Chapter 3 - The Confession
I stared down the dark barrel of the automatic rifle, my mind racing through thousands of deadly scenarios.
I was completely unarmed, deeply bleeding, and holding a terrified little girl in my arms.
The traitor with the scorpion tattoo stepped closer, his finger tightening heavily on the cold trigger.
I knew I had exactly one second to change the entire dynamic of this violent encounter.
I looked directly into his cold eyes and calmly told him that Matteo was entirely broke.
The hitman paused in extreme confusion, the tip of his weapon wavering slightly in the cold wind.
I lied flawlessly, stating I had secretly drained Matteo's offshore accounts three days ago.
I told the hitmen that whatever millions Matteo promised them, they would absolutely never get paid.
Greed has always been the ultimate weakness of every criminal in my powerful organization.
The leader hesitated just long enough to look back at his heavily armed team for financial confirmation.
That brief fraction of a second was all my bleeding security chief desperately needed.
Nico pulled a hidden combat knife from his ankle sheath and threw it with terrifying precision.
The heavy blade buried itself deep into the traitor's unprotected throat.
The man collapsed onto the highway, violently choking on his own blood.
Nico immediately grabbed the fallen man's rifle and opened fire on the remaining three attackers.
A brutal, deafening gunfight erupted directly in the middle of the crowded Chicago highway.
I dove behind the crushed engine block of our SUV, covering Sophia's ears tightly to protect her from the horrific noise.
Within thirty agonizing seconds, the fierce battle was completely over.
All four attackers lay dead on the cold asphalt, and police sirens wailed loudly in the distance.
Nico limped over to me, clutching a severe bullet wound in his left shoulder.
We quickly hijacked a terrified civilian's running sedan and sped away rapidly before the authorities arrived.
I drove us frantically toward a highly classified underground bunker I kept strictly off the official books.
Sophia was trembling violently in the backseat, clutching a ripped piece of my ruined suit jacket.
I promised her softly that absolutely no one would ever hurt her again.
We arrived at the hidden bunker, and I laid my exhausted daughter down on a soft, warm bed.
I walked back into the main control room where Nico was rapidly bandaging his bleeding arm.
I pulled out Matteo's secret file and slammed it violently down onto the metal table.
I realized my entire empire was fatally compromised from the inside out by my best friend.
Nico accessed the bunker's mainframe and began hacking into Matteo's personal GPS history.
We discovered Matteo had been making weekly trips to a secluded, heavily guarded estate in Wisconsin.
He had been visiting this remote property for the past six entire years.
I hacked into the estate's external security cameras and pulled up the live feed on the main monitor.
My breath completely left my body as I stared at the grainy green video footage.
May you like
Walking slowly across the heavily guarded courtyard was a woman with long, unmistakable dark hair.
It was Alina, my beautiful wife, who I thought was dead this entire time.
