Chapter 5 - A House Divided
Victor stood frozen in the doorway.
The words echoed in the quiet room.
Marcus.
His head of security, his most trusted advisor, was the traitor.
Gregory was just a pawn in a much larger game.
Victor dropped to one knee and pressed a towel against Teddy’s shoulder to slow the bleeding.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Victor commanded softly.
Teddy winced in pain.
“Marcus came in and said you ordered an immediate evacuation.”
“When I turned my back, he shot me and grabbed the girl.”
Victor’s jaw clenched with absolute fury.
He pulled his backup radio from his belt and tuned it to the encrypted channel.
“Marcus, this is Victor,” he said, keeping his voice eerily calm.
Static crackled for a moment before Marcus answered.
“You always were too slow to see the truth, Victor.”
“Where is she, Marcus?”
“She is with me, heading to the same place Gregory is keeping Hannah.”
“Why are you doing this?” Victor asked.
“Because you made us weak,” Marcus spat with venom.
“You stopped the drug trade, you refused to buy politicians, and you tried to make this family legitimate.”
“The Romanos offered me a seat at the table to correct your mistakes.”
Victor stood up, his eyes burning with a cold, focused rage.
“You are a dead man, Marcus.”
“Bring the deed to the harbor, Victor.”
“If you try to bring your army, the mother and the child die.”
The radio clicked off.
Victor walked down the hallway to his hidden armory.
He bypassed the electronic keypad and used a physical master key.
He loaded an assault rifle, secured extra magazines, and grabbed three flashbang grenades.
He was not going to negotiate for his family.
He was going to burn the Romano empire to the ground.
As he turned to leave, he noticed a blinking light on the security server.
Marcus had deleted the camera footage, but he forgot about the backup cloud drive.
Victor pulled up the last recorded video of the garage.
He watched Marcus shove Poppy into the back of a silver sedan.
May you like
But the driver of the car wasn't a Romano soldier.
It was Victor’s own brother, Silas, who had supposedly died twelve years ago.
