The Masked Tycoon

CHAPTER TEN

“Move Elena now!”

Adrian’s voice cracked through Leonard’s earpiece as he raced up the stairwell. Sirens wailed faintly below.

“What happened?” Leonard demanded, gunmetal calm.

“They breached the perimeter with two SUVs, armed men. They weren’t testing this time. They’re here.”

Thirty minutes earlier.

Elena was leaving the gallery when she felt it: the weight of someone watching. The black sedan from the café days ago slid into view.

“Adrian, that car again,” she whispered into her phone.

“Get inside. Lock doors. I’m sending backup.”

But before she could move, a man stepped out, casual, carrying nothing but a folded newspaper. She couldn’t see his face, but his stride screamed confidence.

At the same moment, in a hidden Stonecliff boardroom, Victor slammed his fist on the table.

“This is over today,” he barked. “You said leverage, we'll make Kane watch everything burn.”

The chairman’s cold smile didn’t flicker. “You think too small, Victor. He expects violence. What he doesn’t expect is betrayal inside his own walls.”

Victor froze. “Inside?”

“Yes,” the chairman said smoothly. “We have someone close enough to him to leave a door open.”

Back at the penthouse, Leonard met Adrian halfway down the hall.

“How close?”

“Front gate’s down. Cameras are blind for sixty seconds. Someone fed them access codes.”

Leonard’s face darkened. “Then we already have a traitor.”

Elena’s voice came through again, urgent. “Leonard, they’re not after me. They’re after something else. I can feel it.”

“Stay where you are,” Leonard ordered.

“I can’t. The sedan’s blocking the street. Someone’s coming this way.”

The line went dead.

Leonard’s world sharpened to a single point. “Trace her phone. Get me eyes on her now!”

Adrian’s fingers flew. “Tracking… She's three blocks from the south exit. If they want her, that’s where they’ll move.”

Leonard didn’t hesitate. “Bring the car. And Adrian arm for war.”

At the same time:

Victor climbed into his car, phone pressed to his ear. “Do it now. I want him off balance. He needs to know nowhere is safe.”

The voice on the other end replied, “Understood.”

Elena darted into a side alley, breath coming fast. She could hear footsteps, slow and deliberate.

“Mrs. Kane,” a calm voice called. “You shouldn’t run. We only need to talk.”

Her heart pounded. Talk? No chance. She pulled out the small taser Adrian insisted she carry.

“Stay back,” she warned.

The man laughed softly. “Brave. He married well.”

Leonard’s car screeched around the corner seconds later.

“Out,” he barked at Adrian.

They moved as one, silent, weapons ready.

“Elena!”

She appeared at the far end of the alley, eyes wide. The man with the newspaper dropped it; beneath was a glint of steel.

Leonard’s warning was calm but lethal. “Touch her and you disappear.”

The man smiled. “You’re fast. But not fast enough.”

Two more figures appeared behind him.

The fight was quick, brutal. Adrian dropped the first with a precise strike; Leonard’s move was colder by one punch, a gun twisted away, a knee to the ribs.

The man coughed blood, still smiling. “This isn’t over. You’re bleeding time, Kane. They’re already inside.”

Leonard froze. “Inside where?”

But the man only laughed until Adrian silenced him with a blow.

Back at the estate, chaos reigned. Guards pinned a young tech aide to the floor.

“Caught him with access cards,” one said.

Miranda Westwood arrived, face pale. “What is happening here?”

“He opened the gate,” the guard replied. “Feed them codes.”

Victor stepped out of the shadows. “And who do you think told him to?”

When Leonard returned with Elena, the house was locked down. Adrian threw the traitor’s phone on the desk.

“Encrypted, but we pulled one thing: timed messages to Victor.”

Leonard turned to his wife. “This is what I was trying to keep you out of.”

She didn’t flinch. “Too late. We’re already in.”

Stonecliff moved the next morning. A citywide blackout hit three of Leonard’s holdings. Two accounts bled funds.

Adrian stared at the screens. “They’re throwing everything.”

Leonard only nodded. “Good. They think they’re winning.”

“What do you mean good?”

“Because they just showed me where they’re weakest.”

Victor was waiting for his mother that evening, rage simmering.

“You knew Kane wasn’t just some son-in-law,” he accused.

Miranda’s face was unreadable. “I suspected. I also suspected you’d be foolish enough to provoke him.”

“You’re siding with him?”

“I’m siding with survival,” she said coolly. “And right now, you are the biggest liability in this family.”

Leonard made his next move that night. A package arrived at Stonecliff headquarters: three simple files, each one detailing internal fraud, criminal ties, and off-shore accounts.

A note clipped to the top: Your house burns next.

The chairman didn’t smile this time.

“Accelerate,” he ordered. “Kane is not playing defense anymore.”

As Leonard watched the city lights from his office, Elena stepped up beside him.

“They won’t stop, will they?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “But neither will I.”

She touched his arm. “Then whatever’s coming, we face it together.”

He allowed himself one rare smile. “That’s exactly what they’re afraid of.”