Chapter 4 - The Unholy Alliance
Instead of heading directly toward Hudson Yards, Evelyn turned the van east, crossing into Queens under the screeching iron trestles of the elevated train.
"Where are you taking us?" Darius demanded, his hand dropping back to his gun.
"To the one person who can actually dismantle Albert without firing a single bullet inside the terminal," Evelyn said.
Ten minutes later, the van pulled into the loading dock of a shuttered produce warehouse in Long Island City. Two heavily armed sentries stepped out from behind a refrigerated trailer, raising automatic rifles toward the windshield.
Evelyn flashed the high beams twice, then killed the engine.
"Evelyn, this is Romano territory," Darius hissed, grabbing her shoulder to pull her back. "Are you insane? Lorenzo will flay us both alive."
"Lorenzo Romano gave me the encrypted drive, Darius," she snapped, shaking off his hand. "He let Victor walk out of that diner alive. Did you really think an ER nurse broke the Costa encryption keys on her own?"
Darius froze, staring at his wife as though she had suddenly sprouted wings made of black steel.
The rear rolling door of the warehouse rattled upward. Standing under the yellow sodium light was Lorenzo Romano himself, dressed in a charcoal cashmere coat, an unlit cigar between his teeth.
"Mrs. Costa," Lorenzo called out, spreading his hands in a theatrical welcome. "You cut it close. The party at Hudson Yards starts in twenty minutes."
Darius stepped out of the driver's side door, his gun drawn and leveled directly between Lorenzo’s eyes.
Instantly, six laser dots danced across Darius's chest from the catwalks above.
Lorenzo didn't flinch. He merely chuckled, taking the cigar from his mouth. "Put the pea-shooter away, Darius. If I wanted you dead, you would have choked on cyanide three days ago at your favorite steakhouse."
"You framed my wife," Darius snarled, his finger whitening on the trigger.
"I gave your snake of an uncle the rope to hang himself," Lorenzo corrected, his voice dropping into serious gravity. "Albert approached me six months ago. He wanted Romano muscle to wipe out your senior capos in exchange for forty percent of the port logistics."
"And you went along with it?"
"I run an organized family, not an extermination company," Lorenzo said coldly. "Albert is a rabid dog. You don't partner with a dog that bites its own master. You put it down."
Lorenzo looked past Darius toward Evelyn, his gaze shifting to one of genuine professional respect. "Your wife figured out the financial leak before my own forensic team did. She came to me to buy your life. I decided to give her the ammunition to take Albert's head instead."
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"Why?" Darius asked, his voice shaking with the weight of his collapsing reality.
"Because a city run by Darius Costa is predictable and profitable," Lorenzo answered plainly. "A city run by an unstable traitor like Albert means federal indictments for every family in New York. We ride together tonight, Costa. Or we all go to prison tomorrow."
