Chapter 7 - THE DINNER OF ENEMIES
The meeting took place inside a private dining room overlooking the Chicago River.
Valdemar believed he was meeting Gabriel alone.
He was wrong.
Deari had no intention of storming the building.
Kalista had proposed something better.
“Let them betray each other.”
Using information from the ledger, she created evidence suggesting Gabriel had been secretly moving Valdemar’s money into Castellano-controlled accounts.
Then they made certain Valdemar received it.
At 8:17 p.m., Gabriel entered the restaurant.
Valdemar was already waiting.
Deari listened through a microphone planted beneath the table.
Kalista sat beside him in a surveillance van.
“You’re enjoying this,” he said.
“A little.”
“You’re frightening.”
“You run a criminal syndicate.”
“And yet somehow I feel judged.”
Inside the restaurant, Valdemar placed Kalista’s fabricated statements on the table.
Gabriel laughed.
“You believe these?”
“I believe numbers.”
“So does the woman.”
Silence.
Then Valdemar asked, “Where is she?”
“With Deari.”
“Then she’s more dangerous than I thought.”
Kalista glanced at Deari.
He looked almost proud.
The conversation deteriorated.
Gabriel accused Valdemar of becoming weak.
Valdemar accused Gabriel of planning a takeover.
Then Gabriel revealed something unexpected.
“The ledger was supposed to reach Deari.”
Kalista stiffened.
Deari leaned toward the speaker.
Gabriel continued.
“I needed him distracted.”
Valdemar sounded furious.
“You had O’Donnell steal it?”
“I had someone leave the route open.”
Kalista suddenly understood.
The poorly secured office.
The conveniently absent guards.
The escape path.
She had never outsmarted Gabriel.
He had used her.
“Why?” Valdemar demanded.
“Because while Deari was protecting her, I moved the real money.”
Deari’s expression changed.
Leonardo immediately began typing.
“Where?”
Then Gabriel answered for them.
“Castellano Foundation.”
Deari stood.
His family’s charitable foundation controlled nearly $200 million in legitimate assets.
Hospitals.
Housing programs.
Scholarships.
Gabriel had been using the war to steal it.
Leonardo swore.
“We need to move.”
Deari stopped him.
“No.”
“What?”
“Listen.”
Inside the restaurant, Valdemar had drawn a weapon.
“You used me.”
Gabriel laughed.
“You were useful.”
A gunshot sounded.
Then another.
The microphone went dead.
Deari’s team entered.
They found Valdemar wounded.
Gabriel had escaped.
Again.
Valdemar looked at Deari from the floor.
“You should have killed him when you had the chance.”
Deari crouched.
“So should you.”
Valdemar laughed weakly.
Then looked at Kalista.
“Your brother begged me to let you live.”
Kalista froze.
“What?”
“Thomas knew Gabriel would come for you if he believed you understood the accounts.”
Valdemar coughed.
“He offered me the ledger’s encryption key in exchange for your safety.”
“Where is it?”
Valdemar smiled.
“He never gave it to me.”
Then his expression changed.
“Because he gave it to you.”
Kalista stared.
“No.”
“Think.”
Thomas had left her almost nothing.
His apartment had been emptied.
His computer destroyed.
His belongings seized.
Except—
Kalista touched the necklace beneath her shirt.
A small silver disk.
Thomas had given it to her on her twenty-ninth birthday.
Deari looked at it.
Kalista removed the pendant.
There were numbers engraved around its edge.
Not decoration.
A key.
They returned to the safe house.
Kalista entered the sequence into the ledger’s encrypted digital backup.
A hidden directory opened.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Deari stared.
Thomas had collected everything.
Payments.
Photographs.
Recordings.
Names.
Enough evidence to destroy Gabriel’s network permanently.
Then one final file opened automatically.
A live transfer notice.
$187,000,000.
Destination: Cayman Islands.
Completion time: 6:00 a.m.
Kalista checked the clock.
2:41.
May you like
They had three hours and nineteen minutes.
And if Gabriel completed the transfer, he would disappear with enough money to build an empire anywhere in the world.
