Chapter 2 - Shadows over Ravenwood
By midnight, Ravenwood Estate was submerged in heavy, suffocating darkness. Rain continued to hammer against the tall stained-glass windows of the west wing.
Beside me in the master suite, Vivien slept deeply, lulled by a mild sedative I had personally slipped into her evening wine. I slipped out from under the heavy silk sheets, pulled on a dark wool sweater and trousers, and retrieved my encrypted satellite phone from a hidden compartment behind the wardrobe.
I walked down to the basement wine cellar, pulling a heavy iron torch from the wall bracket to activate the hydraulic mechanism that opened a hidden passage behind the vintage oak barrels.
Inside the subterranean security hub—a room equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance monitors, signal jammers, and server racks—my caporegime, Lorenzo, was waiting.
Lorenzo had served my father for thirty years and had treated me like a son since the day I was born. His face was scarred, his silver hair cropped short, and his dark eyes burned with fierce loyalty.
"Dominic," Lorenzo muttered, standing up from his chair. "You called an emergency protocol. What happened?"
"Vivien is the mole," I said plainly, sitting down at the central console.
Lorenzo’s face hardened, but he didn't look completely shocked. He slowly shook his head, leaning his large hands against the desk. "The Rossi family... I told your father years ago that Marco Rossi was too soft, too desperate for territory. When Marco offered his daughter’s hand in marriage to unite our families, I smelled rotten fish."
"She opened the south wall safe today while I was out," I said, pulling up the hidden camera feeds from the study that fed directly to a offline drive. "She used the twelve-digit master passcode."
Lorenzo stared at the screen, watching the recorded footage of Vivien photographing the false ledgers. "How did she get the code, Dominic? You never gave it to her."
"I know," I said, tapping my fingers on the desk. "Which means there's a keylogger hidden somewhere in my study, or someone inside my inner circle sold it to her father."
"Marco Rossi isn't smart enough to pull off a technological breach like this," Lorenzo growled, pulling out a heavy snub-nosed revolver and checking the cylinder. "He's working with someone bigger. The Russian syndicate in South Brooklyn... Nikolai Volkov."
"Volkov," I repeated, the name bitter on my tongue. Volkov had been trying to swallow our shipping docks along the Hudson River for eighteen months. A war between us had been brewing, kept at bay only by the delicate peace treaty tied to my upcoming wedding with Vivien Rossi.
"What are your orders, boss?" Lorenzo asked, his tone cold and lethal. "Do I eliminate her quietly tonight? Make it look like an accident before the wedding?"
"No," I replied instantly. "If Vivien dies tonight, Volkov and Marco Rossi will know the breach was discovered. They'll alter their plans, retreat into the shadows, and strike from a different angle. We let the wedding preparations proceed."
"You're going to marry a snake?" Lorenzo asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm going to let the snake lead me to the nest," I corrected him. "She believes she just handed Volkov the keys to my kingdom. The ledger she photographed contains coordinates to a fake shipment of weapons arriving at Pier 42 next Tuesday night—three days before the wedding."
Lorenzo’s lips curled into a dark, ruthless grin. "An ambush."
"Precisely," I said. "Volkov will send his best men to intercept that shipment, believing I'll be distracted with rehearsal dinners. We take them out at the docks, secure Volkov’s upper management, and squeeze them until Marco Rossi breaks."
"And the girl?" Lorenzo asked, gesturing toward the monitor showing Vivien sleeping upstairs. "What happens to her on the wedding day?"
"On the wedding day," I said, leaning back in my leather chair, "she gets the grand finale she earned."
I stood up to leave, but stopped near the door. "Lorenzo... I need you to double the security detail on Clara and little Emma."
Lorenzo softened slightly, nodding. "The housekeeper and her kid?"
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"Emma was the one who alerted me today," I revealed softly. "If Vivien suspects for a single second that a three-year-old child witnessed her opening that safe, she won't hesitate to silence her. Put two of our best men on Clara’s cottage at the edge of the estate. No one touches them."
"Consider it done, boss."
