Chapter 3 - The War Cabinet
Four days later, against the strict orders of Dominic’s private medical staff, I insisted on leaving the medical wing.
I couldn't stay trapped in that bed. Sitting still made me feel like a target waiting for the next bullet.
Mrs. Bell had brought me a soft, dark green cashmere sweater and black trousers—a stark contrast to the maid’s uniform I had worn for three months. I walked slowly down the long mahogany corridor of the north wing, leaning lightly on a wooden cane Dominic’s head guard had provided.
At the end of the hall, the heavy steel-reinforced doors of Dominic’s private war room were standing wide open.
Inside, six men in dark charcoal suits sat around a massive marble conference table covered with tactical maps, encrypted laptops, and live surveillance feeds monitoring the entire tri-state area.
Standing at the head of the table was Dominic. Beside him stood Marcus, his chief of military security, a towering man with a scarred neck and a lethal aura.
"The weapon used was a suppressed Glock 19," Marcus was saying, pointing a pen at a high-resolution image on the main display screen. "The serial numbers were ground off, but the firing pin markings match weapons distributed by a European syndicate operating out of the Brooklyn docks."
"Who controls those docks?" Dominic asked, his voice low and dangerous.
"Viktor Volkov," Marcus replied grimly. "An old associate of Julian Sterling. Volkov’s crew has been smuggling high-grade military hardware into the East Coast for six months."
I stepped into the doorway, my cane clicking softly against the hardwood floor.
Every man in the room instantly turned his head.
Dominic’s guards reached instinctively for their shoulder holsters, but Dominic raised a single hand, cutting off their movement immediately.
"Mara," Dominic said, stepping away from the table, his eyes softening slightly as he walked toward me. "You should be resting."
"I've rested enough," I said, walking into the room and standing beside the marble table, looking down at the surveillance images of the Brooklyn docks. "Volkov isn't acting alone."
Marcus frowned, looking at me with cold suspicion. "Miss Vance, with all due respect, this is high-level syndicate intelligence—"
"With all due respect, Marcus," I interrupted smoothly, my tone sharp enough to cut glass, "I tracked Volkov’s offshore shell accounts for eighteen months when I was at the DOJ. Volkov is an arms merchant, not a mastermind. He doesn't make a move without a buyer financing his logistics."
I pulled an encrypted thumb drive from my pocket—a drive I had kept sewn into the lining of my old tote bag—and tossed it onto the glass table.
"What is that?" Dominic asked, leaning over the table.
"That is the master cold-storage key to the eighty million dollars I stole from Apex eight years ago," I revealed. "Julian Sterling didn't come to New York just to kill me for revenge. He needs this key. Apex's European bank accounts were frozen three weeks ago by international regulators. Julian is broke. He promised Volkov fifty percent of that eighty million if Volkov helped him infiltrate Blackthorne House and retrieve this drive!"
Dominic looked from the thumb drive up to my face. A dark, dangerous grin spread across his sculpted features.
"So Sterling is desperate," Dominic murmured, his voice laced with predatory amusement. "A broke lion is the easiest lion to bait into a trap."
"What are you planning, Dominic?" I asked, a sudden chill running down my spine.
Dominic walked over to his desk, picking up a heavy black semi-automatic handgun and sliding a fresh magazine into the grip with a sharp, metallic CLACK.
"Sterling wants your drive, Evelyn," Dominic declared, his eyes locking onto mine with an absolute, terrifying brilliance. "So we are going to give him an opportunity to take it. We are holding an exclusive, high-stakes auction at the Brooklyn docks tomorrow night."
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"An auction?" Marcus blinked. "Boss, you're going to put Miss Vance in the open?"
"No," Dominic said, walking up to me until he was standing inches away, his warm breath fanning across my forehead. "I am going to bring the full force of the Mercer empire to those docks. Sterling thinks he’s hunting a maid. He has no idea he just declared war on the man who owns this city."
