THE CHAOS .
The lights didn't stay off for long. When the emergency generators kicked in, the ballroom was bathed in a sickly red glow.
Dante didn't flinch when the first window shattered. He kept one arm locked around Elara's waist, pulling her behind his broad frame as his men flooded through the balcony doors. Mark was leading them, his face a mask of cold efficiency.
The guests the mayors, the judges, and the rival capos scrambled like rats. They pushed over tables and tripped over silk hemlines to get to the exits, but Dante's men had already sealed the building.
Dante's father reached for a concealed weapon in his tuxedo jacket, but Dante was faster. He didn't use a gun. He stepped forward and grabbed his father's wrist, snapping the bone with a sickening pop that echoed over the screams.
His stepmother tried to run, but two of Dante's men blocked her path. She turned back to Dante, her face pale and her pearls trembling. She begged him to remember she was family.
Dante looked at her and remembered the cold nights he spent locked in a cellar while she ate dinner with his father. He remembered his mother's bruised face. He didn't say a word to her. He just signaled Mark to take her away.
Elara watched it all with her heart hammering against her ribs. She saw the man she hated the man who held her captive turning into a whirlwind of violence. He moved with a brutal grace, disarming guards and barking orders that leveled his father's legacy in minutes.
His father was on his knees now, clutching his broken wrist and gasping for air. The king of the underworld looked small in the red light.
You think this makes you strong Dante? his father spat, blood staining his teeth. You're just a dog chasing a ghost.
Dante stood over him. He looked down at the man who had destroyed his childhood and felt nothing but a cold, hollow peace. He reached back and pulled Elara forward so she was standing right beside him.
Look at her Dante said. His voice was steady and terrifying. Look at the only thing in this world that matters. You spent your life building walls of gold and I spent mine finding the girl who saved me from them.
He looked at Mark and told him to finish the sweep. He told him to burn the ledgers and seize the accounts. He wanted his father to watch every cent of his empire vanish before he was dragged to the basement.
Dante turned to Elara then. His eyes were still dark with the high of the takeover, but when they landed on her, they softened just a fraction. He saw the terror in her expression and the way she was shaking in her wine-colored dress.
He picked her up in his arms, ignoring the chaos and the gunfire echoing from the hallways. He carried her out of the ballroom and toward the waiting car.
It's over Elara he whispered against her hair as they stepped out into the night air. The ghosts are dead. Now there is only us