Chapter 10 - Balance RestoredVictor Vance staggered backward, dropping his weapon as he collapsed heavily onto the concrete floor, clutching his shoulder.
Mateo stood by the smoking door frame, having calmly disabled Vance’s enforcers in a flurry of precise, lethal crossfire before they could react. The remaining mercenaries dropped their weapons instantly, raising their hands as Damian’s own reinforcement teams poured through the breaches from the upper catwalks.
Paul Mercer dropped to his knees, weeping hysterically as federal sirens began wailing in the distance, rapidly approaching the Ravenswood plant.
Silence fell over the command center, broken only by the steady hum of the server racks.
Damian lowered his weapon and walked slowly toward Emma. He looked down at her—the woman in the clearance-rack black dress, barefoot, disheveled, yet completely unfazed.
"You realize," Damian said, a slow, genuine smile breaking across his hardened face, "that by broadcasting federal evidence of money laundering to every agency in the city, you just blew up my entire financial network too."
Emma looked up at him, her eyes bright and defiant. "Then I suggest you hire a better forensic accountant to help you rebuild it, Mr. Moretti."
Damian laughed—a deep, rich sound that seemed entirely out of place in a mafia bunker. He reached out, gently taking the encrypted flash drive from her hand, and pocketed it.
May you like
"Consider yourself hired, Miss Hayes," Damian said softly. "Double your salary, full security detail, and no more clearance-rack dresses."
As the heavy sirens converged outside and federal agents swarmed the facility, Emma Hayes turned away from the wreckage of her old life, knowing one absolute truth: the numbers didn't lie, and neither did her future.
