Chapter 177
Chapter 177
Dominc’s POV
The moment I left Aria in the room on the bed, my expression changed. They had made her throw up.
Those disgusting motherfuckers.
I shut the door quietly, pulled out my phone, and hit speed dial. Luca answered before the first ring even finished.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Call Matthias. I want both of you in my suite. Ten minutes. Bring the black file.”
“Copy.”
I didn’t wait for pleasantries. I didn’t need them. I walked over to the small bar in the corner, poured a shot of whiskey, and downed it fast. It burned on
the way down. Good. I needed the clarity..
There was only one way they could’ve known where we were going. Only one way Victoria and Nico would’ve known the exact location of the vault.
A leak.
Inside my circle.
рис……
Luca and Matthias arrived together. Matthias had the file clutched in his hand. His expression was tight. Luca looked like he was ready to kill something.
They had lost a brother, and killing something was well needed.
“Who knew about the vault trip?” I asked without looking at either of them.
“Just us,” Luca said immediately. “You, me, Matthias. The pilot. That’s it.”
“And the hotel reservations?”
“Booked under an alias. Private line. No trace.”
“Someone fed them our location,” I said flatly. “And I want to know who.”
Matthias stepped forward, opened the black file, and laid out the names. Every employee, associate, and contact who’d had access to travel details, even the ones peripherally involved.
“We’ve already started filtering the communications,” he said. “Encrypted messages from three of our lower–level tech support were traced to an IP in
Sicily.”
“Sicily?” I repeated, a cold smile forming on my lips. “Nico’s old stronghold.”
“One of them recently received a wire transfer through a crypto wallet. We’re tracking the rest.”
“Find them,” I said, voice low. “I don’t care if it takes all night. If they’re on my payroll and they’ve been feeding him anything–kill the contract. Permanently.”
Matthias nodded. Luca looked at me, jaw clenched. “Want me to handle extraction?”
“No,” I said. “Let me deal with this one. They tried to shake my house from the inside. I’ll return the favor.”
We stood in silence for a moment, the weight of betrayal settling over us like smoke. Then I took the black file in my hand, scanned the faces, and picked
out three names.
1/4
96%
Chapter 177
All familiar.
One of them used to bring me coffee. Another managed Aria’s security rotation.
My face lit up in discuss.
“Get them out of my house,” I said. “Now.”
Luca didn’t flinch. He nodded once, turned, and barked orders into his earpiece. Within minutes, two of my own men–traitors–were dragged out, begging, sputtering, trying to deny what had already been confirmed. Surveillance, account access, phone records. All of it traced back to Nico.
I leaned against the edge of my desk, fingers tapping slowly, jaw clenched so hard it hurt. My house. My people. He’d dared to touch what was mine again.
Luca returned. “Do you want them buried or bleeding?”
“No.” I straightened. “Not yet.”
Luca’s brow lifted. “Why? They’re worthless. They’re liabilities.”
“I want to know who else they’ve spoken to. Who else Nico has in place. If we kill them now, we end the trail.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I get it. But you’re not seriously thinking we can trust a word out of their mouths.”
“We won’t.” I moved past him to pour myself a drink. “But I know someone who can get the truth.”
He didn’t have to ask. “You’re calling Felix?”
I nodded. “Send the files. Have them delivered to Felix by nightfall. I want everything–who they met, when, what they were promised. Everything.”
Luca folded his arms. “And when we get it?”
“Then we make an example.”
There was a moment of silence before he shifted the topic. “You thinking of calling a meeting?”
“Set one up,” I muttered, my gaze flicking toward the glass windows, The skyline blinked like it
smockin
- me.
“A full meeting?” Luca asked. “You think Victoria would come out of hiding for that?”
I shook my head. “No. She won’t. Not unless she feels untouchable.”
“She’s working with Nico now. That’s her armor.”
“She thinks that’s her armor,” I corrected. “But Nico’s reckless. He likes games. Victoria doesn’t.”
“You want to split them?”
“I want her desperate.”
Luca grinned. “That won’t take much. We already cut off one of her biggest suppliers last week. And half her men won’t touch her jobs after she tried selling Aria.”
“She’s bleeding,” I said simply. “And bleeding people make stupid choice.
He smirked. “Alright. I’ll set up the meeting.”
I turned back to my drink. “Keep it small, Just the inner circle. Let’s not give away too much.”
Chapter 177
“You sure you’re ready to bait her again?”
“I’m more than ready,” I said, my voice low and cold. “Because this time… I’m not playing to win.”
Luca narrowed his eyes. “What are you playing for then?”
I looked at him.
“To make them suffer.”
“Suffer? Isn’t that just pride and ego speaking?”
I didn’t answer immediately. I turned back to the screen, where a paused frame of Aria still lingered her in that dark room, wrists bruised, cheeks sunken, eyes hollow.
“No,” I said quietly. “That’s what vengeance looks like when it has a reason.”
Luca blew out a breath. “Alright. Then let’s start.”
He pulled out his phone and tapped into a secure line. “I’m calling her.”
“You think she’ll answer?”
He gave me a look. “Victoria thrives off attention. She’s been waiting for this.”
I watched as the call rang.
Once.
Twice.
Click.
A pause, then her voice–sweet, fake, and laced with venom. “Luca. I was wondering when you’d come crawling.”
His tone didn’t change. “We need to talk.”
“Oh, so now you need me?” she cooed. “After everything?”
“I’m not here to chit chat Victoria.”
“I’m disappointed. I wore heels and everything.”
Luca kept going. “Dominic wants to talk.”
“Of course he does,” she muttered. “Let me guess. He’s finally tired of pretending Aria os the better one. He needs me in his bed”
“We’re offering a meeting. Tomorrow. Neutral ground?”
She laughed. “There’s no such thing as neutral anymore, Luca.”
“It’ll be worth your while.”
“I doubt that.”
“There’s more to Aria’s inheritance than the vault,” Luca said carefully. “We both know it.”
A long pause.
08:22
Sat, 14
Chapter 177
And then: “Where?”
3
“I’ll send coordinates. It would be quiet and secure. Just you and Nico.”
“No security?”
“No extra guards. One car. One entrance. You know the rules.”
She snorted. “You still play by rules? How… quaint.”
“Are you coming or not?”
It didn’t even take her 30 more seconds.
“Yes,” she said simply.
Then the message came through. A location. Time. Dress code. Everything she usually obsessed over, laid out in cold, clean instructions.
Luca glanced at me. She must have been preparing for this moment, his eyes seem to say.
Just like I had thought.
“She agreed.”
“I know.” I downed the last of my drink.
A final message pinged his screen. Luca glanced at it and then read it aloud.
Victoria’s last words, “Don’t be late.”
