Chapter 3 - THE SUBPOENA AND THE SHATTERED GLASS: WHEN THE HOUSEWIFE UNVEILS HER BADGE
Richard’s face was the color of skim milk.
He looked from David Vance—a man whose legal reputation struck fear into Fortune 500 CEOs across the eastern seaboard—to me, and back again, his mind utterly paralyzed by the impossibility of the tableau unfolding in front of him.
“David?” Richard croaked, his voice pitching upward into an undignified squeak. “What... what are you doing here? This is a private corporate mixer for Halcyon executives. How did you even get past security? Security!”
He yelled the last word toward the hallway, but nobody came.
Because Ethan, my younger brother and one of the country’s top cybersecurity specialists, was currently sitting in Halcyon’s ground-floor security control room, having overridden every access gate, camera feed, and elevator lock in the entire thirty-story building ten minutes before the event began.
David Vance didn't answer Richard’s pathetic cry.
Instead, he opened the heavy leather briefcase, pulled out a thick stack of legal documents stamped with federal seals, and held them out toward Richard.
“Richard Mercer, you are hereby served with a federal injunction, a temporary restraining order, a notice of immediate suspension without pay from Halcyon Dynamics, and a criminal complaint charging you with corporate wire fraud, embezzlement, securities falsification, and interstate bribery,” David recited smoothly, his words falling like iron gavels upon a wooden desk.
The silence in the lounge was absolute.
You could have heard a pin drop on the thick carpet.
One of the junior managers dropped his champagne flute; it shattered against the marble floor with a sharp, explosive pop, but nobody even flinched.
Richard stared at the papers held out before him as if they were venomous snakes.
“No,” Richard whispered, shaking his head frantically, backing away until his spine hit the mahogany wet bar behind him. “No, that’s—that’s impossible. I’m regional president! I brought in forty million in contracts last quarter! The board loves me! The CEO is my mentor! You can't just—you can't just hand me papers like this!”
“The CEO isn't your mentor anymore, Richard,” I said quietly, stepping closer to him, my heels clicking rhythmically against the floor. “In fact, Marcus—my brother, the senior vice president of commercial banking at Halcyon’s primary lending institution—called the CEO thirty minutes ago to inform him that his bank is immediately calling in Halcyon’s revolving credit line unless your division is completely audited, purged, and handed over to federal receivers.”
Color vanished entirely from Daniel Cross’s face.
He dropped to his knees, his hands grabbing blindly at David Vance’s trouser cuffs.
“Please!” Daniel whimpered, tears instantly springing to his eyes as he groveled on the Persian rug. “I didn't know anything about the Singapore kickbacks! It was all Richard! Richard forced me to sign the ledger entries! He threatened to ruin my career if I didn't comply!”
Richard stared down at his closest friend, his most loyal sycophant, turning on him with the viciousness of a cornered animal.
“You cowardly piece of—!” Richard roared, lunging forward to grab Daniel by the throat.
Before his fingers could even graze Daniel’s collar, Noah—my fourth brother, a former military contractor standing quietly by the doorway—crossed the room with terrifying, blinding speed.
Noah grabbed Richard by the shoulder and the wrist, twisted his arm upward in a smooth, effortless motion, and slammed him face-first onto the polished granite surface of the wet bar with a dull, sickening thud.
Glasses rattled.
Ice buckets tipped over.
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Richard gasped for air, his cheek pressed flat against the granite, pinned beneath Noah’s iron grip as the room watched the mighty regional president reduced to a whimpering, helpless prisoner.
“Keep your hands to yourself, Richard,” Noah said softly, his voice deep and rumbling like an approaching earthquake. “You already proved you don't know how to hit properly. Let’s leave the physical discipline to professionals.”
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