Chapter 171: Chapter 171: She Walked Into the Devil’s Hands

Before Mark’s driver could even slam his foot onto the brakes, the car swerved to the left, cutting them off entirely and forcing his car to screech to a violent, smoking halt.

BANG! BANG!

The deafening roar of gunshots shattered the quiet evening. Yet, inside the blockaded car, there was no panic. No one scrambled, and no one tried to flee. They sat entirely still, bathed in the dark shadows of the tinted windows, waiting.

Believing they had successfully paralyzed their targets, the armed mercenaries stepped out of their vehicles. They walked closer to the car, weapon barrels raised, completely ready to force the doors open and drag Mark out into the night.

But the moment one of the men aggressively yanked the door open, expecting to find a defenseless Mark, the trap snapped shut.

A deafening shot fired from inside the cabin. A bullet tore straight through the lead mercenary, and he dropped dead instantly onto the asphalt.

Before the remaining gunmen could even process what had happened, the surrounding darkness erupted with the heavy sound of marching boots and cocked weapons. Out from the blind spots of the road, dozens of Matteo’s elite guards materialized, completely surrounding the ambushers and cutting off every single escape route.

The car door swung open fully. The men had been expecting Mark, but the figure who stepped out into the dim light of the highway was entirely different.

It was Matteo. His expression was deadpan, radiating a lethal aura that froze the air. And stepping out right behind him, a smoking gun held securely in his grip, was Tony.

Hidden a safe distance back, Iris had personally followed her mercenaries to the scene, desperate to witness Mark’s capture with her own eyes. But the moment she saw Tony standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the devil himself, her face turned stark white.

"You!" Iris shrieked, pointing a trembling finger as she stumbled out of her cover. "You are a betrayer!"

Realizing they were completely outmatched and staring down the barrel of a massacre, the remaining gunmen immediately dropped their weapons. They fell to their knees in unison, raising their hands and begging desperately for mercy from the mafia boss.

Matteo didn’t even grant them a glance. His cold eyes locked onto the hysterical woman. "Bring her forward," he commanded quietly.

Without hesitation, two of Matteo’s men lunged into the shadows, grabbing Iris by her arms and dragging her kicking and screaming to the front of the vehicle, forcing her to stand before Matteo.

But Iris refused to keep her mouth shut. Writhing against the guards’ grip, she bared her teeth at Tony. "You promised me! You promised me that it was going to be Mark and Charles inside this car! You lied to me! I thought we were on the same side!"

Tony looked down at her, his face a flawless mask of indifference. "Quiet," he said, his voice deadly calm. "Maybe you forgot what I told you in the parking lot. I told you that going after Mark was a surefire way to get yourself killed. I tried to warn you in my own little way, but you just wouldn’t listen."

"Matteo, he’s a traitor!" Iris yelled, turning her desperate, venomous gaze toward the boss. "He took my money! He promised to hand Mark over to me! Don’t trust him, he’s only standing next to you right now because he got scared and turned his back on me! But he’s a liar!"

A dark, mocking chuckle rumbled in Matteo’s chest. "You are incredibly desperate, Iris. So desperate that you can’t even recognize your enemies when they are standing right in front of you. You’ve allowed yourself to be so blinded by jealousy that you’re entirely incapable of seeing the truth."

Matteo took a slow, intimidating step closer, towering over her. "You wanted to kidnap Mark? Why? He has never done a single thing to you. When I started dating Adrian, I met him single. It’s not like the two of you were together, yet you chose to never back down. You refused to just leave us alone."

He leaned in, his voice dropping into a chilling whisper. "Right now, if I killed you on this asphalt, the only thing it would do is hurt Adrian, because he already pleaded with me not to harm you. But don’t mistake his mercy for my weakness. Every single discussion you had with Tony, I knew about it. Not halfway through, but from the very beginning."

Matteo glanced briefly at Tony before looking back at her terrified face. "Maybe you don’t understand who Tony really is. He is a man who answers to no one, a man who stands entirely on his own, yet he chose to stay under my command. I didn’t assign him to be Mark’s personal bodyguard. He chose that position himself, because he saw every ounce of pain Mark went through four years ago when he was kidnapped. And yet, here you are, trying to repeat the same history."

Iris’s breath hitched, the sheer gravity of her mistake finally crashing down on her.

"If I execute you here," Matteo continued smoothly, "by tomorrow morning, people will start spinning different stories about me, calling me a monster. They won’t know that you are the real devil who dared to trespass over my boundaries. Since you love the idea of kidnapping so much, I am going to kidnap you. I will hold you, and I will make your father beg on his knees until he realizes exactly what kind of monster of a daughter he raised."

Matteo turned his back to her, dismissing her existence entirely. "Take her."

As the guards tightly pinned her arms and began dragging her away toward one of their armored vehicles, Iris’s arrogant facade completely shattered. Tears of genuine terror flooded her eyes as she thrashed against her restraints, screaming into the empty night.

"Matteo, please! I’m begging you! Matteo! Please forgive me... Don’t let my father know about this, Matteo!" Iris begged, her voice cracking with desperation.

But Matteo didn’t even look back. Her pleas fell on entirely deaf ears.

Instead, he turned his lethal gaze toward the trembling gunmen still kneeling on the asphalt. "You were all so desperate for money that you actually accepted a contract from her," Matteo said, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying growl. "Knowing exactly who I am, and knowing that Mark is my brother, you still dared to come out here and point guns at my car?"

"Mercy, Boss! We didn’t know the full story! Please, have mercy!" the gunmen cried out, desperately bowing their heads to the ground.

"I won’t let you waste another second of my time," Matteo cut them off flatly. "I have someone very important waiting for me at home." He turned to Tony, nodding toward the kneeling men. "Give them the exact punishment they deserve."

Tony nodded, his grip steady on his weapon. "Alright. Go on, Boss. I’ll handle it."

With that, Matteo slid back into the car and ordered the convoy to move. Tony remained behind to handle the mercenaries, while another armored vehicle carrying a tearful, captive Iris followed closely behind as they headed home.

In reality, Iris had been trapped in a game she never...