The Volkov's inheritance: 90 days to rule

Chapter 7:My Father Sold People

Adrian’s POV

The metal of the safety-deposit-box key was cold against my palm.

I was still staring at the handwritten note. *For when you need it most. — N.V.* My mind kept turning the same questions over and over. How did a simple man like Mr. Ricci end up holding something that belonged to my father? What was inside that bank box that was worth dying for?

“Adrian.”

Victoria’s voice was sharp. I looked up. She was staring at my hand. At the key.

“What did you find?” she demanded.

I held it up between two fingers. Before she could take it, her eyes dropped to the open bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. There was a thick, leather-bound folder tucked behind a false bottom that I hadn’t noticed until the drawer flew open.

Victoria pushed past me. She grabbed the folder and flipped it open under the weak basement light.

Her face went pale.

“Victoria?” I asked. “What is it?”

She didn’t answer. She started flipping through the pages. But I stepped closer, looking over her shoulder.

It wasn’t just financial records. It was photographs. Shipping manifests. Columns of names.

Cargo: 14 units. Destination: Tripoli. Live stock.

My stomach turned.

“What is this?” I whispered.

Victoria looked up at me. For the first time since I had met her, I saw genuine fear in those dark eyes. “This is the real ledger, Adrian. Proof of everything. The arms dealing. The money laundering.” She paused. “And the human trafficking.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “He sold people. My father sold people.”

“Yes,” Victoria said quietly. “And Enzo didn’t kill Mr. Ricci just to frame you. He killed him because Mr. Ricci had this. This is the history of the empire. Enzo has been looking for this file for years. He thought he was just tying up a loose end. But this file could put him in prison for life.”

A heavy thud echoed from the floor above us. Then another.

Footsteps. Multiple sets. Moving fast.

“The police,” Victoria hissed.

She didn’t hesitate. She folded the thick folder in half, lifted the back of her tailored blazer, and shoved the documents into the waistband of her skirt. She tightened her belt hard to keep the bulge flat against her back.

I watched her do it. She didn’t hand the ledger to me. She didn’t ask what I wanted to do with it. She just took it.

I felt a cold spike of distrust. Why was she hiding it from me?

“We have to go. Now,” she said, grabbing my arm. “If the police find us here, Enzo will know. He has ears inside the force. If he hears we were at the scene, he will know we found the file. And then none of us will live to see morning.”

We ran toward the basement stairs. My heart hammered against my ribs so hard it hurt. The basement was almost completely dark. The only light came from the open back door where rain still poured in steady sheets.

I reached the door and threw my shoulder against it. I turned back to make sure the others were behind me.

Victoria was right on my heels. But Raven wasn’t.

She had stopped halfway across the basement floor. She was looking back into the pitch-black shadows near the old boiler room.

“Raven!” I yelled over the sound of the rain. “Let’s go!”

She didn’t move. She took one quick step into the darkness. I saw her reach out—her hand moving fast, as if she was grabbing something from someone hidden in the shadows or taking something from a dark corner. I couldn’t see who it was. I couldn’t see what it was.

Then she shoved whatever it was deep into the inside pocket of her tactical jacket, turned, and sprinted toward us.

“The car! Move!” Raven yelled.

We burst out of the back door into the rain. The black SUV was waiting two blocks down, engine already running, headlights off.

I shoved the safety-deposit-box key deep into my pocket. The key to the bank box. The key my father left me. Whatever was inside it, it was separate from the ledger Victoria was hiding against her spine.

I threw myself into the back seat. Victoria dove into the front passenger side.

Dominic was behind the wheel. His face was white with panic.

“The police!” he shouted, pointing at the flashing blue lights already turning onto the street. “I was listening to the scanner! They got a tip! We have to go!”

Raven threw herself into the driver’s seat, shoved Dominic into the passenger side without ceremony, and slammed the door.

“Drive!” Victoria screamed, voice cracking. “Raven, drive the damn car!”

Raven’s foot hit the gas. The tires spun on the wet pavement, sending up a cloud of white smoke. We rocketed forward just as two police cruisers screeched to a halt outside the front of the apartment building.

We blew past the intersection. The blue lights faded in the rearview mirror until they were only a memory.

Silence dropped inside the car. The only sound was our heavy, ragged breathing and the steady slap of the windshield wipers.

Victoria twisted in her seat to face Raven. Her eyes were furious.

“What were you doing?” she snapped. “You stopped! The cops were right there! You could have gotten us all arrested!”

“I had to get something,” Raven said. Her voice was completely flat. Her eyes stayed fixed on the road.

“Get what?” Victoria demanded. “What was so important that you risked our lives for it?”

Raven didn’t answer. She just gripped the steering wheel tighter until her knuckles went white.

I leaned forward from the back seat, studying Raven’s profile in the dim light of the passing streetlamps.

She had reached into the dark. She had taken something. Or spoken to someone. I didn’t know which. I only knew that whatever she had shoved into her jacket was important enough to risk all of us.

I looked at Victoria, who was still adjusting her blazer to hide the bulge of the stolen ledger against her back. I looked at Dominic, who was gripping the dashboard with both hands, knuckles white.

We were all hiding something.

I looked out the window as the city blurred past in the rain. My hand stayed clenched tightly around the safety-deposit-box key until the metal edges bit into my skin.

The game was getting bigger.

And I was starting to realize that everyone on my side was playing a different angle.