Chapter 17 - Blood on the Slate|
Dante carefully picked up the tiny titanium pin from Sophia’s hand, holding it beneath the amber light of the lamp.
The metal was cool, custom-engraved, and bore a microscopic serial number on the back: V-09.
There was only one man in North America who held rank V-09 within the international syndicate. A man who had sat at Dante’s dinner table just three hours ago during the victory gala. A man who had pretended to be his closest ally throughout the entire conflict with the Russo family.
Victor Vance. The supreme commissioner of the maritime shipping board.
Dante set the pin on the table, his face turning as cold as carved granite.
The Russo family hadn't been acting alone. Carmine Russo and Isabella were merely the noisy front men deployed to draw Dante’s attention, while Victor Vance quietly arranged the grand takeover from behind the legal curtain of the shipping commission.
And the lapel pin had fallen under the sofa during the gala while Victor was raising a toast to Dante’s health.
“Sophia,” Dante said softly, his voice perfectly calm despite the storm raging inside his chest. “Did you see the man who dropped this?”
Sophia nodded, holding up two fingers. “The man with the shiny watch. He put a little black box under your big desk before he left.”
Dante stood up slowly, his tall frame blocking the firelight.
May you like
A little black box under his desk.
A remote-detonated thermite charge designed to incinerate the mansion’s primary structural supports and destroy all physical records of the estate deeds in one silent, explosive night.
