Chapter 22 - ASHES AND GHOSTS
By three in the morning, the rain had put out the smoldering ruins of the west wing, leaving behind the acrid stench of burned cedar, gunpowder, and melted lead. The east wing, fortified with steel-reinforced fire doors, remained structurally intact, serving as our temporary command center.
Elena refused hospital transport. Bolstered by painkillers and sheer maternal fury, she sat in a leather armchair in Vincent’s private study, a cold compress pressed against her bruised ribs. Across from her, I held Hope, who had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep after being fed.
“How did he bypass the exterior perimeter without tripping the silent silent alarm?” Vincent demanded, pacing before a whiteboard covered in floor plans and satellite maps. “Only four people possessed the master bypass sequence: myself, Matteo, Elena, and…”
He stopped dead in his tracks.
Elena lifted her chin, her gaze wavering. “And my father.”
The room fell into suffocating silence.
The alliance between Vincent Moretti and the Vance family had been sealed by their marriage, brokered years ago by Elena’s father, Marcus Vance—an elder statesman of the Commission who had supposedly retired to Florida two years prior.
“Marcus has been speaking to the Sterlings,” Elena whispered, her hands trembling as she looked down at the floor. “I found encrypted communications on his secondary server three weeks ago. I thought… God forgive me, Vincent, I thought he was just trying to negotiate trade routes. I didn't think he would sell out his own granddaughter!”
Vincent didn't yell. The silence that settled over him was far more terrifying than any roar of anger. He walked over to Daniel Bennett’s ledger, still resting on the mahogany desk, and flipped to the final annex.
“Your father didn't just sell Grace out tonight,” Vincent murmured, tracing a series of bank routing numbers Daniel had meticulously documented five years ago. “Marcus Vance was Julian Sterling’s silent investor from day one. It was Marcus who authorized the hit on Daniel Bennett to keep the harbor smuggling lanes under Sterling control.”
I gasped, pressing a hand to my mouth. Daniel hadn't just been betrayed by Julian; he had been sacrificed by the very men sitting at the highest table of the syndicate.
“Then Marcus knows where Julian took Grace,” I said, stepping forward. “If they've been partners for years, Marcus is the key to Julian's fallback location.”
Vincent reached into the gun locker embedded in the wall and pulled out two suppressed tactical pistols, checking the slides with clinical precision.
“Marcus Vance isn't in Florida,” Vincent said chillingly. “My trackers pinged his private jet landing at an airfield outside Long Island ninety minutes ago. He thinks Julian has already secured total leverage over me. He thinks he's coming to claim the crown.”
Vincent cocked the hammer back.
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“Let’s go welcome my father-in-law home.”
***
