Reaching him took less than four seconds, and it felt like the longest stretch of her life.

The storm reached its peak as the armored SUV cut through the heavy rain on the tarmac of Teterboro Private Airport.

In the distance, sitting near the far end of Runway 4, a sleek white Gulfstream jet sat with its engines whining loudly, preparing for immediate taxiing. The stairs were still lowered, and two armed guards stood at the base of the ramp, holding umbrellas against the driving rain.

At the top of the stairs stood Victoria Ferrara, wearing a long mink coat, holding a heavy silver briefcase containing the bearer bonds and encrypted hard drives that held the entire wealth of Aegis Holdings.

Suddenly, three black SUVs burst onto the tarmac from behind the private hangers, their high beams flashing bright white against the wet pavement. They slid into an aggressive horseshoe formation, completely blocking the plane's path to the main taxiway.

The jet engines sputtered down as the pilot realized the runway was obstructed.

Victoria froze at the top of the ramp, her mink coat blowing in the howling wind. She looked down as the driver's side door of the lead SUV opened.

Rafe stepped out first, opening the rear door and lowering the hydraulic ramp.

Santino wheeled himself out into the pouring rain, completely ignoring the water soaking through his bespoke suit. Beside him stepped Emily, dressed in her dark jacket, her face illuminated by the glare of the headlights.

"Victoria!" Santino’s voice carried over the roar of the rain and the idling jet engines.

Victoria slowly walked down the metal stairs, her face pale under the harsh floodlights. Her two guards raised their weapons, but within seconds, six red laser dots from Santino’s snipers posted on the hangar roof locked onto their chests. The guards wisely dropped their guns and raised their hands.

Victoria stopped at the bottom of the ramp, ten feet away from Santino's chair. She looked at her brother, then at Emily, her mouth twisting into a bitter, disgusted sneer.

"You really are immortal, aren't you, Santino?" Victoria shouted over the wind. "A pool, a sniper, a poisoned cup... and you still stand in my way!"

"I don't stand, Victoria. You know that better than anyone," Santino replied, his voice calm, steady, and devastatingly cold. "You were the one who ordered the hit on my car three years ago in Chicago, weren't you?"

Victoria let out a sharp, hysterical laugh, her hair getting plastered to her face by the rain. "Chicago? Of course I did! Our father was weak, and you were too sentimental! You were going to turn the family into a legitimate logistics firm! You were going to destroy everything our grandfather built!"

"So you tried to break my spine," Santino said softly.

"I tried to kill you!" Victoria screamed, dropping her civilized mask entirely. "And I should have finished the job myself instead of relying on fools like Marco and Enzo! Look at you! Sitting in a chair, taking orders from a secretary!"

Emily stepped forward, standing right beside Santino's chair, looking Victoria dead in the eye.

"He doesn't take orders from me, Victoria," Emily said clearly. "And he didn't need to kill you tonight. You did that all by yourself."

Emily pulled her laptop from her shoulder bag, holding up the screen. Despite the rain, the glowing display showed a live transfer status bar hitting 100% Complete.

"The moment you unlocked your master keys to prep this plane for departure," Emily explained, "the decryptor program on my flash drive routed your entire Aegis financial network directly to the Federal Organized Crime Task Force and the Italian Anti-Mafia Directorate. Every bank account, every wire transfer, every property record carrying your name has been frozen."

Victoria's face turned completely grey. She dropped the silver briefcase into a puddle on the tarmac. "You... you little bitch..."

Sirens began to wail in the distance—dozens of them, approaching the airport perimeter from every direction. Red and blue police lights began flashing through the heavy fog beyond the airfield fences.

"The feds are entering the gate, Victoria," Santino said quietly. "You have a choice. You can take your chances in a federal supermax facility for the rest of your life... or you can reach for one of those guns on the ground and let Rafe finish this right now."

Victoria looked down at the weapons on the wet pavement, then looked at the red laser dots dancing across her chest. She looked at her brother’s unyielding grey eyes.

Slowly, trembling with rage and humiliation, Victoria Ferrara raised her hands into the air as federal tactical vehicles swarmed the tarmac, surrounding the plane.

As federal agents dragged Victoria away in handcuffs, she screamed curses into the rainy night.

Santino didn't watch her go. He looked up at Emily, who was shivering slightly in the cold wind.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a clean silk handkerchief, and offered it to her.