Chapter 4 - The Poisoned Apple
Callum played his role with terrifying perfection.
He patted Dante on the shoulder and thanked him for the swift response.
He ordered Dante to take the perimeter team and sweep the surrounding blocks for any stragglers.
Dante hesitated for a fraction of a second before nodding and leaving the apartment.
The moment the door clicked shut, Callum turned on Sadie with lethal focus.
He demanded to know exactly what she had seen on Dante’s wrist.
Sadie described the scratched gold watch down to the smallest detail.
She told him it was the exact same watch that had pressed against her throat two hours ago.
Callum’s jaw clenched so tightly it looked as though the bone might snap.
Dante had been his right-hand man for seven years.
If Dante was working with the Marcanos, the entire Russo organization was compromised.
Callum asked Sadie why Dante and the Marcanos would risk an all-out war over a single piece of art.
Sadie took a shaky breath and admitted she had not been entirely honest about the Caravaggio.
She confessed that the sketch was painted on top of a highly volatile piece of history.
Hidden beneath the charcoal lines was a microscopic ledger written in invisible ink.
It contained the bank account numbers of every corrupt politician on the Marcano payroll.
Callum stared at her, realizing she was far more dangerous than a simple art appraiser.
He asked her how she could possibly know about a secret underworld ledger.
Sadie looked him dead in the eye and refused to back down.
She revealed that her father was the master forger who had created the ledger ten years ago.
Her father had been murdered by the Marcanos to keep the secret buried.
She had spent her entire adult life hunting down the sketch to destroy the family that ruined hers.
Callum realized they were no longer just business associates.
They were bound by a mutual, bloody vendetta.
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Suddenly, Callum’s encrypted phone buzzed with an incoming text message.
It was a picture from Dante, showing the bloodied bodies of Callum’s entire personal security detail lying in an alley.
