For The Empire - Sempre

Prologue

A/N: This is the third book of the For The Empire series and not a standalone.

The prologue was written in Third Person POV but the rest of the book will be in First person POV

***Edit: Added song to chapter

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The putrid stench of stale urine and human feces burns his nose as he descends the long cement staircase. His shoes echo around him, adding to the musty, damp atmosphere in the dark basement as he makes his way to the end of the long hall, to the holding cell. Several men greet him silently as he passes by each one.

Their eyes avoid his cold and hardened gaze. Instead, he senses and sees the worried and fearful glances that come his way ever since he woke up in the hospital after the attempted assassination. He hears the hushed whispers and conversations spoken on his behalf. They wonder if he will ever remember who he was before he woke up, with little to no memory of his previous life.

Snippets of moments and memories return here and there, but most of it is a blank. All that matters is, the most important details are still there; the betrayals, the lies, and the all-consuming hate, for those who turned on Johnny and Timo, his mentor.

He's been waiting for almost four years for this day. In the beginning, he spent day after day searching and chasing down leads. The days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. But it was finally here—his moment of redemption. Well, at least one of them, but he knew this would be the most satisfying.

As he approaches, his second in command stops him before reaching the door. Adonis' hand grips onto his shoulder, firmly, to keep him from moving forward. Johnny clenches his jaw before sparing an uninterested glance at his friend.

"Don't do this." Adonis urges. "This is not who you are. You are not yourself."

Johnny grinds his teeth. "I am who I am supposed to be. You had no issue when I slaughtered the others. Why now?"

Adonis takes his time, putting his thoughts into words, knowing how quickly his boss's unrestrained temper erupts, leaving nothing but ash and death in its wake since his memory was gone. "Those men...they deserved what they got, no question. They sold their souls to Giovanni. But this...this is different, John Pa--" The ice-cold glare coming from Johnny stops him.

"Johnny, he's family."

Johnny shrugs out of Adonis' grip. "No. No, he's not, Donny. He stopped being family the moment he betrayed me when he betrayed Timo when he killed Tobias. When he let Giovanni's men kidnap and then kill Carmela."

He sidesteps Adonis and grips the handle to the door. "She would not want you to do this," Adonis states quietly behind him.

Johnny turns his head a fraction to eye Adonis over his shoulder. "She's not here, is she?" As much as Adonis wants him to remember her, he can't, or he won't let himself remember, not right now, not when he needs to finish this.

But the truth is, he fights to remember the woman who haunts his dreams, who enters his mind at random times throughout the day. Her visions bring a burning fire through him, but it always leaves him with a yearning and longing that he doesn't quite understand.

There's confusion as to who she is or was to him at times. A friend, a lover, an enemy. Her appearance changes between a caramel-haired woman and a raven-haired woman, but the eyes are always the same.

Johnny clears his head and sets his focus in place before he turns the handle and steps into the dimly lit room, followed by Adonis and a couple more of his men. The sound of a chain scraping against the cement floor comes from the far end of the small room. The room is illuminated in stark, fluorescent lighting when Johnny flips the switch on the wall.