Chapter 5 - Unmasking the Mole in the Boardroom
Declan stared at me in stunned silence, the tablet trembling slightly in his massive hand. Enzo drew his sidearm halfway from its holster, eyeing me as if I had just revealed I was an undercover federal agent. ""What did you just say?"" Declan asked, his voice deadly quiet. ""You heard me,"" I said, stepping closer despite the blood on his shirt and the armed guards surrounding us. ""For the past fourteen months, while you were busy playing corporate warlord, I’ve been quietly reconciling the discrepancy ledgers. Someone inside Cross Meridian Logistics has been funneling syndicate funds through shell companies registered in the Cayman Islands. And the digital signature on those unauthorized transfers belongs to your Chief Operating Officer, Marcus Vance.""
The name dropped like a live grenade into the quiet corridor. Marcus Vance was Declan’s cousin, the smiling, impeccably tailored executive who brought donuts to every Monday morning meeting and whom everyone in the building trusted implicitly. Enzo lowered his weapon slowly, shock registering across his hardened features. Declan’s expression darkened into a terrifying mask of pure fury—not the explosive anger of an ordinary man, but the cold, calculated wrath of an apex predator realizing he had been betrayed by his own blood. ""Marcus..."" Declan growled, the word sounding like a death sentence. ""He’s been setting me up to take the fall for the federal racketeering investigation.""
""Exactly,"" I said, pulling up the detailed spreadsheet on the tablet and pointing to the hidden transaction codes. ""And tonight's hit squad wasn't just a random turf war. It was timed precisely with the scheduled upload of the fraudulent audit files to the federal prosecutor's office. If you died in that elevator, Marcus would inherit the entire empire by morning, blaming the corruption on your 'criminal legacy'."" Declan looked from the glowing screen back to my face, a profound, unreadable emotion flickering in his dark eyes. He reached out, his large hand gently cupping my cheek, ignoring the blood smeared across his own skin. ""You aren't just an assistant, Norah,"" he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. ""You're the only person in Chicago who managed to outsmart a ghost.""
