Chapter 5 - The Snake’s Den
Twenty minutes later, inside the warm, heated cabin of the Mercedes van, an emotional storm unfolded.
Claire held her younger sister in a desperate, weeping embrace, wrapping warm blankets around Paige’s shoulders while feeding her hot soup from a thermos.
“I thought... I thought I was going to die in there, Claire,” Paige sobbed into her sister’s neck, her body finally beginning to warm up. “They told me... they told me you were going to marry a monster who would kill us both.”
Claire looked up at Dominic, who stood near the open rear doors of the van, wiping the rain from his dark hair, looking like a guardian titan watching over them.
“He’s not a monster, Paige,” Claire said softly, her eyes full of profound gratitude. “He’s the man who saved our lives.”
Paige looked at Dominic, her shivering slowing down, a faint, tearful smile touching her face. “Thank you, Mr. Hale.”
“Call me Dominic, Paige,” he replied, his tone softening into a warm, familial strength. “You’re family now. And nobody touches my family.”
Vance stepped up to Dominic, handing him an encrypted satellite phone that was flashing with an incoming red light.
“Boss,” Vance reported quietly. “It’s Arthur Vance calling Jack Mercer’s private line. He’s expecting a status report on the bug and the wedding security codes.”
Dominic took the phone. He signaled to his tech team to route the signal through a voice-scrambling bypass so Vance wouldn't trace the location, then pressed the speaker button.
“Mercer?” Arthur Vance’s raspy, arrogant voice boomed over the speaker from hundreds of miles away. “Is the Whitmore girl still keeping her mouth shut? Did Hale suspect anything about the clock?”
Dominic leaned against the van door, a dark, lethal smile spreading across his face.
“Arthur,” Dominic said calmly into the microphone.
Static hissed over the line, followed by a sharp, stunned silence.
“Dominic?” Arthur Vance’s voice dropped an octave, dripping with sudden, surprise-filled venom. “How did you get this phone?”
“Jack Mercer is currently occupying a steel chair in my basement,” Dominic answered smoothly, pulling a cigar from his pocket and lighting it with one hand. “And Paige Whitmore is currently sitting in my van, drinking hot soup beside her sister.”
Over the speaker, Arthur Vance let out a low, cold laugh—a dry, rattling sound like dry leaves scraping across concrete.
“Impressive, Dominic. Very impressive,” Arthur sneered. “You always were smarter than your father. But saving the girls doesn't save your empire. You have nine days left until your wedding. My men already hold thirty percent of your shipping terminals in Brooklyn. My corrupt federal judges have already signed the seizure warrants for your accounts. You’re bleeding out, Hale, and you don't even know it.”
“Then come take the rest in person, Arthur,” Dominic challenged, his voice cold as arctic ice. “Why hide in the dark like a rat? Come to Connecticut on my wedding day. Walk through the front gates. Let’s finish what our fathers started twenty years ago.”
“Oh, I’ll be there, Dominic,” Arthur laughed darkly. “I wouldn't miss your wedding for the world. But you won't be standing at the altar with a bride. You’ll be standing in front of a firing squad.”
The line went dead with a sharp click.
Dominic lowered the phone, tossing it to Vance, who immediately crushed it beneath his heavy combat boot.
Claire stepped out of the rear of the van, walking over to Dominic, her face pale but determined. “He’s going to attack the mansion on our wedding day, isn't he?”
Dominic looked down at her, taking her face gently in his hands. “Arthur Vance thinks he’s walking into an ambush he created. He thinks we’re going to be defensive, terrified, and desperate.”
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Dominic’s gray eyes flashed with a brilliant, calculating intelligence that showed why he was the most feared crime boss on the East Coast.
“We aren't going to delay the wedding, Claire,” Dominic said, a sharp, triumphant smile gracing his lips. “We’re going to move it up. We’re going to give Arthur Vance the grandest, most bloody trap he has ever walked into.”
