Chapter 6 - The Traitor's Confession
The line went dead with a sharp click.
The silence in the penthouse was completely suffocating.
Gabriel slowly raised his eyes from the phone and locked his gaze directly onto Mara.
Mara stumbled backward away from the glass table, her hands instinctively flying to her throat.
“She’s lying,” Mara whispered, her voice shaking violently.
“I don't have anything on me.”
She was wearing her standard black waitress uniform and a cheap silver locket her grandfather had given her on her tenth birthday.
Gabriel stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the silver jewelry resting against her collarbone.
“Take it off,” Gabriel commanded softly.
“It’s just a locket,” she protested, tears finally spilling over her eyelashes.
“My grandfather gave it to me, it's completely hollow inside.”
“Mara, take it off right now,” Gabriel repeated, his tone leaving absolutely no room for debate.
Her trembling fingers reached behind her neck and unclasped the cheap chain.
She handed the small silver locket to Gabriel.
He examined it carefully, turning it over in his large, tattooed hands.
He placed it on the table, picked up a heavy brass paperweight, and smashed it directly down onto the silver jewelry.
Mara flinched violently as the metal cracked open.
The cheap silver casing splintered apart, revealing a heavy, dark object hidden securely inside the hollow shell.
Gabriel reached into the debris and pulled it out.
It was the third ancient iron key.
Mara stared at it in absolute horror, her stomach dropping to the floor.
She had been carrying a mafia empire's ransom around her neck every single day for over a decade.
Her grandfather hadn't just left her a clue, he had made her the living guardian of the syndicate's wealth.
Gabriel carefully placed the third key next to the other two on the glass table.
“We have them all,” Gabriel said, a dark smile touching his lips for the first time.
“Vincent is finished.”
Mara couldn't speak; the sheer weight of her grandfather's deception had stolen her breath completely.
Suddenly, Daniel rushed into the living room, clutching his freshly bandaged shoulder.
“Gabriel, the building's security perimeter just got breached,” Daniel warned frantically.
“Vincent's men are in the lobby, and they are heavily armed.”
Gabriel instantly reached for his weapons on the side table.
“Lock down the elevators and secure the stairwells,” Gabriel ordered.
“It’s too late for that,” Daniel replied, pulling a tablet from his jacket.
He showed Gabriel the live feed from the security cameras on the floor directly beneath them.
Four men in tactical gear were attaching blocks of plastic explosives to the structural support pillars.
“They aren't coming up to fight us,” Gabriel realized with terrifying clarity.
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“They are bringing the entire building down.”
A deafening, catastrophic explosion rocked the foundation beneath their feet, throwing them all violently to the floor.
