Chapter 5 - Shadows in the Parlor
Downstairs in the grand formal parlor, Senator Richard Harrison sat on a leather sofa, sipping espresso from a china cup. He was a handsome man in his late fifties, with slick silver hair, expensive tailored clothes, and a politician’s practiced, hollow smile.
Flanking him were four men in dark suits wearing dark sunglasses—ostensibly federal marshals, but secretly elite hitmen hired from the Valenti syndicate.
When Alejandro walked down the grand marble staircase, his hands casually tucked into his pockets, Harrison’s cup wobbled slightly against the saucer.
Harrison had expected to find a dying man—or a chaotic mansion mourning a poisoned Don. Instead, he found Alejandro looking healthy, sharp, and entirely in control.
"Alejandro!" Harrison exclaimed, forcing a bright, booming laugh as he stood up to extend his hand. "My dear friend! I heard horrific rumors this morning! Reports of shots fired near Gold Coast! I had to come personally to ensure my favorite community leader was safe!"
Alejandro walked straight past Harrison’s extended hand, taking a seat in the high-backed leather wingchair opposite the sofa. He didn't offer the Senator a seat.
"I am perfectly healthy, Senator," Alejandro said, his voice smooth and cold as polished ice. "Though I cannot say the same for your associate, Marcus."
Harrison froze. His smile twitched. "Marcus? Your security guard? Did... did something happen to him?"
"He suffered a sudden, fatal chest wound," Alejandro replied, leaning back and resting his chin on his hand. "It seems he had a terrible habit of putting things where they didn't belong. Like poison in my wine. Or taking meetings on balconies with men wearing eagle-wing cufflinks."
The temperature in the parlor seemed to plummet ten degrees.
Harrison’s face went pale. The four fake federal marshals behind him subtly shifted their weight, their hands drifting beneath their suit jackets toward their concealed holsters.
"Alejandro..." Harrison stammered, his polished political veneer cracking down the middle. "I... I don't know what you're talking about. If Marcus was a traitor, I am shocked! Appalled!"
"Are you?" Alejandro asked mildly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, metallic silver USB drive, tossing it carelessly onto the glass coffee table between them. "That drive contains forty-eight hours of encrypted audio and high-definition video from my study."
Harrison’s eyes locked onto the flash drive like a starving predator.
"It captures Marcus receiving the poison from a man wearing your signature cufflinks," Alejandro continued quietly. "It captures the conversation where you promised him five million dollars to open the security gates for the Valenti strike team tonight at midnight."
Harrison swallowed hard, his throat dry. He looked at the four armed men behind him, then back at Alejandro, who sat entirely alone in the chair, completely unbarmed and undefended.
A dark, desperate greed flashed in Harrison’s eyes.
"Alejandro," Harrison whispered, his voice dropping all pretense of friendliness. "You are a very smart man. But you made a terrible mistake sitting in this room alone with us."
Harrison nodded to his four men. "Kill him. Take the drive. Burn the house."
The four hitmen drew their weapons in unison, raising them toward Alejandro’s chest.
Alejandro didn't even blink. He didn't move a single muscle. He simply took a slow sip from his own tea cup.
"You always were a foolish politician, Richard," Alejandro murmured. "You thought you were buying guards. You didn't realize you were buying my men."
Before the hitmen could pull their triggers, the four men suddenly turned their guns on Senator Harrison himself, clicking their safeties off simultaneously and pressing four cold steel barrels against the politician’s neck.
Harrison shrieked, dropping his espresso cup onto the rug, where it shattered into a hundred pieces. "What?! What are you doing?! I paid you!"
One of the hitmen pulled off his sunglasses, revealing a jagged scar over his left eye. It was Marco’s younger brother, Luca.
"You paid us with Valenti money, Senator," Luca sneered. "But our loyalty has belonged to the Moretti family since before you were elected."
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Harrison collapsed backward onto the sofa, trembling uncontrollably, staring at Alejandro in absolute horror.
"Take him to the sub-basement," Alejandro commanded, standing up and brushing a speck of dust from his sleeve. "Keep him alive. He is going to sign a full, written confession detailing every corrupt deal he ever made with Don Valenti. And then... we use his confession to tear the Valenti empire apart."
