Chapter 6 - The Bulletproof Pact
The click of Vincent’s hammer cocking back was loud in the enclosed space.
The cold steel of his barrel pushed hard against the base of my skull.
My Glock remained frozen between Dominic’s eyes.
Neither of us breathed.
Rain hammered violently against the roof of the SUV.
The combat medic shrank into the corner, his hands raised in terror.
“Put it down, girl,” Vincent growled behind me.
His voice was a gravelly scrape.
“One squeeze and your brain coats the windshield.”
I didn't move the barrel an inch.
“Your family murdered him,” I said to Dominic.
My voice was quiet, trembling with three years of concentrated rage.
“You sat across from me in that restaurant and called my father an honest man.”
“He was,” Dominic said.
His dark eyes never left mine.
He didn't reach for his gun.
He didn't lean away from my barrel.
“Then explain page forty-four,” I demanded.
Dominic reached down slowly with his right hand.
Vincent shoved his gun harder into my head. “Boss, let me drop her.”
“Stand down, Vincent,” Dominic commanded.
“Boss, she's—”
“I said stand down!” Dominic roared.
The sheer authority in his voice made the entire vehicle vibrate.
Vincent hesitated for half a second.
Then, slowly, he lowered the weapon.
Dominic turned the ledger toward me with his blood-stained fingers.
“Look at the date, Elena,” Dominic said softly.
“Look at the bottom of the page.”
My eyes flicked down for a fraction of a second.
DATE: OCTOBER 14, 2014.
CONFIRMATION SIGNATURE: ANTHONY SALVATORE.
“Anthony was my brother,” Dominic said.
His voice was hollow now.
“He ran this family with Julian Vance ten years ago.”
Dominic leaned forward, closing the distance between his forehead and my gun.
“I was twenty-four. I was serving in the Marine Corps in Fallujah.”
He pulled his collar down slightly, revealing a jagged shrapnel scar running
across his clavicle.
“I didn't take control of the Salvatore family until seven years ago.”
“Why?” I asked, my finger still curled tightly around the trigger.
“Because Anthony died,” Dominic whispered.
“How?”
“Julian Vance murdered him,” Dominic said.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
“Julian wanted absolute control over the docks,” Dominic continued.
“Anthony realized too late what Julian was doing to Marcus Valli.”
Dominic touched the page.
“Look at the margin notes, Elena. That’s not a payment confirmation. That’s a
payoff attempt that failed.”
I scanned the tiny, scrawled handwriting in the margins:
REJECTED BY A.S. – FUNDS RETURNED – MARCUS VALLI TARGETED BY J.V. ALONE.
My hand began to shake.
Just a fraction.
The truth hit me like a physical blow.
Julian Vance hadn't just murdered my father.
He had framed the Salvatores to ignite a gang war that would leave him sole king
of the eastern seaboard.
And for ten years, he had played both sides of the grave.
I slowly eased my finger off the trigger.
I engaged the safety and lowered the weapon into my lap.
Dominic didn't look relieved.
He looked tired.
The medic finished taping the pressure bandage around his shoulder.
Dominic waved him away.
“Get out,” Dominic ordered the medic and the two guards.
They scrambled out into the rain without a word, leaving only Dominic, Vincent,
and me in the vehicle.
“Julian survived that fall into the Hudson,” Dominic said, pulling an encrypted
tablet from beneath the seat.
“He has an extraction protocol set for 0400 hours.”
I looked at the dashboard clock.
02:45.
Seventy-five minutes.
“Where is he going?” I asked.
“Montauk,” Dominic replied.
“He keeps an offshore yacht registered under a Panamanian front company.”
“Once he hits international waters, those ledgers mean nothing,” I said.
“He’ll activate his political assets and erase every digital trail we just
pulled.”
Dominic looked at me.
“We don't let him hit international waters.”
He picked up the hard drive from the lockbox and handed it to me.
“Can you access the offshore routing codes on this drive before he reaches the
marina?”
I held the cold metal block in my hand.
“I need a high-speed fiber connection and an unmonitored server farm.”
May you like
“Vincent,” Dominic commanded.
“Take us to the Exchange.”
