Chapter 7 - The Syndicate's Reckoning
The meeting point was an abandoned shipyard in Queens.
The rain had returned, slicking the concrete and masking the sound of footsteps.
I walked in alone, my hands raised to show I was unarmed.
Marcus Ashford stood in the center of the warehouse, flanked by twenty heavily armed guards. Coraline stood by his side, looking smug in a black trench coat.
Bound to a chair in the corner was Sarah, terrified but unharmed.
"Garrett Hail," Marcus boomed, his voice echoing in the cavernous space. "I thought you were smarter than this. Coming alone?"
"I don't need an army to make a deal, Marcus," I said calmly, stopping twenty feet away.
Coraline sneered. "Where is the bitch?"
"Safe. Where you will never find her."
Marcus stepped forward. "Then you have nothing to trade. Kill the sister."
"Wait!" I shouted, reaching slowly into my jacket.
The guards raised their weapons, red laser sights painting my chest.
I pulled out a thick envelope and tossed it onto the ground between us.
"What is this?" Marcus asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Signed documents," I replied. "Transferring ownership of the Hail shipping ports, the real estate holdings, and the overseas accounts directly to the Ashford family. Everything."
Coraline's eyes widened in greedy surprise.
"You're giving up everything?" she asked.
"I'm buying my family's peace," I stated. "Let Sarah go, call off the bounty on Mave, and the city is yours."
Marcus laughed, a deep, victorious sound. He gestured for one of his men to pick up the envelope.
The guard handed it to him. Marcus inspected the signatures.
"You really are a fool for love, Garrett," Marcus mocked. "You've just signed your own death warrant. Did you really think I'd let you walk out of here alive?"
"No," I smiled. "I didn't."
I pressed the small detonator hidden in my pocket.
I hadn't given Marcus the keys to my empire. I had given him the bait.
The moment the transfer went through, it triggered an automatic tip to the federal authorities, linking all of Ashford's illicit businesses to his personal accounts.
Simultaneously, the warehouse doors blew open.
Wesley and fifty of my best men swarmed the building, flashbangs blinding the Ashford guards.
In the chaos, I sprinted forward, tackling the guard nearest to Sarah and snapping his wrist. I cut her bindings with a pocket knife and pulled her behind a steel shipping container.
Gunfire erupted, echoing like thunder.
But it was over almost as quickly as it began.
The Ashfords were outgunned and outmaneuvered.
When the smoke cleared, Marcus Ashford was on his knees, bleeding from a shoulder wound. Coraline was screaming in handcuffs as my men restrained her.
I walked up to Marcus and looked down at him.
"You thought my empire was money and ports," I said coldly. "My empire is my family. And you tried to touch them."
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Sirens wailed in the distance. The FBI was arriving to clean up the mess I had just gift-wrapped for them.
I turned and walked away, leaving the Ashford family in the ruins of their own ambition.
