Chapter 13 - The Secret Alliance
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The wait for Victoria felt like an eternity.
Santino pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk and placed a heavy, silver revolver explicitly on the green leather blotter.
Emily stared at the gun, her breath hitching. She was standing in the corner, realizing she had just ignited a bomb that would destroy the Ferrara family from the inside out.
The heavy doors opened. Victoria walked in, looking immaculate in a tailored suit, her face a mask of polite concern.
“Santino, I heard about the ambush! Thank God you are safe,” Victoria gasped, rushing forward. She stopped abruptly when she saw the gun on the desk, and then noticed Emily standing in the shadows.
Her face hardened instantly. “What is the help doing in here during a family crisis?”
“The help,” Santino said, his voice dripping with venom, “is the only reason I am not lying in a morgue right now.”
Victoria frowned, playing the innocent sister perfectly. “I don't understand.”
“You hired the Morrettis to ambush my van,” Santino stated flatly. “You loosened the stone by the pool. You want the throne, Victoria.”
Victoria let out a harsh, mocking laugh. “Have you lost your mind? The trauma of the attack has made you paranoid, brother. Who told you this? Her?” She pointed a perfectly manicured finger at Emily. “You are going to believe a minimum-wage secretary over your own flesh and blood?”
“I believe her because she has absolutely nothing to gain by lying,” Santino countered. “And because she mentioned Warehouse Four.”
Victoria’s confident facade cracked. The color drained slightly from her beautiful face.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Warehouse Four has been sealed for three years,” Santino said, leaning forward. “Ever since the incident with the driver. No one goes in there. But you needed off-the-books cash to pay your assassins, didn't you? Cash that I wouldn't notice missing from the main ledgers.”
Victoria stood perfectly still. The mask had fallen. She looked at her brother with pure, unadulterated hatred.
“You are a cripple,” Victoria spat viciously. “Our father built an empire of wolves, and he left it to a broken man in a chair! The families laugh at us behind our backs, Santino! I was trying to save our legacy!”
“By murdering me?”
“By replacing you!” Victoria yelled.
Santino didn't yell back. He simply looked at her with profound, chilling disappointment.
“Where is Rafe?” Santino asked quietly.
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“He is securing the perimeter,” Victoria sneered. “You think you have won because you figured it out? Rafe is loyal to me now. Half the men outside are loyal to me.”
Santino slowly picked up the silver revolver from the desk.
