Chapter 8 - The Decoy
Leo looked around in absolute shock as the FBI agents closed in.
“Drop the weapon!” a voice boomed over a megaphone.
Leo hesitated, his gun trembling.
Dominic didn’t wait for him to make a decision.
He sprinted across the gap between them.
He tackled his brother to the wooden planks.
I ran as fast as I could and scooped Lily into my arms.
I buried my face in her hair, sobbing uncontrollably.
“I got you, baby,” I whispered.
“Mommy’s here.”
FBI agents swarmed Leo, placing him in heavy handcuffs.
Another team rushed up the pier, securing the perimeter.
A tall woman in a trench coat walked up to me and Dominic.
She flashed her badge.
“Agent Carter, FBI,” she introduced herself.
“We received the files thirty minutes ago.”
Leo struggled against his restraints.
“What files?” Leo screamed.
“You don’t have the key!”
I looked down at the silver key in my hand.
Then I looked at Dominic.
Dominic offered a rare, genuine smile.
“Mark was a smart man,” Dominic explained to his brother.
“He didn’t hide a physical ledger in a bank box.”
“He hid it on a secure cloud server.”
I looked at the key in confusion.
“Then what is this?” I asked.
“It’s a decoy,” Dominic said.
“When we plugged the USB drive into my laptop, a hidden script ran in the background.”
“It automatically forwarded the actual ledger data to the FBI field office.”
Agent Carter nodded in confirmation.
“We have enough evidence to arrest Detective Reynolds, Leo Moretti, and half the corrupt officials in this city,” she said.
“We already have Reynolds in custody at the hospital.”
I let out a massive breath I felt like I had been holding for years.
It was over.
The nightmare was finally over.
“What about him?” Leo yelled, pointing at Dominic.
“He’s the head of the syndicate!”
Agent Carter looked at Dominic.
“Mr. Moretti has been a confidential informant for the FBI for the last two years,” she revealed.
I stared at Dominic in shock.
He wasn’t a monster.
He was the man trying to clean up the mess his family created.
“I made a deal to dismantle my father’s empire,” Dominic told me softly.
“But I needed Mark’s ledger to finish the job.”
The agents hauled Leo away to the transport vans.
The docks grew quiet again.
Lily looked up at Dominic and smiled.
“Are you a good guy now?” she asked.
Dominic knelt down to her eye level.
“I am trying very hard to be,” he said.
May you like
He stood up and looked at me.
“I believe I still owe you a proper dinner,” he suggested.
