Chapter 4 - THE FEEDING OF THE SNAKE
By midnight, the storm outside had reached its peak, whipping the oak trees in the courtyard into thrashing shadows.
Inside my study, the black listening device sat on the mahogany desk, its small red light blinking rhythmically in the dim lamp light.
Isabella sat beside me in my leather armchair. Her eyes were still red, but the panic had been replaced by a quiet, fierce determination. Standing behind us was Victor, my second-in-command—a man who had stood by my father for twenty years and had been like an uncle to me since I was a boy.
"We play his game," I whispered, pointing to the bug on the desk. "He thinks he has broken Isabella. He thinks I am still keeping her locked upstairs, completely unaware of the threat against her sister."
"Are you sure about this, Aleandro?" Victor asked in his raspy, age-thickened voice, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses. "If Vance realizes we know about the kid, he might execute her before we even breach the compound."
"He won't kill her until he has the master ledger in his hands," I replied coldly. "Sofia is his only leverage. Without her, Vance knows I will burn his entire empire to the ground and slaughter every man who carries his name."
I looked at Isabella. "Are you ready?"
She swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and nodded.
I picked up the bug, held it three inches from my mouth, and began to speak in a low, furious tone—staging a brilliant performance for the ears on the other end of the wire.
"I don't care if she cries!" I barked into the empty room, making my voice sound unhinged with anger. "She betrayed this house! Tomorrow night at midnight, I am taking the master ledger to the vault at Pier 14 myself to secure it before she can leak any more information to Vance!"
Isabella let out a sharp, dramatic sob right on cue, slapping her palm against the desk to simulate a struggle.
"Please, Aleandro!" she cried out, her voice echoing into the bug. "Don't take the ledger to Pier 14! It's not safe there!"
"Shut up!" I slammed my hand onto the mahogany surface. "You don't get a say in what I do anymore, Isabella! The ledger stays in the steel safe at Pier 14 under my personal guard until I deal with Vance once and for all!"
I tossed the bug back onto the desk, leaning back in my chair with a dark grin.
For thirty seconds, nobody in the room moved.
Then, across the desk, my secure satellite phone lit up. A text message from an untraceable number appeared on the screen:
Good girl, Isabella. We heard everything. Tomorrow night at Pier 14, you bring us the master ledger, or your sister feeds the fish in the East River.
I looked up at Victor, my eyes burning with lethal intent.
"He took the bait," I murmured. "Vance will move all his top enforcers to Pier 14 tomorrow night to ambush us and steal the ledger."
"Which means his main hideout in Queens will be stripped of guards," Victor realized, a slow smile spreading across his weathered face.
"Exactly," I said, standing up and pulling my coat over my shoulders. "While Vance is waiting for me at the docks, I am going to breach his compound in Queens, slaughter his remaining skeleton crew, and pull Sofia out of that basement."
Isabella grabbed my hand, her fingers locking tightly into mine. "Promise me you'll bring her back alive, Aleandro."
May you like
I pulled her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckles softly.
"I promise you, my love," I whispered. "And when this night is over, the man who dared to threaten my family will pay for every single tear you shed."
