flash
Michael’s words hung in the sterile air of the hallway, heavy as wet lead. A sedative. In an estate guarded like a nuclear silo, someone had slipped a chemical compound into the bloodstream of a quiet, unassuming housemaid, and my security network had treated it like a ghost walking through walls. / Chapter 15 / 20

Chapter 15 - The Ultimatum“You look tired, Victor,” I said, keeping my pistol raised and locked squarely on his chest as I stepped further into the dim garage. “Your federal friends must not treat their VIP prisoners very well.”

Kane let out a cold, dry chuckle, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets with chilling composure.

“Friends? In my line of work, Moretti, there are no friends. Only temporary accomplices,” Kane replied, pacing slowly in a circle around the vintage car. “You think you won today because you captured a flash drive and a few corrupt politicians panicked. But you missed the bigger picture.”

“Enlighten me.”

“That drive contains data on international syndicates far larger than anything Chicago has ever seen. Syndicates that don't care about dock leases or local turf wars,” Kane stopped, his eyes narrowing. “If you hand over the drive and the girl, I walk away, and I burn the files connecting your father’s empire to my accounts. Your hands stay clean. Your legacy remains untouched.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then the federal transport carrying Claire Bennett and her daughter—which my second team intercepted ten minutes ago—meets a very unfortunate accident off the Lake Shore Drive bridge,” Kane smiled thinly.

My entire body went ice cold.

“You lied,” I whispered.

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The ink on the emergency audit report was barely dry when the secure terminal on my desk flashed a violent crimson. I hadn't slept in thirty-six hours, my eyes burning from staring at columns of ghost figures, duplicate invoices, and shell corporations linked to Dominic Rossi. But the red alert wasn’t from Rossi’s faction. It was an internal security flag originating from the estate’s main vault deep beneath the west wing.

The ink on the emergency audit report was barely dry when the secure ter...

The glass shattered into a thousand tiny diamonds on the marble, scattering the light from the chandeliers. The muffled laughter died instantly, replaced by a suffocating, heavy silence that crept outward from the grand staircase.

The glass shattered into a thousand tiny diamonds on the marble, scatter...

The heavy oak doors of my private study clicked shut behind us, locking out the clinical, terrifying silence of the kitchen. Evelyn Crane stood stiffly in front of my mahogany desk, her hands folded over her apron with the rigid precision of someone who had spent decades micromanaging every square inch of my estate. Behind her, Norah hovered near the doorway, clutching her clipboard like a shield.

The heavy oak doors of my private study clicked shut behind us, locking...

“I’m a businessman, Adrian. I don't lie; I negotiate with leverage.”

Before Kane could finish his sentence, I didn't hesitate. I didn't negotiate. I lunged forward across the hood of the Shelby, closing the distance between us in a fraction of a second.

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