MATTEO'S POV
The cigarette dangled between my fingers, glowing orange at the tip as I brought it to my lips. I inhaled deeply, letting the burn settle in my lungs before exhaling a thick cloud of smoke into the night air. The streets were quiet except for the occasional honk in the distance. The city always had life, even in the dead of night, but here, outside Damiano’s high-end apartment building, everything was still.
The silence before the storm.
I took another drag, my fingers tapping lightly against the leather steering wheel as I leaned back into my seat. The weight of the gun in my holster was familiar, grounding.
Damiano.
I wasn’t going to kill him. Yet.