2025-10-16 21:26:45
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67: WHO IS WHO?
Liam's POVEven when all the lights were back on, I replayed what had happened in my head all over again.One second I was watching Council Member Hargrove drain his third glass of wine and the next everything went black. Not dim. Not shadowy. Black like someone had thrown a bag over my head.Someone screamed. A woman. Then gunfire erupted and I stopped thinking.I grabbed Claire's arm and yanked her down. She hit the floor hard next to me and I felt her try to pull away but I held on. My other hand went to my belt where I kept my piece but my fingers found nothing. Right. Security had made everyone check weapons at the door. Great planning."Stay down," I hissed at Claire.More shots. Three. Four. I lost count. They were coming from different directions and the muzzle flashes lit up the room in brief horrible snapshots. People running. People diving. A man in a suit stumbling backward with his hands up.I needed to find Michael and Ashley. They'd been near the east wall last time I s
66: THE GATHERING
Liam's POVThe discovery led us down another path we hadn't expected. While tracing his connection to the fabricated evidence, Elijah found communications between Charles and someone within the Rossi family who was coordinating everything from the inside."Look at this email thread," Elijah said while pointing at his screen. "Charles is responding to someone named Dante Rossi. Do you know who that is?"I searched my memory for that name among all the family members I had met since becoming Don but came up empty."I've never heard of anyone called Dante Rossi," I admitted."That's because he doesn't exist in any of the current family records," Elijah explained after running searches through multiple databases. "But I found references to the name in archived documents from twenty years ago. He was part of the council back then before his name disappeared from all official records.""Someone erased him from the family history," I said."Or he erased himself," Elijah suggested. "Maybe he
65: THE THIRD PLAYER
Liam's POVI stared at the files Ashley had sent while my first instinct screamed to delete everything and pretend I never saw them. The same game was starting again with both siblings providing evidence against each other, both claiming to be innocent while the other was guilty, both asking me to choose a side that would end with someone dead.Part of me wanted to ignore all of it and walk away from the trial, from the Rossi family, from everything that had trapped me in this impossible situation. But I couldn't afford to ignore either Ashley or Michael because despite their lies and manipulations, they were both assets with years of experience navigating this world. I needed to figure out how to use them rather than be used by them."What are you looking at?" Claire asked while setting a plate of toast in front of me."Evidence that makes everything more complicated," I replied before explaining what Michael had asked me to do and what Ashley had just sent in response.Claire read t
64: THE REQUEST
Liam's POVMichael called me the very next morning after the court case was dismissed. I had barely slept after everything that happened and I was sitting in the hotel room drinking coffee while Claire was still asleep when my phone buzzed with his name on the screen."We need to talk," Michael said without greeting when I answered."About what?" I asked, though I already suspected this conversation was related to the debt he had mentioned yesterday."Not over the phone," Michael replied. "Meet me at the warehouse on Roosevelt Avenue in one hour."He hung up before I could respond, leaving me staring at my phone while dread settled in my stomach. I knew he was going to ask for something significant and I had agreed yesterday that I couldn't refuse when he came to collect.I left a note for Claire saying I had business to handle, then drove to the warehouse Michael had specified. When I arrived, he was already there waiting with a folder in his hands that looked thick with documents."
63: THE DEBT
Liam's POVThe hearing about the flagged payment happened two days after we discovered it in the audit report. Sarah had tried to get a continuance to give us more time to investigate the signature forgery but Judge Morrison denied the request, saying the case had already dragged on long enough.Claire and I sat at the defense table while Nathan's legal team prepared to destroy us with evidence we couldn't properly refute without exposing my connection to organized crime. Patterson stood up with a smile that told me he knew he had won before even speaking."Your Honor, the forensic audit revealed a transaction that proves exactly what we've been arguing all along," Patterson began. "A payment of two point three million dollars from Harrington Tech to an offshore entity that traces directly back to the Rossi crime family."He distributed copies of the transaction records to the judge while continuing his presentation."Claire Harrington approved this payment personally," Patterson said
62: THE FLAGGED TRANSACTION
Liam's POVThe forensic team arrived at Harrington Tech headquarters three days after the judge ordered the audit.They were a group of five accountants who looked like they had never smiled in their entire lives, carrying boxes of equipment and setting up a temporary office in one of the conference rooms.Claire gave them access to everything they requested without hesitation because we had nothing to hide.Or at least that's what I kept telling myself while watching them dive into four years of financial records.The audit took four weeks of methodical examination. Every contract Claire had signed, every vendor she had approved, every strategic decision documented in board minutes got scrutinized by people whose job was finding problems.I tried to stay away from the building during this time because my presence would only fuel Nathan's narrative about inappropriate influence, but Claire kept me updated on their progress through nightly phone calls."They're very thorough," Claire t
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