Chapter 10 - Dawn of a New Empire
The sun rose over the New York harbor, painting the sky in brilliant strokes of gold, crimson, and violet.
From the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the penthouse office at the Torino estate, Vincent Torino looked down over the city he owned. The ports were quiet, the shipping lanes were clear, and the underworld had returned to a state of absolute, unbreakable order.
Behind him, the soft sound of pattering footsteps echoed across the polished hardwood floor.
He turned around.
Sophie came running into the room, holding up a drawing of a stick-figure family standing in front of a big stone house, with a very tall man wearing a charcoal suit standing in the middle.
“Look what I made!” she beamed, handing him the paper.
Vincent took it, studying the crude crayons strokes with the same intense focus he usually reserved for multi-million-dollar ledgers. A slow, rare smile spread across his face.
“It’s a masterpiece,” Vincent declared solemnly, walking over to his mahogany desk and placing the drawing right in the center, directly beside a silver framed photograph of Elena smiling in her blue dress.
Elena walked into the office a moment later, carrying a steaming mug of black coffee. She handed it to him, leaning back against the edge of the desk, looking out at the glittering skyline below.
“You know,” Elena said quietly, taking a sip of her own tea, “the papers are saying Marcone’s old empire is fracturing. The police are calling it a turf war.”
“Let them call it whatever helps them sleep at night,” Vincent replied, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close against his side. “The city belongs to us now. All of it.”
“And us?” Elena looked up at him, her dark eyes sparkling with a quiet challenge. “What belongs to us?”
Vincent looked down at the little girl sitting cross-legged on the rug, crayons scattered around her, completely safe, completely at peace. Then he looked back at the woman who had walked into his life out of the rain and changed the rules of his entire world.
May you like
“Everything,” Vincent said softly.
And for the first time in his life, the most dangerous man in the city knew he would never have to sit alone at a table again.
