Chapter 7 - The Cold Reckoning
The service cellar beneath the Drake Hotel smelled of damp stone, wine casks, and cold iron pipes.
Victoria stood against the brick wall, her crimson dress shimmering grotesquely under the single exposed incandescent bulb.
Two of Marcus’s men flanked the heavy metal door, their hands crossed over their waistbands.
Victoria’s aristocratic composure had begun to unravel, her mascara smudged, her breathing shallow and rapid.
"Ethan, this is insane," she shouted as we descended the concrete stairs.
"You dragged me out of a public charity event like a common criminal!"
"Do you have any idea who is in that ballroom?"
Ethan did not answer.
He walked across the concrete floor until he stood three inches from her face.
He tossed my father’s ledger onto a wooden pallet at her feet.
Then, he dropped the printout of Tommy Hale’s surveillance photograph on top of it.
Victoria looked down at the photograph, and the color instantly drained from her skin, leaving her as pale as chalk.
"Your brother is currently sitting in a private holding room at the Carter rail yard in Gary, Indiana," Ethan said, his voice deadly quiet.
"He talked after four minutes, Victoria."
"He gave up the bank account numbers, the New York shipping manifests, and the promise you made him."
"You told him I would protect him because of what happened to your father."
Victoria swallowed hard, her eyes darting between Ethan and me.
"Ethan... Dominic Rossi threatened my life," she stammered, her voice cracking into high-pitched panic.
"He told me if I didn't open the Chicago transit lines, he would destroy everything my father left behind!"
"Julian was going to report the theater project to the federal inspectors!"
"If the feds raided the site, they would have found the offshore accounts!"
"They would have arrested all of us, Ethan! Even you!"
"Julian wasn't going to the federal government, Victoria," I said, stepping out from behind Ethan’s shoulder.
"He was coming to me."
"He was coming to save his daughter's husband from being ruined by your greed."
Victoria’s eyes flared with pure, undiluted malice as she looked at me.
"You stupid, sheltered little girl," she hissed, abandoning all pretenses of innocence.
"You think Ethan married you for love?"
"He married you because your father kept his family’s darkest secrets locked away in a safe deposit box!"
"You were collateral!"
"You were an insurance policy to keep Julian quiet!"
Ethan’s hand struck the brick wall beside her head with the force of a gunshot, cracking the mortar.
Victoria flinched, letting out a sharp shriek of terror.
"Do not speak my wife’s name again," Ethan whispered, his face inches from hers.
"My grandfather used Julian Avery."
"I spent five years trying to clean this empire so Claire would never have to see the blood on my floor."
"And you brought that blood right onto my threshold."
"You used my father's grave as a shield while you murdered hers."
He turned his back on her, signaling to Marcus.
"Hand the ledger, the financial files, and Tommy Hale over to the United States Attorney’s Office."
"Let Dominic Rossi and the eastern syndicate tear the Hale family apart in federal court."
"Ethan, please!" Victoria screamed, lunging forward, only to be caught by Marcus’s iron grip.
"You promised my father! You gave him your word!"
May you like
Ethan paused at the base of the stairs without looking back.
"My word died on Lake Shore Drive when Julian Avery’s car flipped into the dark."
