Chapter 7 - The Blood on the Marble
The heavy oak doors of the library locked with a sharp, mechanical click from the outside.
Vanessa stood alone in the center of the vast, book-lined room, listening to the sudden, suffocating silence that fell over the sixty-seventh floor.
She didn't freeze. She didn't scream. She didn't hide behind the leather sofa.
Her mind— hyper-analytical, precise, and fast—immediately shifted into operational mode.
She walked quickly over to Nico’s massive mahogany desk. She tapped the screen of his master security terminal. It was locked behind a twelve-digit biometric passcode.
She remembered the sequence of numbers he had typed while standing near the elevator three days ago.
0-9-1-7-2-4-8-1-1-0-0-5.
She punched the code into the keypad. The terminal chimed softly, lighting up with sixteen high-definition security feeds from across the Bellandi Tower.
The main private elevator bank on the sixty-seventh floor had been compromised.
On Screen 4, she saw six men dressed in dark tactical gear, carrying automatic weapons, advancing through the high-ceilinged marble lobby toward Nico’s private living quarters.
Leading the group was Daniel Vance—the disgraced former senior partner of Vance Capital, whose fraud she had exposed at the closing meeting three days earlier. Vance looked frantic, his eyes wide and bloodshot, holding a gun with a trembling, desperate grip.
"He's going to kill him," Vanessa whispered, her stomach cold.
Vance had lost his firm, his high-society standing, and his corporate accounts. He had nothing left to lose, and he was using a team of mercenary enforcement contractors to strike directly at the head of the Bellandi Syndicate before the state prosecutor issued his arrest warrants.
Vanessa looked around the library.
She didn't have a weapon. She didn't have tactical training.
What she had was total access to the building’s automated environmental control systems.
She tapped her fingers across Nico’s master terminal, pulling up the HVAC and structural security overrides for the sixty-seventh floor.
"Let's look at your downside risk, Daniel," Vanessa murmured through her teeth.
She initiated a manual lockdown of the northern service corridor, dropping heavy steel fire doors behind the six tactical mercenaries, cutting their team in half.
Then she activated the high-pressure halon fire suppression system in the main foyer.
On Screen 2, thick, dense white fog erupted from the ceiling vents in the foyer, blinding the three remaining mercenaries instantly.
Through the fog, Nico Bellandi moved like a shadow.
Vanessa watched the screen with breathless fascination. Nico stepped out from behind a marble pillar, silent, terrifying, and precise. Within fifteen seconds, he disarmed the first contractor, used him as a human shield against a spray of bullets, and brought down the second with two swift, devastating shots.
The third mercenary fled back toward the elevator.
Daniel Vance was left standing alone in the center of the marble foyer, blinded by the fog, waving his handgun wildly into the air.
"Nico!" Vance screamed, his voice cracking with hysterical rage. "I know you're in here! You ruined me! That bitch ruined me!"
Nico stepped out of the white fog ten feet behind Vance. He didn't raise his weapon. He walked forward soundlessly, caught Vance by his collar, and slammed him face-first into the polished marble floor with a brutal, sickening crack.
Vance dropped his gun, gasping for air as blood pooled beneath his nose.
Nico set his heavy boot directly onto the back of Vance’s neck, pinning him to the floor like a trapped rat.
"You mentioned a lady, Daniel," Nico said, his low, gravelly voice echoing clearly through the terminal’s audio feed. "I suggest you choose your next words with extreme care."
In the library, the mechanical lock on the door disengaged with a soft click.
Vanessa threw the oak doors open and stepped out into the foyer. The white halon fog was clearing slowly, venting through the high ceiling exhausts.
Nico turned his head as she approached. He looked dark, wild, and blood-splattered, his black shirt torn at the shoulder, holding a smoking firearm in his right hand.
He looked at her, his dark eyes instantly checking her body for injuries. "I told you to stay in the library, Vanessa."
Vanessa walked right past the three unconscious mercenaries on the floor, stopping two feet from where Nico stood over Daniel Vance.
She looked down at Vance’s bleeding, pathetic face.
"You missed an adjustment in your tactical entry model, Daniel," Vanessa said coolly, holding her silver Parker pen in her hand. "You assumed the environmental controls were operated from the security basement. They were operated from the library."
Vance sobbed into the marble floor, unable to speak.
Nico looked at Vanessa, a slow, magnificent smile breaking across his dark features.
"Marcus," Nico called out as his security team finally breached the service doors. "Take Mr. Vance to the river docks. Let him explain his financial accounting to the fish."
"Yes, boss," Marcus said, dragging Vance away by his arms.
Nico set his gun down on a side table, walked across the marble floor, and stood directly in front of Vanessa. He reached out with his calloused, blood-stained fingers, gently lifting her chin so she had to look into his dark eyes.
"You saved my life tonight," Nico whispered.
"I protected my investment," Vanessa corrected him, her voice trembling slightly despite her best efforts. "If you die, my equity stake in the South Branch warehouses becomes legally ambiguous."
Nico let out a deep, booming laugh that echoed off the high ceilings of his mansion.
May you like
He leaned down, pulled her frame tightly against his broad chest, and pressed his lips against hers in a fierce, possessive, breathtaking kiss that tasted of rain, fire, and absolute victory.
Vanessa didn't pull away. She wrapped her arms around his broad neck, burying her fingers in his dark hair, surrendering completely to the storm.
