Chapter 7 - Betrayal inlog Boardroom
By two in the morning, the glittering party was a distant memory. The crystal chandeliers were dimmed, the expensive champagne glasses cleared away, and the grand estate had returned to its fortress-like silence.
Only this time, the silence wasn't suffocating. It was lethal.
In the subterranean basement security room—a windowless chamber reinforced with thick concrete and banks of encrypted monitors—Dominic sat at the head of a heavy steel table.
Nathan Cole sat handcuffed to a metal chair across from him, his expensive suit wrinkled, a dark bruise forming along his jaw where Marcus had subdued him earlier. Dr. Aaron Mercer was trembling in the corner, sobbing quietly into his hands.
“Where is the offshore server?” Dominic asked, his voice disturbingly calm as he reviewed a financial ledger on the screen.
Nathan spat a streak of blood onto the concrete floor. “Go to hell, Dominic. You think arresting me and Aaron saves you? The syndicate boards in Chicago and Miami already have my contingency packages. If I’m not checked in by noon tomorrow, the entire East Coast distribution network goes up in smoke.”
Dominic didn't look up from the ledger. He simply picked up a silver pen, tapped it twice against the steel table, and looked at Marcus.
“Marcus, did you check Nathan’s private phone before we brought him down here?”
“Yes, boss,” Marcus replied, stepping forward and placing a cracked smartphone on the table. “Auto-forwarding protocols were set to trigger at 6:00 AM to three capos in Chicago. We intercepted them twenty minutes ago.”
Nathan’s eyes widened in sudden, stark horror. “How... how did you know?”
“Because I taught you everything you know about contingency planning, Nathan,” Dominic said, finally looking up. His gray eyes were like chips of winter ice. “You always left your backup servers routed through the primary firewall at the Newark port warehouse—the exact warehouse I had re-routed through an encrypted blind spot three days ago.”
Nathan slumped back in the chair, every drop of fight evaporating from his frame. The empire he had tried to steal had slipped through his fingers like dry sand.
“What are you going to do with us?” Aaron whimpered from the corner. “Please, Mr. Vale! Send me to prison! Do whatever you want, just don't—!”
“Prison?” Dominic cut him off with a cold, humorless chuckle. “Aaron, if you go to a federal penitentiary, your medical credentials will be revoked, and you’ll spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder for men who don't care about trials. But I’m feeling generous tonight.”
Dominic stood up, buttoning his vest.
“Marcus, put Aaron on a private cargo flight to South America before dawn. Make sure he lands in a country with no extradition treaty, and ensure he never practices medicine again on a human being.”
“And Cole?” Marcus asked, glancing at Nathan.
“Nathan stays here,” Dominic said, walking toward the heavy reinforced door. “Lock him in the secure holding cell until the Chicago capos arrive tomorrow afternoon. We’re going to have a family meeting about loyalty.”
As Dominic stepped out of the basement and walked up the grand staircase toward the silent, darkened corridors of the estate, he felt a strange sensation in his legs.
May you like
No pain. No weakness. Just pure, undeniable strength.
The poison was entirely gone.
