Chapter 3 - The Interrogation of Julian SterlingJulian Sterling swallowed hard, a wet, rattling wheeze escaping his ruined mouth.
“Luca... please,” Julian rasped, his aristocratic veneer completely obliterated into desperate, groveling agony. “It was Vanessa’s father! Salvatore Bellini owed forty million to the cartel in Tampico! If they didn't deliver the child to the safehouse in Kenosha tonight, the cartel was going to execute his entire family!”
A collective, murderous roar rumbled through the forty syndicate commanders seated along the table.
In the underworld of Chicago, territory was fought with lead. Smuggling berths were traded with blood.
That was the life.
That was the code.
But abducting a Don’s eight-year-old motherless child from her bed to pay off a gambling debt to Mexican cartels—that crossed every sacred boundary of the Five Families.
Don Carmine Falcone, the eighty-year-old sovereign of the South Side docks, slowly pushed back his heavy armchair.
The elderly capo stood tall, leaning on his carved ash walking stick, his face twisted in ancient, merciless wrath.
He stopped two feet in front of Vanessa Bellini.
“Vanessa,” Falcone rasped, his voice vibrating with absolute disgust. “You sat at Antonio Moretti’s table as a little girl. You took his bread. And tonight, you tried to hand his granddaughter to butchers in Kenosha?”
Vanessa fell to her knees on the Persian rug, clawing at the hem of Falcone’s trousers in blind, hysterical panic.
“Don Carmine! I was desperate! Luca wouldn't release the harbor funds to my father! He was going to let our family go bankrupt! I only wanted to hold Sophie for forty-eight hours until the money cleared!”
“You don't hold a Moretti child hostage, Vanessa,” Falcone replied with chilling, final condemnation.
He turned toward Luca.
“Don Luca. The Commission recognizes the blood debt. The house of Bellini is stripped of all charters, all territories, and all protection.”
Luca did not shout.
He walked over to the dining table, picked up a heavy crystal decanter of vintage port, and set it down before Daniel.
“Daniel.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Take Julian Sterling down to the holding vaults beneath Pier 14. Hand him over to Assistant United States Attorney Marcus Vance when the federal task force arrives at midnight.”
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He looked down at Vanessa.
“And strip Miss Bellini of the family’s jewelry. Bring the medical tray from Teresa’s bedroom down to this table.”
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