Chapter 4 - The Traitor in the Inner Circle and Dominic’s Chilling Ultimatum
By noon, the entire executive staff of the estate—the head chef, the estate
manager, the chief electrical engineer, and the head of transportation—had been
gathered in the basement wine cellar, which had been converted into an
interrogation room.
Dominic sat in a high-backed wooden chair beneath the dim overhead bulbs, his
fingers steepled in front of his chest. Marco stood beside him, holding a stack
of financial records and biometric entry logs.
I stood near the heavy iron entrance, holding Lily’s hand. Dominic had insisted
that Lily be present behind the two-way glass observation booth to see if she
could identify the man she saw in the cold room.
Through the glass, I watched the estate manager, Arthur Pendelton, sweating
profusely through his bespoke suit. Arthur had been with the Moretti family for
eight years, managing logistics, payroll, and household staff.
“Arthur,” Dominic began, his tone deceptively conversational. “Explain to me why
your offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands received a wire transfer of two
million dollars yesterday morning at 9:15 AM.”
Arthur swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Mr. Moretti... that was an
investment return from a private real estate holding in the Bahamas. I swear to
you on my mother’s grave!”
Marco stepped forward and dropped a tablet onto the table. “We pulled the
encrypted routing number, Arthur. The transfer originated from an account
registered to Aegis Holdings—a shell corporation managed by Julian Rossi’s
attorney in Geneva.”
Arthur’s face drained of every ounce of color. He collapsed to his knees,
pressing his palms against the concrete floor. “Dominic! Please! They have my
daughter! Rossi’s men kidnapped Sarah from her dorm in Boston three weeks ago!
They told me if I didn't loop the security feeds for twelve minutes and leave
the kitchen service door unlocked, they would send her back to me in pieces!”
Inside the observation room, Lily squeezed my hand and pointed through the glass
at the trembling man.
“Mommy,” Lily whispered. “That’s the man who held the flashlight for the other
man in the kitchen.”
Dominic heard her voice through the intercom. He stood up slowly, towering over
his kneeling estate manager.
“You traded my son’s life for your daughter’s,” Dominic whispered, his voice
vibrating with lethal authority.
“I didn't know they were going to poison Ethan!” Arthur wept uncontrollably.
“Rossi told me they were only planting a listening device in the study! If I had
known they were trying to kill the boy, I would have taken a bullet myself!
Please, Dominic, kill me if you must, but save my daughter!”
May you like
Dominic stared down at Arthur for several silent, terrifying seconds.
“Marco,” Dominic commanded. “Assemble the tactical assault unit. We have
forty-eight hours before Rossi realizes Arthur has been compromised. We are
going to extract Arthur’s daughter from Boston, and then we are going to burn
Julian Rossi’s empire to the ground.”
