Chapter 7 - The Midnight Meeting
That night, the storm returned with a vengeance. Lightning split the Philadelphia sky, casting blinding flashes of white light across the glass windows of the mansion, followed by deep, rumbling rolls of thunder.
At 1:30 AM, Sadie woke up to the sound of muffled voices coming from the courtyard below her guest suite window.
She slipped out of bed, pulled a dark wool blanket around her shoulders like a shawl, and crept to the window. Through the rain-streaked glass, she saw a sleek black town car idling near the side entrance of the estate.
Two figures stood beneath the overhang of the stone archway.
One of them was Julian Vance.
The other was wearing a heavy rain slicker, the hood pulled down low over his face, but even in the dim light, Sadie recognized the unmistakable posture and heavy build of someone she had seen whispering to Dominic’s top lieutenants earlier that week.
She couldn't hear their exact words over the roar of the rain, but she saw Julian hand a thick manila envelope to the hooded figure. In return, the man handed Julian a small, hard drive.
Data. The shipping encryption keys.
Julian was selling the entire syndicate out to an outside rival faction—and tonight was the night they were making their final handoff before the federal indictments dropped.
Sadie’s heart hammered in her throat. She didn't think twice. She turned, threw off the blanket, and hurried out of her room, running down the stairs toward Dominic’s study.
She threw open the study door—only to find it empty.
"Looking for me?"
A voice from the shadows near the fireplace made her jump.
Dominic was sitting in a high-backed leather armchair, a glass of whiskey in his hand, watching her with a calm, unnerving intensity. The room was dark except for the dying embers of a wood fire.
"Julian," Sadie blurted out, breathless. "He's outside. In the courtyard. He's handing over the encryption keys to someone right now! I saw them!"
Dominic didn't panic. He didn't even stand up. He simply took a slow sip of his drink and looked at her.
"I know," Dominic said quietly.
Sadie froze, staring at him in disbelief. "You... you know? You knew he was selling you out?"
"I knew he was going to try," Dominic corrected, setting his glass down on the side table. He stood up slowly, walking over to the large bay window that looked out over the courtyard. "For three months, I fed Julian false routing numbers and encrypted dummy files. Tonight was the trap. By handing over that hard drive, Julian just signed his own federal confession."
"You set him up," Sadie whispered, a chill running down her spine. "You used yourself as bait."
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"In my business, you don't wait for the knife to fall," Dominic said, his voice dropping into a harsh, uncompromising register. "You guide the blade to where you want it to land."
Before Sadie could process the sheer, terrifying calculation of his plan, the heavy front doors of the mansion burst open with a deafening crash.
