Chapter 5 - Unraveling the Syndicate
The federal marshals arrived thirty minutes later, accompanied by a heavy tactical unit from Moretti Enterprises' private security forces who had remained loyal.
The penthouse was swarming with investigators. Dr. Kaplan’s body had been removed, Marco and his surviving mercenaries were handcuffed and dragged out in zip-ties, and federal agents were bagging the amber prescription bottles as primary evidence in a massive corporate conspiracy case.
Nora stepped out of the panic room, her legs shaking slightly as she walked into the wrecked office.
Dante was sitting in his wheelchair again, though this time it was by choice; the bullet wound in his shoulder had been bandaged by a combat medic, and he looked pale from blood loss, but his eyes were sharper than ever.
“You’re an idiot,” Nora said softly, walking over to him.
Dante looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Is that how you speak to your employer?”
“That’s how I speak to a stubborn man who nearly got himself killed instead of waiting two minutes for the security grid.”
A faint smile touched Dante’s lips. “If I had waited two minutes, Marco might have found the override panel and disabled the shutters. You saved my life, Nora.”
“We saved each other’s lives,” she corrected, kneeling beside his chair to inspect the white bandage on his shoulder. “How does it feel?”
“Like I was hit by a truck,” he admitted honestly. Then he looked toward the window where the Manhattan sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in shades of bruised purple and gold. “And like I can finally stand up straight.”
“The federal prosecutor called,” a voice interrupted from the doorway.
Dante and Nora turned to see Vance, the head of Dante’s counter-intelligence unit, stepping into the room.
“Speak,” Dante ordered.
“Marco confessed,” Vance reported crisply. “He cracked within five minutes of interrogation. The conspiracy goes straight to Richard Bellamy’s inner circle. They were planning a hostile takeover of Moretti Enterprises by using Kaplan to keep you medically incapacitated until the annual shareholder vote next month.”
“And Bellamy?” Dante asked, his voice dropping into a low, menacing rumble.
“Federal warrants are being executed on Bellamy’s corporate headquarters as we speak,” Vance smiled grimly. “His assets are being frozen. By tomorrow morning, he’ll be sitting in a federal penitentiary.”
Dante nodded slowly. “Good. Make sure every board member who voted in favor of the medical review committee receives a personal visit from my legal team. Anyone who took a bribe from Bellamy is resigning tonight, or they’re spending the next twenty years sharing a cell with Marco.”
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“Consider it done, boss.” Vance saluted sharply and left the room.
The penthouse grew quiet again. The distant sirens of police cruisers echoed faintly from the streets below, but up here, forty floors above the city, peace was finally settling over the fortress.
