Chapter 4 - The Hunt Begins
I walked to my desk, picked up my encrypted satellite phone, and hit speed dial one.
Dante, my chief enforcer and the only man who had served beside my father before me, answered on the second ring. "Boss. Did the meeting wrap up clean?"
"Richard Blake left the penthouse five minutes ago," I said, my voice deadpan and flat. "Where is his vehicle?"
"Traffic camera feed has him heading west toward the Lincoln Tunnel," Dante answered smoothly. "His private jet at Teterboro filed a flight plan for Zurich twenty minutes ago. Why? Did something happen with the territory split?"
"He killed Julian," I stated simply.
The silence on the other end was absolute. Dante had carried Julian out of burning buildings when we were teenagers. He loved my brother like a son.
"Confirm, Alexander," Dante whispered, the friendly enforcer gone, replaced by a ruthless killer.
"Confirmed by Julian's own hand. Richard has eight years of stolen syndicate assets and is fleeing the country. Shut down every bridge. Ground the airport. If his car reaches New Jersey, every man on our payroll from Manhattan to Newark is dead."
"Consider it done," Dante replied, and the line went dead.
I hung up the phone and walked back over to Elena. She was staring at me, her eyes wide with shock. She knew the name Richard Blake. She knew the power he commanded in the city.
"Mr. Carter..."
"Call me Alexander," I interrupted gently. "From this moment on, you do not clean another floor, you do not wash another dish, and you do not answer to anyone in this city except me."
I reached out and gently rested my hand on Sophie's head. "You asked for one hundred million dollars, little girl. You unlocked the door. The bet stands."
Sophie giggled, thinking it was a game. "I want chocolate with sprinkles!"
"You'll have chocolate with sprinkles, and you'll have the penthouse below this one, and every school in this city will open its doors to you," I promised.
I turned toward the two guards stationed at my private elevator doors who had remained behind. "Take Elena and Sophie to my private residence in the Hamptons. Put twenty armed men on the perimeter. If so much as a stray dog approaches the fence, put it down. Nobody knows they exist until I say so."
Elena stepped forward, clutching my arm. "Alexander... what are you going to do to Richard?"
May you like
I looked into her worried eyes, seeing the woman my brother had died to protect.
"I'm going to give him the funeral Julian never had," I said.
