Chapter 5 - The Siege of South DockThe retaliation was swift, absolute, and merciless.
Within thirty-six hours of the attack on the estate, the Dantis syndicate mobilized its entire military apparatus. The South Side docks—the primary smuggling hub and financial lifeline of the Moretti family—were surrounded by fifty black armored SUVs before dawn.
There were no long negotiations. No polite warnings.
Aleandro led the assault himself, kicking in the reinforced iron doors of Moretti’s primary shipping warehouse with a squad of elite enforcers behind him. Within twenty minutes, the Moretti guards had surrendered, their weapons piled high in the center of the concrete floor.
Julian Dantis was dragged out from a back office by his collar, kicking and screaming like a child, tossed onto his knees in front of Aleandro.
“Aleandro! Please!” Julian sobbed, his nose bleeding from a rifle butt, his expensive suit soaked in greasy dock water. “I was just trying to survive! Moretti forced me! Family loyalty—!”
“You traded family for survival,” Aleandro said coldly, standing over him with his hands resting casually on his tactical belt. He looked down at Julian with absolute disgust. “You brought violence to my home. You threatened the woman I love.”
Aleandro didn't execute him on the spot. He signaled two enforcers. “Hand him over to the federal authorities with a complete file on his tax evasion, embezzlement, and narcotics trafficking. Let him spend the next thirty years in a maximum-security federal penitentiary where no one will ever look at him twice.”
As Julian was hauled away shrieking into the rain, Don Moretti himself—an aging, silver-haired boss sitting tied to a cargo chair in the corner—spat blood onto the concrete.
“You think you’ve won, Dantis?” Moretti snarled, laughing bitterly. “You’re soft. You built an empire on blood and fear, and now you’re letting some curvy office assistant run your life. A syndicate cannot be ruled by sentimentality.”
Aleandro walked slowly over to Moretti, crouching down until their eyes met.
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“You measure strength by how many people you can terrorize, Moretti,” Aleandro said softly, his voice cutting through the damp air of the dock. “That is why your empire is currently burning to the ground. True power is not about making people cower in fear. True power is having something worth protecting with your dying breath—and having the strength to ensure no one ever touches it.”
Aleandro stood up, turned his back on the defeated boss, and walked out into the pouring rain toward his waiting armored vehicle.
