Chapter 4 - The House of Lies
"Sir! Thermal sensors show incendiary charges detonating in the west wing of the Long Island estate!" Marcus shouted, his fingers flying across the console. "He’s blowing the entire historical archive! If those servers burn, we lose the only physical chain of evidence linking Julian to the cartel!"
"Not if we get there first," I said, turning on my heel toward the motor pool exit.
"Boss, it's a hundred and fifty miles away! Even with the chopper, by the time we land—"
"I'm not waiting for the chopper," I interrupted, pulling my Kevlar vest tighter across my chest. "Marcus, secure this bunker. Protect my daughters with your life. If I don't return by dawn, you take them to the safehouse in Zurich using the emergency protocols."
"Dominic—"
"That's an order!"
I didn't wait for his reply. I vaulted into a second armored tactical SUV, fired the twin-turbo engine, and blew the hydraulic blast doors open into the freezing New York night.
The drive was a blur of high-speed maneuvers, wet asphalt, and roaring horsepower. Every mile marker felt like a physical blow against my chest. My brother—my own flesh and blood, the man I had trusted with my life and my children—had engineered Isabella’s murder. He had watched me grieve. He had watched me tear my own soul apart hunting ghosts, while he sat in my house drinking my whiskey and plotting to steal everything I built.
And worst of all... my little girl, Lucia, had seen something that fateful night. Fourteen months ago, when the police pulled Isabella’s car from the intersection, Lucia had been sitting in the back seat, staring out the window.
She hadn't been mute out of pure shock.
She had been mute because she recognized Uncle Julian’s car parked across the street from the ambush site just before the shooting started.
“Daddy killed Mommy.”
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In a child's broken logic, because I brought them into that world, because my enemies were hunting us, I was the one responsible for her death.
Tears—hot, furious, and bitter—burned my eyes, but I blinked them away, gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles screamed. I wasn't just going to stop Julian. I was going to dismantle every single lie he had built his life upon.
