Chapter 27 - The Counter-Move
I did not go back to my empty house that night. I drove straight to the one place I knew was completely fortified: the Emma and Ethan Mercer Memorial Retreat.
By 3:00 a.m., I was sitting in the lodge's main office with my mother and Marcus, the attorney, who had rushed over after I called him. I laid the black leather ledger and the encrypted USB drives on the heavy oak desk.
"This is the holy grail," Marcus breathed, carefully turning the pages of the ledger with gloved hands. "This explicitly outlines a twelve-million-dollar money laundering operation. Silas Vance has been acting as Daniel’s offshore proxy for years. This completely invalidates their appeal. It proves the retainer was paid with stolen funds."
"Silas threatened me outside the office," I stated, pouring a cup of black coffee to steady my nerves. "He demanded the briefcase. When I refused, he promised retaliation."
My mother, her face pale but fiercely determined, grabbed my hand. "We need private security. We cannot trust the local police to handle a man like Silas until the federal prosecutor files official charges."
"I agree," Marcus said, pulling out his phone. "I am calling Elias Thorne. He runs an elite private security firm consisting of former military contractors. He specializes in high-risk corporate asset protection."
Within hours, the retreat was transformed into a quiet fortress. Elias Thorne, a towering, silent man with intense, calculating eyes, arrived with a team of six heavily armed contractors. They seamlessly integrated into the retreat’s environment, wearing plain clothes to avoid alarming the grieving families, but their presence was an undeniable, ironclad shield.
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"Nobody breaches this perimeter without my authorization," Elias assured me, standing by the grand wooden entrance of the lodge. "Silas Vance is a known entity in the corporate espionage world. He is a coward who preys on vulnerabilities. He will not attempt a frontal assault. He will try to destroy your reputation first to force you to the negotiating table."
Elias was entirely correct. Silas didn't attack with guns. He attacked with the media.
