Chapter 6 - The Steel Alliance
By noon the following day, the sky had cleared into a crisp, cold blue. The floodwaters surrounding the bridge had receded enough for heavy vehicles to cross, and my estate was no longer an isolated island.
It had become a military fortress.
Over forty heavy duty SUVs and armored sedans were parked along the sweeping driveways. More than a hundred of my best-trained soldiers, dressed in dark suits with tactical gear beneath, were patrolling the perimeter, setting up automated security cameras, heavy machine-gun nests, and sniper positions along the rooftop.
The waterfront underground knew that something massive was happening at the Falcone estate, but no one outside my inner circle knew the details yet.
In the grand dining room downstairs, I sat at the head of a long mahogany table. Surrounding me were my three top lieutenants—Dominic, Marcus, and Mateo—men who had bled with me for over a decade.
Adeline sat to my right. She was dressed in a simple, elegant dark green wool dress that Bernadette had retrieved from the estate storage. Though she still looked pale and walked with a slight limp, her posture was erect, her head held high.
On the center of the dining table lay a small, tarnished silver locket that Adeline had taken from around her neck—the only item she had managed to keep hidden from the Morettis during her captivity.
"The digital drive is micro-encrypted," Adeline explained, pointing to a tiny seam hidden along the inner edge of the silver casing. "My father was an amateur radio operator and a self-taught engineer. He built this casing himself. If you try to force it open with violence, a tiny vial of acid inside breaks, destroying the flash chip instantly."
Mateo, my chief intelligence specialist, leaned forward, examining the locket through a magnifying glass. "It requires a specific mechanical sequence to open without triggering the failsafe."
"Three turns to the left, two to the right, and a pressure press on the rear clasp," Adeline said smoothly. "My father taught me the sequence when I was ten years old."
Mateo looked up at me, his eyes wide. "Boss... if this drive contains what she says it does—full banking records, federal shipping manifests, and recorded wiretaps of Victor Moretti—this isn't just enough to start a gang war. This is enough to have the Federal Bureau of Investigation dismantle the entire Moretti network within forty-eight hours."
"No federal agents," I said coldly, slamming my hand onto the armrest of my chair. "The FBI has been sitting on their hands taking bribes from Victor Moretti for ten years. If we hand this to the government, half the evidence will vanish into an evidence locker before the week is out."
"Elias is right," Dominic agreed, leaning over his map of the city docks. "Victor’s brother-in-law is a deputy director in the regional field office. The moment the law gets involved, Victor gets a tip-off and skips the country to his compound in Sicily."
"Then what do we do with it?" Adeline asked, looking at me.
"We use it as a weapon," I replied, locking eyes with her. "We leak selected portions of the ledger to Victor's rival business partners—the Irish syndicate in the north, and the Colombian suppliers in the south. We show them that Victor has been stealing from their joint shipments for three years. We destroy his alliances from the inside out."
A cold, appreciative grin spread across Mateo's face. "And while Victor is busy fighting off his enraged business partners..."
"We hit his main compound at the docks," I finished. "We cut off the head of the snake ourselves."
Adeline looked down at her silver locket, her fingers tracing the polished metal. "I want to be there," she said softly.
The room went completely silent. Dominic and Mateo exchange surprised glances.
"No," I said instantly. "You stay here at the estate with the baby under heavy guard."
"I spent six months locked in a cellar, watching Marco Moretti smile while he hurt me," Adeline said, her voice dropping into a register of pure, lethal determination that matched my own. "I watched him murder my father's best friend in cold blood. I didn't survive that nightmare just to hide in your mansion while other men fight my battles, Elias. I want to look Victor Moretti in the eye when his empire falls."
I studied her face. There was no hesitation in her eyes, no lingering fear. She was Julian Vance’s daughter through and through, forged in the fires of survival.
"You won't enter the compound until the building is secured," I conceded, my voice firm. "You will stay in the armored transport with Dominic until I give the clear signal. Do we have an agreement?"
May you like
Adeline hesitated for a second, then nodded. "We have an agreement."
"Good," I said, standing up from the table. "Mateo, get the drive decoded and start broadcasting the leaked ledgers to the northern syndicates. Dominic, prepare the heavy assault teams. We move on the waterfront compound at midnight."
