Chapter 6 - Secrets Beneath the Silk: Uncovering the $400 Million Conspiracy Inside the Steves Syndicate
Thomas was sobbing, clutching his bleeding arm while kneeling at the hem of my gown. "Penelope... please. I was just taking a cut. It wasn't just me! There’s someone else!"
"Who?" I asked, cold and unmoved.
"The Castiglione family," Thomas gasped out, terror stripping away the last remnants of his arrogance. "They’re moving four hundred million dollars through the downtown transit hub tonight. They paid me to ensure the Steves security grid had a blind spot at midnight. That’s why I wanted you and Larkin stuck here at the gala!"
Larkin’s jaw hardened into stone. "Midnight is in forty-five minutes."
"Call Marcus," Larkin barked at his remaining loyal enforcers outside the room. "Lock down the Continental. No one leaves."
He turned back to me, his gaze sweeping over the blood spatter on the marble floor and settling on the calm, unyielding expression on my face. "Can you access the downtown terminal cameras from your mobile rig?"
"I built the terminal’s fiber-optic firewall, Larkin," I replied, pulling my phone from my purse. "I can shut down their entire locomotive routing system in sixty seconds."
We exited the conservatory, stepping back into the grand ballroom. The guests, unaware of the violence behind the closed doors, were still sipping champagne. But the dynamic between Larkin and me had irrevocably shifted. He kept his hand firmly clasped in mine, our fingers intertwined, signaling to every mob boss, corrupt judge, and high-ranking official in the room that the woman in black silk was not an escort.
She was the new co-ruler of the city.
We took the private elevator directly up to Larkin’s penthouse suite on the fiftieth floor of the Continental. The moment the elevator doors sealed us inside, Larkin pulled me against the brass railing, his hands framing my face.
"You could have run three years ago," he whispered, his eyes dark with an intense, intoxicating hunger. "Why did you stay with me, Penelope?"
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"Because," I breathed, looking straight into the eyes of the devil who owned Manhattan, "I knew you were the only man ruthless enough to help me burn down the people who murdered my father."
Larkin’s lips crashed into mine in a fierce, demanding kiss that tasted of danger, adrenaline, and absolute surrender.
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