Chapter 5 - The Breaking of Adrian Cole
The doors burst open again,
but this time it was the FBI.
Gabriel had timed it perfectly.
The evidence of the financial crimes had been uploaded to the Bureau’s servers simultaneously with the projection on the wall.
The lead agent,
a man who looked like he hadn't smiled in twenty years,
walked straight to Adrian.
"Adrian Cole?"
the agent asked.
"You’re under arrest for racketeering,
fraud,
and several counts of assault with a deadly weapon."
He looked at the whip still lying on the floor.
"Among other things."
The guests were finally being ushered out,
their names recorded by the tactical team for future "interviews."
As the room emptied,
the grandeur of the Cole estate seemed to fade,
leaving only the cold,
hollow reality of what it was.
A house of cards.
Adrian was being handcuffed,
his face pressed against the cold floor.
He looked up at me,
his eyes full of tears that I knew were for himself,
not for me.
"Elena,
please,"
he begged.
"Tell them it was a mistake.
Tell them we were just...
it was a game."
I walked over to him and knelt down,
ignoring the flare of pain in my back.
I whispered in his ear,
so only he could hear.
"The only mistake I made was not calling my brothers sooner."
I stood up and looked at the agent.
"He has a safe in the study,"
I told him.
"The code is Vanessa’s birthday."
Adrian let out a strangled cry as the agents hauled him up.
Vanessa was being led away in handcuffs too,
sobbing about her career and her reputation.
Margaret and Richard were being questioned in the corner,
their legacy crumbling around them like ash.
I looked at my five brothers,
who were standing in a semi-circle around me.
They were dangerous men.
They were men who lived by a code of blood and loyalty.
And I was one of them.
"Is it over?"
I asked.
Dominic looked at the mansion,
then back at me.
"The Coles are over,"
he said.
"But the Moretti debt is still being collected."
He reached out and took my hand.
"Let's go home,
little sister."
I walked out of the ballroom,
the heavy coat of my brother keeping me warm against the night air.
As I stepped across the threshold,
I didn't look back at the ruin I had left behind.
I looked at the five men who would burn the world down to keep me safe.
The thirtieth strike had been the end of Elena Cole.
But as I climbed into the lead SUV,
I knew it was the birth of someone far more formidable.
The ride back to the city was silent,
but it was a comfortable silence.
A silence of power.
A silence of revenge.
I closed my eyes,
listening to the hum of the engine,
May you like
knowing that tomorrow,
the world would wake up to the news that the Cole family was gone.
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