My name is Dominic Romano. In New York, men knew better than to make me repeat myself.

Glass shattered across the hardwood deck like a storm of diamonds.

Before Julian or Don Carmine could react, my firearm cleared its holster. Pfft-pfft-pfft. Three silenced shots took out Carmine's two personal bodyguards before they could pull their weapons from their suits. They collapsed to the floor like sacks of wet flour.

"DOMINIC!" Julian shrieked, dropping his glass of scotch. It shattered against the floor. He grabbed Olivia by her shoulder, pulling her in front of him like a human shield, pressing a snub-nosed revolver against her temple. "DON'T MOVE! I swear to God, Dom, I'll pull the trigger!"

Olivia squeezed her eyes shut, weeping silently, but she didn't scream.

Don Carmine didn't panic. The old mob boss calmly set his cigar in an ashtray, stepping back toward the helm of the yacht. "Dominic," Carmine said smoothly. "You were always too emotional. That's why your father never truly trusted you with the Council's seat."

"Julian," I said, my eyes locked on Isabelle's brother. My voice was eerily quiet, deadlier than the storm raging outside. "Let go of my daughter."

"You took everything from me!" Julian screamed, his arm shaking violently as he held Olivia. "Isabelle was supposed to inherit the Romano holdings! My family's blood was supposed to rule New York! Then she married you—a bastard enforcer—and gave you everything! I was left with crumbs!"

"You killed your own sister?" I asked, taking a slow, deliberate step forward.

"She found out I was selling shipping manifests to Carmine!" Julian yelled, his eyes wild and unhinged. "She was going to tell you! I had no choice! I hired a hitman to take her out outside the school, but these little brats saw the shooter's face! They saw my car driving the getaway!"

The final piece of the puzzle slammed into place.

My daughters hadn't been mute because of abstract grief. They were silent because their own uncle—the man who kissed their cheek every Sunday—had told them that if they spoke a single word about what they saw, he would come back and kill their father too.

"You threatened my children," I whispered.

"I gave them a choice!" Julian spat. "And now, you're going to hand over the keys to the Brooklyn docks and the Manhattan routes to Don Carmine, or I blow this brat's head off right here!"

Suddenly, the yacht gave a violent lurch.

Lev, who had snuck around the exterior deck, smashed through the side window behind Julian. He grabbed Julian’s gun arm, twisting it upward with bone-snapping force.

BANG!

The revolver discharged harmlessly into the ceiling.

I lunged forward like a panther. I snatched Olivia and Sophie into my arms, throwing my body over them as Lev threw Julian onto the floor.

Don Carmine reached for a emergency button on the helm to signal his backup boats, but I fired two quick rounds into his kneecaps. Carmine let out a horrific scream, collapsing onto the mahogany floor, clutching his shattered legs.

"Lev! Get the girls to the Charger!" I roared, handing Olivia and Sophie over to my trusted operative.

"Daddy!" Olivia finally screamed, her voice cracking after fourteen months of silence. "Daddy, don't leave us!"

The sound of her voice gave me a surge of power so immense it felt supernatural. "I'm right behind you, baby! Go with Lev!"

Lev carried the girls out into the rain, leaving me alone in the blood-stained cabin with Julian and the writhing Don Carmine.

Julian scrambled backward on his hands and knees, wiping blood from his nose, staring at me with pure terror as I closed the cabin door and locked it from the inside.

"Dom... Dom, please," Julian begged, his voice cracking. "We're family! Isabelle wouldn't want you to kill her brother! Think of Isabelle!"

"Isabelle is waiting for you in hell," I said coldly.

I walked over, grabbed Julian by his expensive sweater, and dragged him toward the open stern of the boat, where the dark, freezing waters of the East River churned beneath the propeller blades.

"Dom! No! NO! PLEASE!" Julian shrieked, kicking wildly.

I held him over the churning, icy water. "You made my daughters live in a nightmare for fourteen months. You made them think their father couldn't protect them."

"I'M SORRY! DOM, I'M SORRY!"

"I'm not," I said.

I dropped him straight into the rotating steel propellers of the twin V12 engines. A sickening crunch echoed through the night, followed by a spray of red foam that was quickly washed away by the black river currents.

I turned slowly toward Don Carmine, who was shivering in a pool of his own blood on the floor.

I stepped over to the old man, kneeling beside him, pulling him up by his lapels. "Carmine. You and the Council thought you could tear my life apart."

"Dominic..." Carmine gasped, his face pale from shock and blood loss. "Kill me... and the entire Council will go to war with you... you can't fight all five families..."