Chapter 4 - The War for ProvidenceMidnight at Pier 14 was a bleak, freezing nightmare.
The harbor water churned violently beneath the wooden pilings as a howling wind whipped rain across the concrete loading docks. Twenty black sedans were parked in a wide semicircle, their headlights illuminating a central open area where two men stood face-to-face.
On one side stood Sal Valenti—a sixty-year-old mob veteran with a scarred neck, a heavy fur coat, and thirty armed enforcers standing behind him with submachine guns.
On the other side stood Julian Voss, flanked only by Dean Marsh and four senior captains.
"Julian," Sal Valenti barked, his voice sounding like gravel grinding in a blender. "You took my nephew’s gun, you hospitalized my men, and you took Arthur Ashford’s girl into your house. You’re breaking the Commission’s charter."
Julian stood tall, his dark wool coat buttoned to the collar, his gray eyes burning through the rain with terrifying intensity.
"Arthur Ashford’s daughter is under my personal protection, Sal," Julian said, his voice carrying effortlessly over the wind. "You murdered her father. You stole her inheritance. You forced her onto the streets. Your debt to that family is due tonight."
Sal Valenti laughed—a harsh, barking sound. "Debt? That doctor was a rat! And his daughter has something that belongs to me. A ledger containing twenty years of shipping records. Hand the girl and the ledger over, Julian, or I will turn Providence into a graveyard."
Julian reached into his coat. Every Valenti gunman instantly raised their weapons, the sharp clack-clack of chambering rounds echoing across the pier.
Julian didn't draw a gun.
He pulled out a thick, leather-bound book with yellowed pages and a rusted brass lock—the ledger Arthur Ashford had hidden inside the braided lining of Ghost’s original fighting collar six years ago, which Julian’s team had uncovered only hours before.
Sal Valenti’s eyes widened in greed and panic. "Give it to me!"
"This ledger contains every bribe, every murder, every shipment, and every offshore account you've used since 2010," Julian said smoothly. He raised a small, silver lighter in his left hand, striking the flame. "And I’ve already sent a digital copy to the Special Crimes Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office in Boston."
Sal’s face drained of all color. "You crazy bastard! You’ll destroy us all!"
"No," Julian corrected, holding the lighter flame beneath the corner of the leather book, watching the ancient paper catch fire. "I’m only destroying you."
"Kill them!" Sal screamed, drawing his own revolver!
BOOM!
Before Sal could pull the trigger, a high-caliber sniper round shattered the driver’s side window of Sal's lead sedan!
From the shadows of the shipping containers surrounding the pier, fifty of Julian Voss’s elite tactical enforcers emerged, their red laser sights locking onto the chests of every Valenti gunman in the circle!
"Drop your weapons!" Dean Marsh roared, stepping forward with his shotgun raised.
The Valenti men, seeing themselves completely surrounded and outgunned, looked at their trembling boss, then at the red laser dots painting their coats. One by one, they dropped their weapons onto the wet concrete.
Sal Valenti fell to his knees in the cold mud, staring up at Julian in absolute defeat.
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Julian walked up to him, tossing the burning ledger onto the wet ground at Sal’s feet.
"You took a young girl's sight and her father’s life because you thought you were invincible, Sal," Julian said, his voice cold and final as the wail of approaching federal police sirens echoed in the distance. "Now you’ll spend the rest of your life in a federal cage, blind to the world."
