Chapter 5 - The Shadow of the Syndicate
By 4:00 PM, the rain had turned into a torrential downpour, washing over the concrete streets of the Loop.
Gabriel sat in the back of his dark armored sedan, parked outside the headquarters of Costa Holdings. He had sent the Marinos away with polite excuses, canceled three executive meetings, and ordered Arthur to stand down all surveillance on Clara.
Arthur sat in the front passenger seat, looking at Gabriel through the rear-view mirror.
"Where is she, Arthur?" Gabriel asked quietly, his voice flat and exhausted.
"She took a taxi from the Drake to the Union Station district, sir," Arthur reported softly. "She paid the driver with cash from an old safety deposit stash she kept in Indiana. She lost our secondary tail at the train terminal."
Gabriel leaned his head back against the leather headrest, staring out at the rain-streaked window.
He had won every corporate war he had ever fought. He had outmaneuvered federal prosecutors, crushed rival crime families, and acquired half the commercial real estate in Illinois. Yet sitting in the back of his two-hundred-thousand-dollar car, he felt entirely ruined.
His phone buzzed on the leather seat beside him.
It was an encrypted call from a private number.
Gabriel answered it immediately, holding it to his ear. "Clara?"
"She isn't here, Gabriel," a rough, heavy voice rasped through the speaker.
Gabriel’s entire body went rigid. "Salvatore?"
"You thought you were clever, Gabriel," Salvatore Marino chuckled darkly through the line. "You thought you could bring a pretty little assistant into our meeting, pretend she was handling routine administrative business, and hide the fact that she knows where every corpse in your company is buried."
Gabriel’s hand tightened around the phone until the plastic groaned under the pressure. "Salvatore, if you touch her—"
"I haven't touched her yet," Salvatore interrupted coldly. "My boys picked her up as she was leaving a diner near Union Station. She’s currently enjoying the hospitality of our warehouse on 31st Street."
"She has nothing to do with our deal, Marino!" Gabriel yelled, his terrifying calm completely evaporating. "She resigned from my company this morning! She knows nothing that can harm you!"
"She knows everything about you, Gabriel," Salvatore snapped. "And a man like you, who lets an assistant walk away with four years of leverage, is a man who is weak. The merger is off. I am taking control of the riverfront terminals tonight. And if you want Miss Bennett back alive, you will sign over the title to the South Side logistics yard by midnight."
The line went dead.
Gabriel dropped the phone onto the seat. His breathing was rapid, his silver eyes flashing with a terrifying, primal fury that Arthur had not seen since the night Gabriel’s father was assassinated six years ago.
"Sir?" Arthur asked, his hand dropping down toward the holster inside his jacket. "What are your orders?"
May you like
Gabriel reached into his coat pocket, pulled out his dark tie, and pulled it tight around his collar. He adjusted his silver cufflinks, his face settling into a mask of pure, absolute death.
"Call the team," Gabriel commanded, his voice cold as a frozen grave. "We are going to 31st Street."
