I Was The School Joke Until I Bought The City

10 The Blueprint for Retaliation (Jayson Velasco POV)

" Hand over the master data storage key right now, Velasco, or my security personnel will drag you out of this building in plastic zip ties," Alistair Vance bellowed through the reinforced glass partition, his polished leather boot kicking the heavy metal frame of the vault door.

I exhaled slowly, my fingers steady as I pushed an old, obsolete sample drive into the primary terminal slot while keeping the real crown registry mirror safely secured inside Elena's winter boot. " The data transfer is completely locked into the local drive, Mr. Vance... you can have the hardware, but the system logs are already processing through the main network pipeline."

" Open this door, you insignificant thief!" Alistair screamed, his face completely flushed a deep, panicked crimson under the blinking red emergency strobes as the security guard beside him began punching override codes into the wall keypad.

" Let them breach the locks, Jayson... they are already too late to stop what you started," Elena whispered fiercely, her slender hands wrapping around my arm with a possessive, trembling grip that felt like a permanent brand on my skin in the dim corridor light.

" I am going to make them pay for every single ounce of misery they handed me, Elena," I said, my voice thick with a dark, volatile intensity that vibrated right through the narrow gap separating our bodies. " Your father thought he could use my desperation to keep me chained to this basement desk... he thought he could steal my eco sustainable blueprint and hand it to Silas Walter without a single consequence... but he just handed me the keys to his own execution."

" Tell me the rest of the financial math before they smash through the glass," she pleaded emotionally, her dark eyes flashing with a wild, intoxicating hunger as she leaned her forehead against my shoulder, completely indifferent to the chaos erupting on the other side of the room. " How much do we need to weaponize this orphan title against them?"

" The acquisition cost for an unregistered, abandoned subterranean parcel in the old crown registry is absolute pocket change," I murmured, a cold, ruthless smile spreading across my lips as I pulled her closer into my space, our breath mingling in the stagnant air of the server room. " Because the city archives classified these deep stratum grids as obsolete railway ghosts, the land registry office sells them for absolute pennies... it will cost less than five thousand pounds to officially purchase the deep foundation title directly underneath Marcus Thorne's Mayfair mega mansion."

" Five thousand pounds to completely freeze a five hundred million pound corporate development," she breathed, a sharp, ecstatic laugh escaping her throat as she looked up into my face, her expression a mix of profound heartbreak for what they did to me and pure, obsessive adoration for the weapon I had uncovered. " It is total genius, Jayson... if you register that title under your own name, you legally own the exact rock where their load bearing columns are being poured... you can file an immediate High Court injunction to halt the entire active construction site."

" And the moment the construction freezes, the financial bleeding begins," I explained, the soaring adrenaline making my heart thump a violent rhythm against my ribs as the glass partition began to spiderweb under the guard's heavy metal baton. " Marcus Thorne will pull his capital out of Walter's Regal within forty eight hours to protect his tech conglomerate's stock value... the interest rates on Silas Walter's bridging loans will compound instantly... they will be forced to choose between paying me whatever extortionate price I demand or watching their entire empire slide into absolute bankruptcy."

" You are going to completely ruin them," she whispered, her voice dropping to a sensual, reckless pitch that sent a shivering jolt of pure desire straight down my spine. " You are going to take everything my father built on his lies... and you are going to take it all using the exact brain he tried to bury in this dungeon."

" I am taking you with me when I climb out of this hole, Elena," I said, my hands sliding up her neck to frame her jawline, my thumbs wiping away the dry tear tracks on her pale cheeks. " I am a fired novice with an eviction notice waiting at my flat... I have no family legacy... no elite safety net... just this flash drive and a burning need to watch them crawl... are you truly ready to watch your family name turn to absolute ashes for me?"

" I would rather burn in hell with you than spend another single minute living as his perfect corporate pawn," she cried out emotionally, her fingers digging frantically into the fabric of my shirt as she pulled my mouth down to hers, her kiss explosive, desperate, and heartbreakingly deep, sealing our absolute alliance in the dark. " I am obsessed with your vision, Jayson... I belong to you now... let us destroy them all."

The heavy glass partition shattered completely with a deafening explosion of sharp fragments, spraying the concrete floor with sparkling debris as Alistair Vance stormed into the server bay, his eyes wide with a frantic, unhinged fury.

" Grab him and strip his pockets!" Alistair roared to the guards, pointing his trembling finger directly at my chest as he spotted the plastic drive sitting in the primary terminal slot. " Elena... get away from that pathetic loser right this second... do you have any idea what he has done to our family infrastructure?"

" I know exactly what he did, Father... he finally read the fine print you were too arrogant to check," Elena shot back coldly, stepping out of the shadows with her head held high, her voice dripping with an icy contempt that made Alistair visibly recoil.

I stepped forward, allowing the heavy security guards to grab my arms and wrench them behind my back, offering no physical resistance as Alistair snatched the decoy drive out of the terminal with a triumphant, sweating grin.

" You are completely finished in this city, Velasco," Alistair hissed, leaning into my face, his breath smelling of stale coffee and pure panic as his fingers clamped around the stolen plastic hardware. " I have already authorized Silas Walter to file the maximum non disclosure injunction against you... you leave this building with absolutely nothing but the clothes on your back."

" I am leaving exactly when I want to, Alistair," I replied, a sharp, witty smirk breaking through my exhaustion as I looked past his shoulder toward the elevator doors. " Enjoy your stolen blueprint while you still can... because the foundation beneath your feet is about to disappear completely."

" Get this trash out of my sight before I have the police dump him in the street," Alistair barked to the guards, his voice shaking with an intense tension he couldn't completely hide.

The guards shoved me toward the exit, but I kept my eyes locked onto Elena, watching her adjust her winter boot as she followed us out of the dungeon, her dark eyes promising total retribution.

" Where do you think you are going to find five thousand pounds by tomorrow morning, you arrogant little clerk?" Alistair called out after me as the elevator doors began to slide shut.