Chapter 8 - The Father's Game

Vincent didn't move. He stood in front of Naomi’s desk, shielding her body with his own, his dark eyes locked onto his father’s face.
“You look good for a dead man, Dominic,” Vincent said softly, his voice carrying no panic, no surprise, and no fear.
Dominic laughed, a dry, cold sound that rattled in his chest. “I had to die, Vincent. The federal prosecutors were closing in back in 2021. The only way to save the family fortune was to let you take over the Syndicate, draw all the federal wiretaps to yourself, and let everyone think I was six feet under.”
“And my mother?” Vincent asked, his jaw tightening. “She lived in Switzerland while I spent five years fighting three federal indictments?”
“Your mother deserved a quiet retirement in the Alps,” Dominic replied casually, stepping closer, leaning on his walking stick. “She suffered enough during the gang wars of the nineties. You, on the other hand... you were born for this life, Vincent. You enjoyed the power. You enjoyed being the King of the North Side.”
Dominic gestured toward Naomi’s glowing screens behind Vincent.
“Shut down the servers, girl,” Dominic ordered Naomi coldly. “Agent Vance’s team controls this facility. The three hundred million is already moving to a private bank in Liechtenstein. By morning, my wife and I will be legally dead forever, with new names and clean records.”
Naomi slowly stood up from her chair, stepping out from behind Vincent’s shoulder. She looked at Dominic Caruso with pure, icy contempt.
“You’re wrong, Mr. Caruso,” Naomi said softly.
Dominic frowned. “What did you say?”
Naomi raised her arm, holding up a small, black USB thumb drive with a flashing blue light.
“I didn't run the reversal script to steal your money back,” Naomi revealed, a cold, sharp smile touching her lips. “I used your biometric authorization key to initiate a public disclosure under the Federal Whistleblower Protection Act of 2010.”
Agent Vance’s face instantly lost all color. “What?! What did she say?!”
“Ten seconds ago,” Naomi announced, her voice ringing clearly across the hangar, “every transaction, every wire transfer, every bribe paid to Agent Vance, and every offshore account held by Dominic Caruso was uploaded directly to the public database of the United States House Judiciary Committee.”
Dominic’s eyes bulged in sudden, blind terror. “You little bitch—!”
“Look at your phone, Agent Vance,” Vincent suggested softly.
Agent Vance pulled his encrypted satellite phone from his tactical vest. The screen was flashing bright red with incoming calls from the Director of the FBI and the Federal Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C.
“Warrants have been issued,” Vance whispered, his hands trembling violently as he dropped his phone onto the concrete. “They... they know everything.”
The federal tactical officers behind Vance looked at each other in confusion, slowly lowering their assault rifles as the realization set in that their own superior officer was about to be arrested.
Dominic stumbled backward, his face gray as ashes, his walking stick slipping from his fingers. The grand master plan he had spent fifteen years constructing had been completely shattered in thirty seconds by a twenty-six-year-old catering temp with an auditor’s license.
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Vincent stepped forward, looking down at his broken father.
“You built an empire on fear and betrayal, Dominic,” Vincent whispered softly. “And you lost it to a woman who earns twelve dollars an hour.”