive clothes looked almost ridiculous here, like something fragile placed in the wrong world.
I stepped forward.
“You have just one last chance,” I said quietly. “One last chance to tell me where he is.”
Marcio adjusted his silk tie, though his fingers trembled slightly. His composure was still there, clinging stubbornly to dignity.
“This is a violation of every protocol, Carlino,” he said stiffly. “Your evidence is fabricated. Rumors and paranoia. We have served this family for decades.”
I stepped closer, the light finally falling across my face. “Evidence doesn’t lie, Marcio,” I replied. “People do. Every day.”
Elara lifted her chin, trying to maintain that familiar cold confidence.
“You’re losing control,” she said sharply. “The pressure is getting to you. Losing your Donna has made you paranoid. We are your allies.”
I didn’t answer her.
Instead, I looked at Chris.
He was pale, almost gray and his eyes were fixed on the small drain in the center of the floor. He looked like he already understood what this room was meant for.
I checked my watch.
“Niel.”
That was all the signal he needed.
He moved suddenly.
Marcio barely had time to react before Niel’s fist crashed into his jaw. A loud thud sound erupted. The older man crumpled to the ground with a grunt, blood already spreading across his lip.
Before Elara could even scream, Niel grabbed Chris and forced him into the reinforced chair in the center of the room. Metal shackles snapped around his wrists with a sharp click.
“Wait! Wait!” Chris cried, panic cracking his voice.
I dragged a chair across the floor and sat down in front of him.
“Denial wastes my time, and my time is currency,” I said calmly. “And Niel’s time is expensive.”
Niel moved to the metal tray nearby, examining the instruments with quiet concentration before picking up a pair of heavy pliers.
I stood there with my right hand inside my suit pocket while my left hand held a Sobranie Black Russian cigarette between my fingers. I took one slow drag, then let the smoke roll out in a quiet puff as I watched them go through the torture they deserved.
Chris’s breathing turned frantic.
The moment the tool touched his arm, the scream that followed echoed against the stone walls.
Elara flinched violently.
“He’s lying!” she shouted, though her voice trembled now, the quiver in her voice betrayed her.. “Chris, don’t listen to him! He can’t kill all of us!”
I watched Chris carefully as panic overtook him.
“I don’t need to kill all of you,” I said softly. “I just need one of you to be smart.”
I glanced toward Niel.
“The knee.”
Niel reached for a heavy mallet.
Chris’s composure shattered completely.
“No! Stop! Please!” he sobbed, struggling against the restraints. His eyes darted desperately toward Marcio, who was still trying to push himself off the floor.
“I can’t do it! Marcio, I can’t!”
“Shut up, Chris!” Marcio hissed through bloodied teeth.
I gave Niel another small signal.
Instead of the mallet, he used the blade—just enough to slice across Chris’s cheek. Blood sprayed lightly across the floor.
Chris choked on a sob.
“Talk,” I said.
And that was the moment he broke.
“It was Marcio!” Chris cried. “It was all him!”
The words rushed out of him like a flood that had finally burst through a cracked dam.
“He’s the one who suggested Lina! He convinced the others before the vote! He said it would stabilize the empire—but he was taking orders from Kailen the whole time!”
A cold weight settled deep in my chest.
Slowly, I turned toward Marcio.
The old man who had sat at my father’s table.
“Go on,” I said quietly.
Chris wiped his face with his shoulder.
“He knew about Damien,” he gasped. “He knew the mole was working for Kailen. He arranged the breach at the estate. He gave them the codes. He gave them everything.”
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Unavoidable.
I stood and walked slowly toward Marcio.
He was sitting on the floor now, breathing hard, gray hair damp with sweat. Even now, there was still something stubborn in the way he held himself—an old arrogance that refused to die.
I crouched in front of him.
“You,” I said quietly. “A man who has lived long enough to know what happens to traitors… and you still thought you could play me?”
Marcio looked up.
A thin, bloody smile stretched across his face.
“You’re just a boy pretending to be king, Carlino,” he said hoarsely. “You think the crown makes you untouchable? Kailen is the future.”
He laughed weakly.
“You’re just what's left of the past.”
I didn’t strike him.
I didn’t need to.
Instead, I straightened.
“Why her?” I asked calmly. “Why did Kailen want Lina as my Donna?”
Marcio spat blood onto my boot.
He stayed silent.
I sighed faintly.
“Niel,” I said.
Without looking back.
“Make him remember every year of his life.”
Niel didn’t hesitate.
The sounds that followed filled the chamber—pain, struggling, muffled cries echoing off stone.
Elara eventually covered her face with her hands.
She couldn’t watch anymore.
“Stop it!” she shouted, her voice breaking. “Please, stop!”
I turned toward her.
“Then give me a reason to.”
Her eyes were wide now, panic replacing arrogance.
“We don’t know!” she said desperately. “I swear! We don’t know why he wanted her! He just told us to push the vote. He said she was the key!”
She shook her head rapidly.
“We thought she was just bait… something to make you vulnerable. We don’t question Kailen. No one questions Kailen.”
I considered that.
Bait was too simple.
Kailen never played simple games.
“What were you all offered in exchange for this betrayal?” I questioned.
There was silence, no response.
“I won't ask again,” My words came out as a threat. Low. Silent. Cold.
“Money. Protection. Opportunity,” Marcio replied.
“You were given all that,”
“No—”
“Where is he?” I asked, cutting Marcio’s short.
Marcio laughed weakly from the floor.
“You’ll never find him.”
I threw my cigarette to the ground. I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground.
His feet barely touched the floor.
“I am running out of patience,” I said quietly.
My grip tightened.
“I will tear apart every place you have ever hidden in your life until I find him.”
His face darkened as the air left his lungs.
“Tell me.”
Chris broke again.
“The Adirondacks!” he shouted. “A secluded estate! Deep in the forest near the Black River! There’s an old logging outpost. That’s where he took her!”
I released Marcio.
He collapsed to the floor.
I looked at Niel.
He understood immediately.
None of them were leaving this room.
Not tonight.
I walked toward the door.
The reason no longer mattered.
The location did.
“Niel,” I said as I reached the threshold.
“Don?”
“Clean up the mess.”
I paused.
“And tell the
men to prep the birds.”
My hand rested on the door.
“We’re going hunting.”
The cold hallway air hit my face as I stepped out of the chamber.
I had a location now.
I had a target.
And God help Kailen for what I was about to do to that forest.