In the dim chamber, beads of blood dripped from his fingertips onto the Persian rug, just like that ruby at the auction years ago—shot through with a single bullet.
"Don't touch me." He sneered, pain splitting through his shoulder blades like shattered bone.
"You threw yourself onto the blade," I said, tearing open his shirt. My knuckles pressed into the flesh around the wound. "Mission failed. You deserved this."
Yet my hands were gentle—too gentle.
We had once been each other’s sharpest knives—twin brothers, both heirs, trained since childhood to kill one another. Only one could inherit the name “Ace.” But no one knew that when we locked eyes in the underground ring, the fire burning in our gaze wasn’t hatred—it was a flame ten years long and never extinguished.
Tonight was the family banquet. Everyone present.
The elder sat at the head table, smiling as he raised his glass: "Let’s play a game—find the necklace hidden in the whole roasted fish, and you’ll control the overseas routes."
Laughter rippled through the guests.
I knew that fish—the "Black Moon Heart" concealed inside had been stolen and replaced by a rival syndicate three days prior. And now, it matched the foreign shadow in my brother’s gastroscopy report.
I stared at him. He stared back.
In that same breath, we both understood: This wasn’t a game. It was a purge.
When the server brought the steaming fish, I suddenly stood and slapped the plate to the floor.
"Father," I smiled, voice cold as ice, "didn’t you teach us the rule? Dual Aces rule together—one falls, the other inherits automatically. So if he dies," I grabbed his wrist, pulling him close, "I won’t live either. Want to wipe out your bloodline?"
Silence swallowed the hall.
The elder slowly set down his glass. "You two… stand too close."
"Then cut one of us down," I whispered, leaning to his ear, lips grazing his lobe, "or let us burn to ash—together."
When the gunshot rang out, I threw myself over him.
Blood gushed from my shoulder. At last, his eyes turned red.
The cruelest plot wasn’t betrayal—it was forcing us to love so desperately, yet pretend indifference before our own kin.
On the bed, spent bullet casings scattered across the floor.
He bit my shoulder and asked, "Does it hurt?"
I said, "It hasn’t for a long time. Not since the day you took the first bullet for me."
Outside, flames lit up the sky.
Our era had only just begun.
FBI agent Aron Smith infiltrates a dangerous mafia wedding as part of a covert operation, disguised as a high-profile heir to the Camorra family. However, he is shocked to encounter Dawson Ciriaco, the man he thought he killed three years ago during a botched undercover mission. As the two navigate their dangerous game of trust, betrayal, and unresolved emotions, they uncover a vast conspiracy within the mafia, leading Aaron to choose between loyalty to his mission and his feelings for Dawson. In this high-stakes crime thriller, love and revenge collide as secrets from the past threaten their lives and the stability of the mafia empire .
