They lost their king, Joseph, and the princess, Isabella. And as for Damon, he lost everything he ever held dear.

Ever since that day, Damon took over the post as the king and he vowed to avenge Joseph and Isabella’s death. He also made another vow, he would never fall in love again. Love was a weakness and there was no room for weakness when you live in a world like his.

“If you’re finished with that paperwork, your presence is required downstairs, your grace,” Adrian said again.

“You’re trying to be funny, aren’t you?” Damon scoffed and closed the stack of files on his desk.

“Calling you ‘boss’ is a cliche, don’t you think? I’m trying to be more creative here.” Adrian replied.

“Fuck off, Adrian.”

“I will, I’m just supposed to let you know that everything’s ready. They’re waiting for you.”

Damon knew exactly what that meant. He buttoned his suit and stood up from his chair. With a menacing grin playing on his face, Damon strode out of the study and headed to the basement. Adrian was following close behind him, but he didn’t go into the basement. Damon was going into battle and the advisor wasn’t needed on the battlefield. Adrian stayed outside and he was pacing nervously.

Damon pushed the metal doors behind the wooden door to the room in the basement. This was a special room built under the estate that resembled a war bunker. It was a room meant for protection, but ever since he took over, Damon turned the room into a torture chamber for his enemies. And today, the room was housing two Maranzano boys that Damon’s guys picked up last night.

“Boss,” Liam, Damon’s number one right hand man greeted him.

Damon nodded at Liam and Liam pulled the black fabric covering the two Maranzano guys’ heads. They were both tied to a chair, their faces bruised and swollen, and so were their kneecaps.

“...P-please, Damon, please…” the guy on the left said. “It was my cousin’s idea. We had nothing to do with it,”

“Damon, it was five years ago. A lot of things had changed since then. We even gave up a lot of our New York territories to you,” the guy on the right said.

“You didn’t give it up, I took them,” Damon said curtly. He started pacing around the two guys and the one on the left closed his eyes in fear. He even smelled like pee as he had probably pissed himself last night.

“And you’re right, five years is a long time. I should probably let it go,” Damon said to the guy on the right. He swallowed hard and waited for Damon to continue. “Unfortunately, five years is not a long enough time for a vendetta,”

The two guys shuddered in fear as Damon took out a gun from his holster. Damon clicked the safety off and pointed the mouth between the two guys.