Chapter 5 - The Syndicate’s Counter-Strike
When Naomi entered the private study, the air was thick with the scent of expensive cigars and cold panic.
Marco Bellini’s primary caporegime, a ruthless fixer named Salvatore Vance, had left a calling card at one of Moretti’s primary shipping docks in Brooklyn. It wasn't a bomb or a threat written on paper. It was a digital transmission intercepted by Moretti's cyber-security grid.
Luca stood over his mahogany desk, his knuckles pressed flat against the wood, glaring down at a digital map of the city harbor.
"What did they do?" Naomi asked, stepping quietly into the room.
"They didn't just attack a warehouse, Naomi," Luca said, his voice dangerously low. "They hit the medical logistics depot that supplies specialized neurological treatments to three major hospitals in the tri-state area—including the facility handling my mother's long-term care medications."
Naomi’s breath caught. "They're trying to hit you through Isabella."
"They think because Vivian failed to seize legal control of the estate through the courts, they can bleed us out through supply chains," Luca straightened up, his eyes flashing with lethal intent. "Marco is gathering the inner circle. We strike back tonight."
"Luca, wait," Naomi stepped forward, placing a hand on his forearm. The solid muscle beneath his sleeve was rigid as iron. "Think about this. If you launch a full-scale war in the middle of the harbor, the federal task force will be all over your ports before morning. That's what Bellini wants. He wants you to react like a thug, not a CEO."
Luca looked down at her hand on his arm, then up into her eyes. The raw fury in his expression slowly gave way to a calculating calm.
"And what would you do, Miss Carter?" he asked, testing her.
"Don't attack their docks," Naomi said steadily. "Attack their ledgers. Vivian spent five months downloading financial records into that flash drive before we exposed her. Most of those files contained shell company accounts tied to the Bellini syndicate's offshore laundering network in the Caymans. If you hand those files anonymously to the federal prosecutor's office through a secure channel, the FBI will freeze their entire operating budget within twenty-four hours without a single bullet being fired."
Luca stared at her in silence for several long seconds. Then, a slow, dangerous smile crept across his lips.
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"You have a remarkably vicious mind, Naomi," he murmured approvingly.
"I spent five months listening to an old woman talk about survival," she retorted smoothly. "I learned from the best."
