Chapter 4 - The Betrayal Inside the Betrayal
Alex called Melissa.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Roman watched from across the kitchen.
“Don’t.”
“She’s frightened.”
“She’s compromised.”
“She’s twenty-four.”
“She framed you for a federal crime.”
“Because someone threatened her.”
“You don’t know that.”
Alex held up the message.
“She said he made her.”
Roman’s expression remained cold.
“People lie when they’re afraid.”
“So do powerful men when they want control.”
Silence.
Roman nodded once.
“Fair.”
Alex had expected anger.
Instead, he handed her another phone.
“Call her from this.”
Melissa answered on the fourth ring.
“Hello?”
“Melissa.”
A sob.
“Oh God.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Did Preston threaten you?”
Silence.
Then:
“They know about my brother.”
Alex remembered.
Melissa’s younger brother had struggled with gambling debt.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
Alex closed her eyes.
“Preston paid it?”
“No. Kensington did.”
Roman’s gaze sharpened.
Melissa continued.
“They said they’d have Evan arrested if I didn’t help.”
“What did you do?”
“I copied your badge. Your coat. I gave them your passwords.”
Alex’s chest tightened.
“The woman in the vault?”
“An actress.”
“Name.”
“I don’t know.”
“Melissa.”
“I swear.”
“Where are the original appraisal files?”
A pause.
“I kept copies.”
Roman straightened.
“Where?” Alex asked.
“I can’t say over the phone.”
“Meet me.”
“No.”
“Melissa—”
“I saw what they did to Mr. Levin.”
Alex froze.
Arthur Levin.
A provenance researcher at Sabbes.
He had supposedly died after falling from his apartment balcony three months earlier.
“What are you saying?”
“He found discrepancies.”
Melissa was crying now.
“He told Preston he was going to compliance. Two days later, he was dead.”
Alex looked at Roman.
Even he had gone still.
“Melissa, listen to me. You need protection.”
“Not police.”
“Why?”
“Because Kensington has people everywhere.”
Roman quietly shook his head.
Alex understood.
Do not promise anything.
“Tell me where you are.”
“I’ll send coordinates.”
The line died.
Twenty minutes later, coordinates arrived.
A parking garage in Queens.
Roman said, “No.”
Alex folded her arms.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You said you didn’t want obedience.”
“I’ve reconsidered.”
“Too late.”
Roman stared at her.
Alex stared back.
Daniel coughed discreetly.
Roman looked at him.
“Something amusing?”
“Not remotely.”
Forty minutes later, three SUVs entered Queens.
Melissa was supposed to be on level five.
She wasn’t.
Alex found her purse first.
Then blood.
A small smear beside a concrete pillar.
“Melissa!”
Roman caught Alex before she ran forward.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved between parked vehicles.
A sound came from behind a Mercedes.
A whimper.
Melissa was crouched on the ground, shaking.
Alive.
Alex rushed to her.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not mine.”
Melissa pointed.
Twenty feet away lay a man in a gray coat.
Unconscious.
Daniel checked him.
“Breathing.”
Roman crouched.
“Who is he?”
Melissa stared at him.
“He tried to grab me.”
“And the blood?”
“He hit his head when somebody attacked him.”
“Somebody?”
Melissa looked at Roman.
“One of your men.”
Roman’s face changed.
“My men?”
“He said Mr. Costa wanted me brought in quietly.”
Roman turned to Daniel.
Daniel was already checking the unconscious man.
Then he found something.
A Costa Maritime security credential.
Roman took it.
The name read:
Anthony Velez.
Daniel swore.
“You know him?” Alex asked.
Roman stood.
“He worked for me eight years.”
Melissa began crying harder.
Roman looked toward the ramps.
“Move. Now.”
They barely reached the SUVs before gunfire cracked through the garage.
Roman pushed Alex behind an engine block.
“Stay down.”
Chaos exploded.
Tires screamed.
Glass shattered.
Daniel’s men returned fire toward the upper ramp.
Alex covered Melissa’s head.
Roman stayed between them and the shooters.
A bullet struck the pillar beside his shoulder.
“Roman!”
He turned.
That instant saved him.
Another shot tore through his jacket instead of his chest.
Roman fired once toward the darkness.
Then the attackers fled.
Within ninety seconds, the garage was silent again.
Roman leaned against the SUV.
Alex saw blood.
“Your arm.”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s bleeding.”
“So dramatic.”
“You were shot.”
“Grazed.”
Alex ripped a strip from the lining of her evening wrap and pressed it against his upper arm.
Roman looked down at her hands.
“You’re ruining your dress.”
“I hated this dress an hour ago.”
His eyes met hers.
Something passed between them.
Then Melissa whispered:
“I have the files.”
Everyone turned.
From beneath her coat, she pulled a tiny external drive.
“All of it.”
Back at the penthouse, Daniel decrypted the drive.
Transactions.
Fake appraisals.
Shell companies.
Invoices.
Preston’s instructions.
Charles Kensington’s authorization.
Millions moving through art purchases.
Alex should have felt triumphant.
Instead, Roman suddenly reached past Daniel and froze the screen.
One transfer.
Costa Maritime Holdings.
$8.4 million.
Alex slowly looked at him.
Roman’s face had become stone.
“What is that?”
He didn’t answer.
She stood.
“You told me Preston was laundering money through your enemies.”
“He was.”
“Then why is your company receiving eight million dollars?”
Roman stared at the transfer.
Daniel looked sick.
Finally Roman said:
“I never authorized that.”
Alex laughed once.
Bitterly.
“Of course.”
Roman looked at her.
“Alex.”
“No.”
She backed away.
“Preston told me you were using me. Melissa told me not to trust you. And now your company is in the files.”
“I didn’t know.”
“That’s exactly what I said about my signature.”
That silenced him.
Alex picked up her coat.
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere that doesn’t belong to either man lying to me.”
Roman stepped forward.
Then stopped himself.
He did not block her.
That mattered.
But not enough.
Alex reached the elevator.
Roman spoke behind her.
“If you walk out, take Daniel.”
“No.”
“Alex.”
She turned.
His expression was no longer commanding.
It was worried.
“Someone inside my organization betrayed me.”
She stared at him.
“And until you know who, Roman, that makes you just as dangerous to me as Preston.”
The elevator doors opened.
Alex stepped inside.
Just before they closed, Roman said:
“You’re right.”
Alex looked up.
May you like
Roman’s next words followed her down.
“And that terrifies me.”
