Chapter 5 - THE PUPPET MASTER"Put the gun down, Ivy," District Attorney Hayes said softly, his tone echoing the false warmth of a father speaking to a misbehaving child. "You don't know how to use that thing, and even if you did, my men are standing outside that door."
I kept the revolver leveled at his chest, my arms trembling violently, but my boots remained planted firmly on the cold concrete floor. "Move away from him, Hayes. Now."
Carmine let out a ragged cough, blood speckling his lips. He lifted his heavy eyelids, looking at me with a mixture of profound relief and deep agony. "Ivy... I told you... to run..."
"And I don't take orders from men who get shot for me," I retorted through clenched teeth, keeping my eyes locked on Hayes.
Hayes chuckled softly, a low, smooth sound that made my skin crawl. He lowered his silenced weapon slightly, resting it casually at his side, as if I posed no real threat to him at all.
"You really have your father's defiance, Ivy," Hayes said, pacing slowly in front of the bleeding mafia boss. "Victor Vance was the same way. Thought he could outsmart everyone. Thought he could hide three hundred million dollars in a blind trust and take the secret to his grave."
"You killed my father," I stated, the realization hitting me like a cold wave.
"Victor was greedy," Hayes replied without a shred of remorse. "He built a criminal empire using my political protection, and when it came time to split the pie, he tried to cut me out. He sent your mother away with the account keys embedded in your genetic code—a personalized biometric encryption system that only responds to your DNA."
The puzzle pieces were crashing together, forming a horrifying picture.
My father hadn't abandoned us out of cruelty. He had hidden us to keep the vault key safe from the corrupt system. My mother had changed our names and dragged us into a life of quiet poverty, enduring a brutal battle with cancer without ever touching a dime of that blood money, just to keep me hidden from Marcus Hayes.
"And then you found me," I said, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper.
"The Morettis found you," Hayes corrected, gesturing vaguely toward the city. "They monitored the hospital records when your mother died. They recognized the Vance family DNA marker in your medical charts. They sent Rocco into Carmine's estate to extract a blood sample from you."
A sickening chill ran down my spine. Rocco hadn't just been attacking me in the dark out of brutal lust. He had been trying to cut me—to steal my blood for Hayes and the Morettis.
"Carmine ruined that plan when he intervened," Hayes continued, his dark eyes flashing with anger as he glared down at the wounded mob boss. "Carmine thought he was playing the honorable savior. He didn't realize that by protecting you, he was declaring war on me."
"He's worth ten of you," I spat.
"He's a dying dinosaur," Hayes sneered. "And now, Ivy, you're going to do something for me. See that laptop on the crate over there?"
He gestured toward a rugged military-grade laptop sitting on an overturned wooden shipping box in the corner. The screen was glowing, displaying a complex biometric scanning interface.
"Press your thumb onto that scanner," Hayes instructed, his voice turning cold and sharp as steel. "Transfer the three hundred million into my offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. Do it, and I let Carmine live. Refuse, and I put a bullet through his heart right now, then take your thumb by force."
He raised his gun again, aiming it precisely between Carmine's eyes.
Carmine looked up at me, his face pale from blood loss, but his dark eyes burned with fierce, unrelenting strength. "Don't do it, Ivy," he grunted, his voice steady despite the pain. "If you give him the money... he kills us both... He leaves no witnesses..."
"Shut up!" Hayes barked, cocking the hammer of his gun. "You have five seconds, Ivy. Five... four..."
My mind raced. Carmine was right. Hayes was a ruthless politician; he would never leave two people alive who knew the truth about his corruption. If I gave him the money, we were dead. If I refused, Carmine died instantly.
I had to change the rules of the game.
"Okay! Okay! I'll do it!" I cried out, dropping my hands slightly and stepping toward the laptop.
Hayes smiled, a victorious grin spreading across his face. "Wise girl."
I walked slowly past Carmine, my heart hammering against my ribs. As I passed, Carmine’s hand reached out, catching the hem of my coat, squeezing it once—a silent, subtle signal.
I reached the crate, placing my right thumb onto the glowing green glass of the biometric reader.
The screen flashed blue: GENETIC MATCH CONFIRMED. ACCESS GRANTED. FUNDS AVAILABLE: $312,450,000.00.
"Yes!" Hayes gasped, stepping closer to the screen, his eyes greedily soaking in the astronomical figure. "Initiate the wire transfer!"
"There's just one problem, Mr. District Attorney," I whispered.
Hayes frowned, looking up from the screen. "What?"
"My father left one extra security protocol."
I didn't press the transfer button. Instead, I smashed my hand down on the red emergency override key on the keyboard—the system purge function Carmine had explained to me in the G-Wagon's hidden files.
The screen flashed bright red: SYSTEM PURGE INITIATED. ALL FUNDS DIVERTED TO FEDERAL ASSET FORFEITURE DIVISION. LOCATION BROADCASTING TO FBI CRIME DIVISION... NOW.
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Hayes’s face drained of all color. "What did you do?!" he roared, swinging his gun toward my head.
Before he could pull the trigger, Carmine lunged forward from the floor like a wounded panther, wrapping his broad arms around Hayes's legs and crashing the high-ranking official hard onto the stone floor.
