Chapter 5 - The Midnight Ultimatum and the Unbreakable Pact
The encrypted line clicked dead, leaving a hollow, buzzing tone echoing in the subterranean bunker.
Alessandro Moretti stood frozen for three seconds, his jaw clenched so hard a muscle twitched violently along his cheekbone.
Arthur Vance looked at him, his face pale and drawn.
“Boss... you can't go to Long Island alone,” Arthur warned urgently.
“It’s a trap. Victor has a sniper team stationed at that terminal. He’s been waiting for an excuse to execute a hostile takeover of our freight lines using federal leverage.”
Moretti didn't answer immediately.
He reached down, picked up his heavy leather holster from the desk, and strapped it securely across his chest beneath the dark charcoal sweater, checking the magazine of his customized Sig Sauer with a sharp, mechanical click.
“I’m not going to negotiate with Victor,” Moretti said, his voice flat, absolute, and terrifyingly calm.
“I’m going to end him.”
“What about Grace?” Arthur asked.
“Victor wants her at the terminal. If we leave her here, she’ll try to follow us or escape. And if we take her with us, she’s right in the line of fire.”
Moretti paused, remembering the look of raw, unshielded grief in Grace Harper’s amber-brown eyes when she spoke of her missing sister.
She wasn't an operative.
She wasn't a spy.
She was just an older sister who had lost everything, thrown into a violent syndicate war she never wanted to fight—exactly the same way Moretti had lost his wife four years ago to a rigged car bomb meant for him.
“She stays in the mansion,” Moretti instructed, turning toward the heavy security door.
“Lock down the east wing. Double the guard rotation. And if I’m not back by 2:00 AM, Arthur... you take Grace and Sofia, put them on the private air strip in Westchester, and get them out of the country.”
“Boss—!”
“That’s an order, Arthur.”
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Without another word, Moretti turned and strode out of the bunker, his heavy footsteps echoing down the concrete corridor as he prepared to step into the freezing Manhattan night to settle a blood debt that had been twelve years in the making.
Upstairs in the nursery, Grace Harper was kneeling beside the pastel-pink rug, helping Sofia build a tall tower out of wooden blocks, completely unaware that the man who had locked her in the bedroom was currently driving out into a blizzard to save her life.
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