Chapter 20 - The Storm Ahead
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Ruth looked at Wesley, her heart leaping into her throat as she saw the sincere, deep emotion burning in his eyes.
Beside them on the sofa, Norah smiled brightly, clapping her hands silently together in pure joy.
“Yes,” Ruth whispered, a soft tear spilling over her cheek. “I’ll come with you.”
Wesley leaned down, pressing his lips gently against hers—a sweet, quiet promise sealed in the soft morning light after a night of absolute terror.
For a moment, peace felt complete inside the room.
Then, Wesley’s satellite phone—the untraceable line reserved strictly for top-level international syndicate heads—began to ring from his desk.
Wesley froze. He pulled the phone from his pocket, looking at the blocked caller ID from a European country code.
He answered, placing it on speaker.
“Wesley Cain,” a smooth, cultured voice spoke from the speaker, laced with a thick, ominous Italian accent. “I hear you destroyed the Valenti family and handed our thumb drive to the federal authorities.”
Wesley’s grip on the phone tightened, his face instantly hardening back into stone. “Who is this?”
“I am the man who hired Celeste Vance two years ago,” the voice chuckled darkly, a sound like dry leaves scraping across concrete. “You thought she was working for the Valentis? The Valentis were just our errand boys, Wesley.”
Ruth stepped closer to Wesley, her hand gripping his forearm as cold dread returned to the room.
“We have just landed at JFK Airport,” the voice continued smoothly. “And we are coming to take back what belongs to us. Tell your sweet little maid to keep her medical kit ready... because this war hasn't even begun.”
The line went dead.
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Outside, a distant rumble of thunder echoed across the ocean as a new storm gathered on the horizon.
Wesley looked at Ruth, then at Norah, pulling both of them into his arms as he chambered a fresh round into his sidearm, ready to face whatever dark shadow was coming for them next.
