Chapter 4 - The Traitor Unmasked
The storm showed no mercy as our three-vehicle convoy tore down the highway toward Lake Forest. Rain pounded against the ballistic glass of the suburban, the dark highway illuminated only by flashes of lightning.
Inside the middle SUV, Matteo slept peacefully in Elena's lap. The initial dose of Sofia's remedy had worked wonders; his color was fully restored, and his breathing was calm. But I knew time was ticking. Forty-eight hours. That was all we had to secure the final antidote before the toxin locked his heart into irreversible failure.
"You're quiet, Luca," Elena said softly over the hum of the engine.
"I'm thinking about how many men I trusted who were eager to see my son in a casket," I replied, staring out at the blurred streetlights. "I built an empire to keep my family safe. In the end, my empire was the very thing that hunted them."
"Power attracts parasites," Elena stated simply. "Sofia knew that. That’s why she kept her research hidden even from you. She knew that if you had known, you would have started a war—a war that might have caught Matteo in the crossfire before he was strong enough to survive."
Suddenly, the vehicle lurched violent to the left. The screech of tearing metal rent the night air as a heavy black truck slammed into our passenger side!
"Ambush!" driver yelled, struggling to keep the heavy SUV on the road.
Guns barked from the darkness of the trailing vehicles. Bullets hammered against our armored windows like hail. Through the side mirror, I saw the lead SUV in our convoy—the one driven by Dominic's men—flip off the embankment in a ball of fire.
"Hold on!" I shouted, reaching over to pull Elena and Matteo down onto the floorboards.
I drew my weapon, lowered the reinforced window just two inches, and returned fire at the heavily armed truck riding alongside us. The driver of the enemy truck was wearing night-vision goggles—standard issue for high-end syndicate hit squads.
"They tracked our GPS!" Elena shouted over the deafening roar of gunfire. "How did they know we were taking this route?!"
My mind raced. Only three people knew our destination: myself, Elena, and Dominic.
I glanced forward at the radio comms unit on the dash. The channel light was solid green—it was transmitting our live location directly to an external frequency.
"Dominic," I muttered, the sickening truth finally crashing down upon me like a tidal wave.
Marcus hadn't been the mastermind. Marcus was just the brute force. Dominic—my right hand, the man who sat in my study, the man who threw the glass of scotch to 'save' me—was the one feeding information to the New York syndicate all along. He had sacrificed Marcus to clear himself of suspicion!
"Dominic!" I yelled into the radio. "You bastard!"
A cold, familiar chuckle echoed through the truck's speakers.
"I'm sorry, Luca," Dominic's voice came through the comms, stripped of all warmth and brotherhood. "It was never personal. But Chicago is changing. The Valenti family offered me fifty percent of the city. You were soft, Luca. Ever since Sofia died, you lost your edge. You became obsessed with being a father instead of a king."
"I will rip your heart out with my bare hands!" I screamed.
May you like
"You won't get the chance," Dominic replied coldly. "You won't make it to Lake Forest. Finish them," he commanded his men over the radio.
The enemy truck rammed us again, forcing our SUV off the highway. We plunged down a steep, muddy incline, crashing violently into a dense line of trees.
