Chapter 8 - COLLATERAL DAMAGE
"Take them all," Dominic ordered his men, his eyes never leaving Marcus. "Anyone who resists, shoot them. Bind Marcus. Throw him in the trunk. We have one more stop to make tonight."
Back at the Russo estate, the house was dark and quiet. Serena was asleep in the master bedroom, dreaming of the empire she was about to inherit. The bedroom door burst open, slamming against the wall with a thunderous crack. Serena bolted upright, clutching the silk sheets to her chest, a scream dying in her throat as the lights flared on.
Dominic stood in the doorway, his suit slightly disheveled, the silver pistol hanging loosely from his right hand. Tony stood behind him, dragging a battered, bloody Marcus by the collar of his tactical vest. Tony casually tossed Marcus onto the plush Persian rug at the foot of the bed.
Serena stared at Marcus, then looked up at Dominic, sheer terror vibrating through her body. "Dom... Dominic, what is this? What happened to him?" she cried, trying to inject her voice with desperate innocence.
"Save the performance, Serena," Dominic said, walking slowly to the edge of the bed. He reached into his pocket and dropped the crushed remains of the recording device onto her lap. "The play is over. The curtain has fallen."
Serena looked at the device, her face turning the color of ash. She scrambled backward against the headboard. "Dominic, please, he made me do it! Marcus threatened me! He said if I didn't help him, he would kill me!"
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Marcus coughed up blood onto the rug and laughed weakly. "Always the survivor, right, baby? Tell him how you gave me the security codes. Tell him how you celebrated when we thought he'd die tonight."
Dominic looked at the woman he had intended to marry. He felt no heartbreak, only a cold, sterile disgust. "Pack your things, Serena. Tony is going to escort you to a private airfield. You are getting on a plane to Europe. If you ever return to the United States, if I ever hear your name spoken aloud in this hemisphere again, Tony will find you. And he won't be as polite as I am."
