Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER'S LEDGER|
"Tommy," Adrien repeated calmly, leaning his hip against the edge of the marble bar. "Your twenty-two-year-old brother. The one who disappeared six months ago."
Elena’s breath hitched in her throat. Her mind raced back to the sudden phone calls, the panicked tears, and then the complete, suffocating silence that had swallowed her younger brother whole.
"Where is he?" Elena demanded, stepping toward him, her fear suddenly overwhelmed by raw desperation. "Is he alive? Tell me!"
"He is alive," Adrien said. "For now."
"Where is he, Adrien?!"
"He owes six hundred thousand dollars to the Moretti syndicate," Adrien explained coldly. "He tried to run a illegal card game in their territory, lost, and thought he could slip out of the city on a bus. They snatched him at the station."
Tears spilled over Elena’s eyelashes, hot and fast. She grabbed the edge of a nearby armchair to steady her shaking legs.
"Six hundred thousand..." she gasped. "He doesn't have six hundred dollars! He's just a stupid kid!"
"He is a fool who gambled with men who skin people for sport," Adrien corrected flatly. "They have been keeping him in a warehouse near the industrial canal, waiting to see if he had any assets worth seizing."
Elena looked up at him, her hands trembling violently inside the sleeves of her silk dress.
"Is that why you brought me here?" her voice cracked. "Because of Tommy’s debt? Did the Morettis send you?"
Adrien’s eyes flashed with sudden, dangerous anger. He set his glass down on the marble bar with a loud clack.
"Do not insult me, Elena," he warned, his voice dropping into a low growl. "I do not work for the Morettis. The Morettis exist in this city because I allow them to exist."
He walked over to her, his long strides closing the distance until he stood directly over her. He reached out, his thick thumb gently wiping a tear from her cheek.
"I found your brother because I was looking into you," Adrien confessed softly. "And when I saw who held his leash, I bought his debt."
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Elena stared at him in utter shock. "You... you bought his debt?"
"I own Tommy’s life now," Adrien whispered, his face inches from hers. "Which means his fate rests entirely in my hands."
