Chapter 6 - The Traitor Within
The sun did not rise over the lake compound the next morning; it merely bruised the sky into a sullen shade of purple.
Sadie stood in the war room of the fortress, clad in a fresh black turtleneck and dark jeans provided by the estate staff. Spread across the massive digital drafting table were the complete corporate records of the Vale Enterprise empire—billions of dollars in shipping manifests, offshore accounts, real estate holdings, and labor contracts.
Beside her, Roman sat with his arm in a sling beneath a clean cashmere sweater. His face was pale from blood loss, but the lethality in his eyes was sharper than ever.
“Moretti couldn't have placed forty men inside the Palmer House without an internal bypass code,” Lev said, standing across the table, his arms crossed over a heavily bandaged forearm. “He bypassed the hotel’s outer security grid three minutes before the shooting started. The municipal police department had a stand-down order issued twenty minutes prior.”
“Vance arranged the police,” Sadie said, her eyes scanning the electronic manifests on the screen. “That’s obvious. But the hotel bypass code was private. Only six people had access to the master logistics file for Roman’s appearances this week.”
She began isolating the digital certificates used to access the file over the last forty-eight hours.
“Lev,” Sadie said, looking up suddenly. “Where was Evelyn Cross when the convoy was attacked outside the diner?”
Lev narrowed his eyes. “She was at the penthouse. She arrived twenty minutes after the bullet shattered the window.”
“No,” Sadie said, her fingers flying across the touch screen. “Her security fob logged an exit from the penthouse basement at two-fifteen in the morning. Ten minutes after I read the contract. And she didn't return until four.”
Sadie brought up a series of banking records she had pulled from an encrypted backup she recovered from Evelyn’s discarded desktop files.
“Look at this,” Sadie said, pointing to a recurring wire transfer originating from an entity called *Aegis Consulting*. “Fifty thousand dollars a month, paid every first of the month into an account in the Grand Caymans under the name of Evelyn’s younger brother, Toby. Toby Cross isn't a businessman. He’s a twenty-four-year-old recovering addict living in a luxury facility outside Miami.”
Roman leaned forward, his dark eyes fixed on the ledger. “Julian Moretti owns that facility.”
“Exactly,” Sadie said. “Evelyn wasn't just careless when she approved the Doyle contract. She was compromised. Moretti held her brother’s debt. If she didn't let the toxic waste contract slide through, Toby was going to end up in the Everglades. And when I blew the whistle at the diner, Evelyn had to escalate. She gave Moretti the Palmer House security codes to clean up the mess before we could trace the payments.”
Roman rose slowly from his chair. The fury rolling off him was like the heat from a blast furnace.
“Lev,” Roman said.
“She’s at the Lake Forest estate,” Lev said immediately, knowing the question before it was asked. “She thought she was on leave. My men are outside the perimeter.”
“Bring her here,” Roman ordered. “Quietly.”
“No,” Sadie interrupted, stepping between Roman and his enforcer.
Lev paused, looking at Roman in disbelief that a woman would openly countermand the boss’s orders.
“If you kidnap your former chief legal counsel, Marcus Vance will use it as justification for an immediate, unsealed federal warrant,” Sadie explained, her legal mind working three steps ahead of their rage. “He’ll claim Roman Vale is kidnapping witnesses to obstruct justice. He’ll send a hundred state troopers through that gate before noon, and you won't be able to shoot your way out of that without starting a civil war.”
Roman stared at her, his jaw tight. “She tried to have you killed last night, Sadie.”
“Then let her think she succeeded,” Sadie countered, a brilliant, cold light in her eyes. “Evelyn doesn't know we have this bank trail. She thinks the Palmer House attack wiped out the evidence. Let her walk straight into the trap she built for you.”
“How?” Roman asked.
“Call an emergency meeting of your harbor holding company at Pier 42,” Sadie said. “Leak through back channels that you’re surrendering the harbor rights to Doyle to stop the bloodshed. Evelyn will contact Moretti immediately to confirm the transfer. That’s when we drop the hammer—not with bullets, Roman. With the United States Coast Guard and the Attorney General’s Special Crimes Division.”
Roman looked at her for a long, silent moment. Then, slowly, the tension in his shoulders dropped.
He reached out, his hand cupping the side of her neck, his thumb sweeping over the cheekbone where the diner glass had left a fading mark.
“You have a terrifying mind, Sadie Carter,” he whispered.
May you like
“I had good teachers,” she replied, leaning into his touch for a brief, electric second. “My professors were brilliant. But my mother taught me how to survive wolves.”
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