Chapter 13 - Flight to the Windy City
The private jet sliced through the clouds above the Rocky Mountains, heading east toward O’Hare International.
Alexander sat in the leather cabin seat, staring down at the glowing screen of his tablet. Beside him, Aura was fast asleep, wrapped in a comfortable wool blanket, her head resting softly against his shoulder. He had told her they were taking a spontaneous weekend trip to visit some old friends, shielding her innocent eyes from the dark reality that stalked them.
Parker sat across the aisle, his laptop open, displaying a web of interconnected corporate shells leading straight from Zurich to a nondescript logistics warehouse on Chicago’s South Side.
“The warehouse is registered under a freight company called Vanguard Maritime,” Parker said, typing furiously. “It’s the exact same shipping line Marcus Thorne used to funnel hardware out of the Pacific Northwest. If Julian Moretti is right, this is where the Syndicate’s core servers are housed.”
“And that’s where we’ll find the master ledger,” Alexander said, his jaw tightening.
Two hours later, the jet touched down on a private tarmac blanketed by a chilly Chicago drizzle. Waiting beside a black armored town car was a tall, sharp-faced man in a tailored obsidian suit—Julian Moretti, looking every bit the untouchable legend the streets used to fear, though his eyes held the quiet warmth of a man who had traded his crown for peace.
Julian stepped forward as Alexander opened the car door, helping lift a sleeping Aura into the back seat where Sarah Moretti was waiting with a soft smile and a warm jacket.
“She’s beautiful, Alex,” Sarah whispered, adjusting the blanket over Aura’s shoulders with the practiced gentleness of a mother who understood what it meant to fight for a child.
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Julian turned to Alexander, extending a strong, calloused hand. They shook firmly—two men forged in entirely different fires, now bound by the same fierce, unyielding instinct.
“My people have the Vanguard warehouse surrounded,” Julian said quietly as they stepped away from the car. “No police, no federal interference. Just us and the men who think they can step into my old city and threaten a child.”
