who they've placed in government, what protection they think they have. I will burn them to the ground. I did it once. I will do it again."
There was a beat of silence, and then Antonio laughed...not warmly, not with humor, but with something bitter and sharp.
"You didn't burn them," Antonio said. "You destroyed one facility. One. And look where that has landed you. Look what it has cost you already."
Dimitri's grip on the phone tightened.
"I received information tonight," Antonio continued, "that their new target is your very well-protected woman. And if my intelligence is correct, they already made their first attempt. Tonight. While you were standing in the same room as her."
Dimitri went very still.
Antonio's voice hardened, each word a blow delivered with surgical precision.
"So tell me, son. Do you still believe you can protect her? When they can attempt to poison her right under your nose, in your own territory, surrounded by your own security?"
Dimitri said nothing.
