Chapter 7 - THE SPIDER'S WEB
Before I could demand another name from Victor, the sharp, shrill ring of the secure satellite phone on my desk pierced the air.
It wasn't a standard call. It was a restricted, encrypted line that only three people in the world possessed—my chief accountant, my head of security, and Marcus.
I snatched the receiver, my voice cold. "Report."
"Boss, we have a breach," Marcus’s voice barked through the speaker, frantic and breathless against the background roar of sirens and heavy gunfire. "We’re tracking the financial trail Victor Vance just gave us. Someone inside your New York office just wired ten million dollars to an offshore account linked to the surviving remnants of the Mendoza syndicate. The transfer was authorized using your personal master key."
My eyes locked onto Victor, then drifted back to Chloe. "Who authorized it?"
"It bears the digital signature of Julian Sterling," Marcus said.
Not Dr. Sterling. Julian Sterling—my chief legal counsel, my closest confidant for over a decade, the man who had managed my estate, my accounts, and my legal defenses while I was out waging a bloody war in the streets.
"Julian," I whispered, the betrayal tasting like ash in my mouth.
"He’s gone, boss," Marcus said grimly. "His penthouse in Manhattan is empty, and our scouts report he’s heading toward the private airstrip in Westhampton. He’s trying to flee the country."
I slammed the phone down onto the cradle. The pieces of the dark mosaic finally snapped together. Julian hadn't just been my lawyer; he was the corporate architect who had managed the syndicate's clean front while leaking information to the Mendozas. He was the one who had provided Isabella's schedule fourteen months ago, hoping that eliminating my family would cause me to overextend my criminal empire and leave the throne open for a hostile corporate takeover.
"Marcus," I roared into the intercom connected to the security grid. "Scramble the helicopter. Lock down every exit from Long Island to Manhattan. If Julian Sterling leaves American airspace, I want every asset he owns seized before the sun sets."
I turned around, my chest heaving with cold, lethal fury.
Victor Vance was already backing toward the door, holding his hands up. "Hey, Russo, I gave you the lead. I’m walking out of here, right?"
"Get out of my sight, Victor," I snarled. "If I ever see your face in New York again, I won't ask questions."
Victor didn't need to be told twice. He bolted out the door and down the stairs, his boots clattering against the marble until the front doors slammed shut.
That left only me, Rosa, and Chloe.
Chloe stood by the window, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her blue eyes watching me with a mixture of fear and profound sorrow. "So," she whispered. "Your own lawyer sold out your wife. The great Dominic Russo, undone not by a cartel, but by a suit sitting in a corner office."
"Shut up, Chloe," I snapped, striding toward her.
"No, I won't shut up!" she shouted, finally breaking, stepping right up to my chest and poking a finger against my lapel. "You spent fourteen months punishing the world for a crime your own inner circle committed! You destroyed lives, you terrorized neighborhoods, and you left your daughters to turn into ghosts because you were too busy playing God!"
Her words hit me like physical blows. Every accusation was true. I was a man built of violence, and my violence had killed Isabella just as surely as the bullets at that Queens intersection.
"What do you want me to do, Chloe?" I asked, my voice cracking, the iron facade finally crumbling into dust. "You want me to put a bullet in Julian’s head? Will that bring your family back? Will that give my girls their mother back?"
Chloe stopped. Her hand dropped from my chest, and the fierce anger in her eyes dissolved into a devastating, quiet grief.
May you like
"No," she whispered, her voice breaking. "Killing him won't bring anyone back. But running after him alone won't save your daughters either."
She turned away, walking toward the door. "Go catch your traitor, Dominic. But when you come back, you better decide whether you want to be a monster living in a mausoleum, or a father."
