Location: "The Hollow" – War Room
The screen glowed with maps, blueprints, and blood-red marks.
Isabella stood at the center, her voice low but sharp.
"Ricci thinks I'll come at him head-on. He's wrong. We'll come from underneath—through his own tunnels, relics from the Prohibition era. His pride is his weakness."
Nico watched her closely. She was colder, sharper—every piece of the girl he once knew now weaponized.
Allegra ran interference. Gianna mapped exit routes. And Isabella plotted vengeance with surgical precision.
Then Nico stepped forward.
"If we're going in… I'm going after Domenico."
Isabella didn't flinch. "I know."
She handed him a file. Floor plans. Camera layouts.
"You'll have 30 minutes once the power cuts. After that, it's scorched earth."
---
Meanwhile – Domenico's Cell
The lights buzzed. Domenico sat, lip split, one eye swollen.
He heard footsteps. Costanzo entered with surgical calm.
"Your brother's coming for you," he said. "But if you scream, beg, or turn—he dies before he sees you."
Domenico spat blood.
"Then I better save my breath for when I put a knife through your throat."
Costanzo laughed softly. "They always say that. Until they break."
But Domenico smiled—because he knew something now.
Nico was coming.
And when Nico came, he brought hell with him.
---
Elsewhere – Ricci's Estate, 3 Hours Before Attack
Ricci examined the relics on his shelf: a blade used to slit Matteo Moretti's right-hand man's throat. A photo of Isabella as a girl.
"She's made it personal," he said to his guards.
Costanzo entered, wiping blood off his hands.
"And you haven't?" he asked.
Ricci grinned. "I'm a collector. She's a crusader. That's the difference. One of us knows when to end the story."
He held up a detonator.
"Still… just in case."
---
Return to "The Hollow" – Final Countdown
As the strike team suited up, Nico pulled Isabella aside.
"If I don't make it out—"
She cut him off with a kiss—brief, bruising, final.
"No goodbyes," she whispered. "We both come back. Or no one does."
Outside, thunder rolled.
Underground, a queen led her army into the dark.
---
Final Lines – Tension Mounting
A tunnel door opened.
Floodlights blinked on.
Isabella's hand curled around her pistol.
"This isn't vengeance anymore," she whispered.
"It's reclamation."