Chapter 9 - The Betrayal Within
Before I could lean in to kiss her forehead, my phone vibrated violently in my jacket pocket.
It was Mateo.
I stepped out into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind me, and hit accept.
“Boss, we have a massive problem,” Mateo’s voice barked over the encrypted line, breathless and laced with panic.
“What is it? Did Moretti’s men counter-attack?”
“No,” Mateo said quickly. “It’s not Moretti. It’s inside our own house. One of our secure safehouses in Lincoln Park just went dark. And the financial database holding our offshore shell accounts... someone is currently downloading the entire ledger.”
My blood ran cold. The offshore accounts were the financial lifeblood of the syndicate—the very foundation that kept our businesses, our legal protection, and our political bribes functioning. If those files fell into federal hands, or worse, into Moretti’s possession, every single captain and soldier I commanded would be facing federal indictments within twenty-four hours.
“Who has the encryption keys to that server?” I demanded, marching toward the elevator.
“Only two people,” Mateo replied grimly. “You... and Julian Vance.”
Julian Vance.
My former financial advisor—a man I had trusted for a decade, a man who had vanished to the Cayman Islands six months ago after embezzling a minor sum, whom I had chosen to let go rather than execute because I thought he wasn't worth the bullet.
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He hadn't run away. He had gone underground, allied himself with Lorenzo Moretti, and waited for the exact moment I was distracted by a family tragedy to strike at the heart of my empire.
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