Chapter 3: The Raze Code
1428 Words
Chapter 3: The Raze Code
The flash drive sat on the table like a loaded gun.
Dante Vale hadn’t moved in twenty minutes. His laptop was open, the screen humming quietly, but he hadn't yet clicked play on the decrypted folder Isabelle had given him.
Across the room, Isabelle sat on the arm of a leather chair, sipping black coffee from a chipped mug. She hadn’t said much since handing over the drive. She didn’t need to.
She already knew what was inside.
“Open it,” she said at last, her voice soft but firm.
Dante glanced at her. “You just handed me what could dismantle your brother’s empire. I need a minute.”
“You’ve had twenty.”
His jaw clenched.
She wasn’t wrong.
He tapped the trackpad, opening the folder labeled:
> R.CODE – CONFIDENTIAL
PASSWORD: RAZE2020
“Creative,” he muttered.
“I didn’t choose it,” Isabelle replied flatly. “He did.”
Dante entered the password. A second folder opened: dozens of videos, PDFs, and scanned documents—bank transfers, hit orders, blackmail dossiers.
But one folder stood out.
> ARCHIVES: M.VALE
His blood turned to ice.
Matteo.
Dante opened it.
There were six files inside. Each dated within a month before Matteo’s death.
He clicked the first video.
---
The screen flickered to life.
A dim, cold room. Concrete walls. One chair in the center. A man—young, bloodied, barely conscious.
Matteo.
Dante’s throat tightened.
A figure entered the frame.
Victor Raze.
He walked around Matteo like a wolf, tapping a baton against his palm.
“You know why this is happening,” Victor said.
Matteo didn’t answer. His mouth was swollen. One eye nearly shut.
Victor crouched in front of him.
“You thought you could move product without my blessing? You thought loyalty was optional?”
Matteo coughed blood. “I didn’t sell anything. I was protecting someone.”
Victor grabbed him by the chin, forced his head up. “Who?”
Matteo hesitated. Then: “Isabelle.”
---
Dante froze.
So did Isabelle.
She dropped the mug. It shattered against the floor.
“No,” she whispered. “That’s not possible.”
But the video didn’t lie.
Victor let go of Matteo’s face.
“Wrong answer.”
He stepped back—and snapped his fingers.
A guard entered with a cattle prod.
The screen cut to black.
---
Dante slammed the laptop shut.
His hands were shaking. His mind spiraling.
Matteo had died protecting her.
All this time, he thought Matteo had been a pawn in Victor’s power games. But this? This was different.
“Isabelle,” he said, voice low and dangerous. “Why was my brother protecting you?”
She didn’t answer.
She had turned pale, her lips trembling. She stumbled backward until she hit the wall, eyes wide.
“I didn’t know,” she said hoarsely. “I swear to God, I didn’t know he—”
“Don’t lie to me.” Dante’s voice rose. “What was Matteo to you?!”
Tears welled in her eyes. “He was—he was supposed to help me escape. I was just a kid. Seventeen. Victor locked me up after I refused an arranged engagement. Matteo found out.”
Dante’s fists clenched. “Why would he help you?”
Isabelle looked away.
“I wrote to him. Through his contact. A girl I knew. He was… kind. Said he understood what it was like to be used as a pawn.”
Silence fell.
Dante sat down slowly, like his legs could no longer hold him.
“All these years… I thought Victor killed Matteo to send a message.”
“He did,” Isabelle said quietly. “But not just to you. To me.”
---
Dante pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes.
“You didn’t tell me this earlier.”
“Because I didn’t want you to hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” he growled. “I hate that I almost trusted you.”
Her voice cracked. “Do you think I asked for this?”
“You think that makes it easier?”
“I didn’t know your brother would die because of me—”
“But he did. And I’ve lived every goddamn day trying to kill the man who did it.”
“And now you can.”
---
She dropped another document on the table.
A printed scan of a wire transfer—two million dollars—from Raze Industries to an unlisted offshore account.
The recipient: L. Moretti.
Dante’s eyes snapped up. “Luca?”
“Victor paid him to keep quiet,” Isabelle said, hollow. “And to keep me in line.”
Dante stared at the paper. He didn’t speak. Didn’t breathe.
“You were supposed to be arranged to Luca,” he said finally.
“Yes. But I refused. That was the first time Victor locked me away.”
“And when Luca found out you’d asked Matteo for help…”
“He agreed to pretend nothing happened. In exchange for money. Power. And me.”
---
Dante stood so fast the chair scraped the floor.
“You’ve been used by every man in your life,” he said bitterly.
“Not you,” she whispered.
He turned away, pacing to the window, hands in his hair. “No. I just dragged you out of a burning wedding and locked you in a cage.”
Her voice was soft. “I don’t feel like a hostage.”
He turned back toward her.
They stared at each other for a long, hard moment. No heat. Just silence. Grief. Fractured trust.
Then Dante said, “You should.”
---
Later That Night
Dante sat alone in the kitchen, staring at the drive again.
Everything was unraveling. The woman he thought he might use was the reason Matteo was dead—but also the only reason he died trying to save someone.
Matteo had been brave.
Kind.
Good.
Something Dante could never be again.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway.
He looked up as Isabelle entered, now wearing a soft grey sweater and leggings, barefoot, quiet.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said.
“You shouldn’t be walking around.”
“I’m not going to run.”
He nodded, silent.
She sat across from him. “You want to hate me. I can feel it.”
“I don’t want to,” he murmured.
“But you do.”
He looked at her. “You didn’t kill him.”
“No. But he’s dead because of me.”
They were quiet.
Then Isabelle said, “There’s one more file you haven’t opened.”
He raised a brow.
“Top-level encrypted. Took me weeks to crack it.”
She slid her phone across the table. On it: a single video.
> Project: CODE RAZE
---
They watched together.
Victor’s face appeared, seated in his study.
“Final phase is in motion,” he said. “Once the Bellini alliance is dissolved, I’ll own the ports, the product, the South docks… and my sister will be delivered to Moretti within the month.”
Dante leaned forward. “What the hell is this?”
Victor continued: “Dante Vale will come for blood. That’s expected. That’s why I’ve left him the trail. Let him chase it. Let him bleed. When he’s close enough, we end him. For good.”
Isabelle’s hands clenched.
“He planned this,” she whispered. “Even the ambush.”
Victor’s final words echoed:
> “Sometimes, to bait a beast, you feed it hope.”
The screen went dark.
---
Dante stood slowly.
“He was never trying to kill you that night.”
“No,” Isabelle said, hollow. “He was using me as bait.”
---
At Midnight
Dante couldn’t sleep.
He stood on the balcony, shirtless, smoke curling from a forgotten cigarette between his fingers. The city was alive in the distance, but he only saw ghosts.
Matteo.
Victor.
Luca.
And now… Isabelle.
Behind him, she stepped outside quietly. Wrapped in a blanket. Hair tousled.
“I can go,” she said softly.
Dante didn’t turn. “No.”
“I’m dangerous to you.”
“You’re already in this.”
She stood beside him. Neither spoke.
Then Dante said, “Matteo died for you.”
She nodded, tears glinting in her lashes. “Then I’ll help you finish what he started.”
He looked at her.
And for the first time… he believed her.
- Writer
