Chapter 5 - The Master of Strategy
By 5:00 AM, the local emergency emergency radio channels were in complete chaos. Damian Graves had been found by the estateās morning shift staff, tied to his own ceiling beam, unconscious but alive, with exactly twelve non-lethal fractures systematically distributed across his arms and legsāthe exact number of strikes Ryan had confessed Damian had delivered to Tessa.
Harold Graves stood in the main study of the central villa, his face pale with a mixture of immense rage and sudden, unadulterated fear. His remaining five sonsāMarcus, Julian, Thomas, Ethan, and Lucasāwere gathered around his mahogany desk, all of them heavily armed, their usual arrogant postures completely gone.
"How did he get past the security net?!" Harold screamed, slamming his fist onto the desk. "We spend three million dollars a year on private security! And a single soldier turns my eldest son into a human pretzel inside his own house?!"
The door to the study opened, and Detective Collins walked inside, his uniform disheveled, his eyes darting around anxiously. "Harold, we have a massive problem. The federal prosecutors just executed an emergency raid on your harbor offices. They have full digital copies of your offshore ledger lines. Someone leaked the master encryption keys to them at 3:15 AM."
Haroldās heart skipped a beat. "The ledger? Only Tessa had access to those encryption keys... and sheās brain-dead in a hospital bed!"
"It wasn't Tessa," Marcus, the second oldest brother, whispered, looking at his laptop screen. "Look at the digital signature on the federal leak notice. Itās a Delta Force communications stamp. Itās Carter. Heās not trying to kill us, Father... heās dismantling our entire empire piece by piece."
Suddenly, the massive flat-screen monitor on the study wall flickered to life, overriding the estate's central server. The screen displayed a live video feed of Tessaās hospital room. She was resting peacefully, surrounded by three heavily armed elite military private security contractors Jack had hired to protect her.
A voice cut through the study speakersāJackās voice, calm, cold, and echoing with absolute authority.
"Good morning, Harold," Jack said. "By now, you know about Damian. And you know about your shipping lines. You treated my wife like an object you could break to protect your secrets. But you forgot that she is a Sterling by blood, and an operator's wife by choice."
"Carter! You bastard!" Harold shouted at the screen. "Iāll hire every assassin in this country to hunt you down! You won't leave this city alive!"
May you like
"You have five sons left in that room, Harold," Jack continued, completely ignoring the old man's threats. "Marcus, Julian, Thomas, Ethan, and Lucas. All of them participated in the restraint and assault of my wife. At 12:00 PM today, the corporate stock of Graves Holdings will officially hit zero. And at 12:00 PM, the second phase of my deployment begins. Tell your boys to look over their shoulders. Because the shadows are coming for every single one of them."
The monitor went black, leaving the Wolf Pack in a state of absolute, suffocating terror.
