Chapter 5 - The Stolen Ledger
By morning, the lake house was buzzing with armed men.
I awoke to the smell of strong espresso and bacon drifting from the adjoining private sitting room. My body felt as though it had been run through a commercial shredder, but the painkillers Rossi prescribed had dulled the sharpest edges of the agony into a dull, thumping ache.
Wrapped in a thick fleece robe, I limped through the French doors.
Dante sat at an antique mahogany conference table, flanked by Luca and four senior lieutenants. On the screen mounted against the wall was a detailed breakdown of the Ivanov syndicate's supply chains, warehouse locations, and bank routing numbers. Next to Dante’s coffee cup sat a small, black titanium flash drive.
"You retrieved it," I said softly, pausing in the doorway.
Every man at the table immediately stood up out of respect—a traditional mafia courtesy that felt surreal given that twenty-four hours ago I had been a pedestrian accountant.
"Sit," Dante commanded, though his eyes softened as he looked at me. He pulled out the heavy leather chair beside him.
I took the seat carefully. Luca handed me a mug of black coffee with two sugars, just the way I liked it.
"Your ledger is a masterwork, Sofia," Luca said, genuine admiration in his voice. "You didn't just find tax evasion. You uncovered Viktor Ivanov's entire backdoor pipeline. He's been skimming twenty percent off the Ukrainian port shipments, hiding it through luxury condo developments along the Chicago river, and using the cash to buy heavy munitions from Eastern Europe."
"He's preparing for an assault on your family," I looked at Dante. "He wants to take the territory south of the Loop. He knew if he could bankrupt your logistics front, your captains would lose faith."
Dante leaned back, swirling the dark liquid in his espresso cup. "Viktor is an ambitious dog. But ambitious dogs forget that the lion doesn't negotiate for the bone."
"What are you going to do?" I asked, a knot of dread tightening in my throat. I knew Dante Moretti. When he struck, he didn't just hit targets; he erased bloodlines.
"At noon today, the heads of the Five Families are meeting at the Grand Continental Hotel for the quarterly summit," Dante explained casually, as if talking about a neighborhood barbecue. "Viktor will be there. He expects to find me unprepared, perhaps still searching for the auditor who vanished into thin air."
"He doesn't know she's alive?"
"He knows his hit squad in the warehouse was liquidated," Luca answered with a cold grin. "He doesn't know who did it. He thinks it was a rival crew or a rogue operation. He doesn't know Sofia whispered Dante’s name before the lights went out."
Dante turned to me, his gaze intense, possessive, and unyielding. "You're coming with me, Sofia."
My heart skipped a violent beat. "To the summit? Dante, I look like I walked out of an explosion. They'll know."
May you like
"That is precisely the point," Dante said, rising from his chair like an impending storm. "I want every boss in this city to see what happens when someone touches what is mine. And then, I want Viktor Ivanov to look into your eyes before I slit his throat."
***
