Chapter 5

For six months, I had existed as a ghost.

I lived in the shadows of information, where Sicily was my fortress, and Ben was my eyes in New York.

Every week, we spoke on an encrypted line that hummed with the static of the Atlantic.

"He's paranoid," Ben said, his voice crackling over the connection. "He's firing captains who have been loyal for twenty years. He thinks everyone is out to get him."

"Is he wrong?" I asked, my charcoal pencil scratching against the sketchbook. I was designing a thigh holster disguised as a bridal garter-a habit I couldn't break.

"No," Ben scoffed. "But the threat isn't coming from the outside. It's sleeping in his bed."

I paused, the pencil hovering over the paper. "Chloe?"

"And Julian."

Julian Vance. Jax's Consigliere. His childhood friend. The man who handled the money and buried the bodies.

"What about them?"

"I started digging into the books like you asked," Ben said. "Julian has been skimming off the top for years. Small amounts. Hard to notice. But since Chloe arrived... the amounts got bigger."

"How big?"

"Millions. Funneled into offshore accounts in the Caymans."

"That's stealing," I said, frowning. "But it's not treason."

"Wait," Ben said, his tone dropping an octave. "I bugged the safe house. The one Julian uses for his 'private' meetings."

A file appeared on my screen.

Audio_Clip_04.mp3

I put on my headphones, my pulse thrumming in my ears.

The sound was crystal clear: The sharp clink of ice against glass. The heavy rustle of high-thread-count sheets.

Then, Julian's voice, dripping with arrogance.

"He's so easy, Chloe. I tell him he's the king, and he signs whatever I put in front of him."

Then, a woman's laugh. High, cruel, and utterly bored. Chloe.

"He's exhausting, Julian. All he talks about is 'legacy' and 'honor'. God, I miss you. When can we stop pretending?"

"Soon," Julian purred. "Let him put the ring on your finger. Let him merge the families. Then... tragedies happen. The grieving widow inherits the empire. And the grieving best friend comforts her."

My stomach lurched violently.

They weren't just stealing.

They were planning a coup.

"What about the baby?" Chloe asked.

There was a pause, heavy and pregnant with malice.

"It's a Vetti heir," Chloe said. "Technically."

Julian laughed. "Is it? With the timing? It could be mine just as easily as his."

"Does it matter?" Chloe giggled. "As long as it gets us the crown."

I tore the headphones off and threw them onto the desk.

I stared at the whitewashed wall, my breathing shallow, the air in the room suddenly too thin.

Jax had destroyed me for this.

He had thrown away my loyalty, my love, my life... for a woman who was sleeping with his best friend and plotting his murder.

He broke his promise to me for a lie.

Wait until you're twenty-two.

He didn't want a partner. He wanted a trophy. And he bought a fake one.

"He deserves it," I whispered to the empty room.

He deserved to be betrayed. He deserved to lose everything.

But...

I looked at the scar above my eyebrow in the mirror.

If they killed him, he died a martyr. He died thinking he was loved.

That wasn't justice.

Justice was him knowing.

Justice was him realizing exactly what he threw away before the knife went in.

My phone buzzed again.

Ben: I have more. Video. It's nuclear, Savvy. If I release this, the Vetti family implodes. The Commission will skin them alive.

Me: Hold it.

Ben: What? Why?

Me: The wedding is in two weeks. We don't detonate the bomb in the basement, Ben. We detonate it at the altar.

I stood up and walked to the small safe in the corner of my studio.

I spun the dial-left, right, left.

Inside was the wooden box.

I took out the small vial containing the ashes of the photo I burned.

And beside it, the jagged pieces of the brass bullet casing I had destroyed with a hammer the night I arrived.

I took the sharp brass shards into my palm, letting them bite into my skin.

I walked out onto the balcony.

The sea was dark and restless below, crashing against the Sicilian cliffs.

I opened my hand.

The brass pieces fell, glinting in the moonlight before vanishing into the waves.

The blood oath was gone.

The girl who saved the bullet was gone.

I picked up the phone.

Me: Ben. Get me an invitation.

Ben: To the wedding? Are you crazy?

Me: No. To the funeral of his empire.

I smiled, and for the first time in months, it reached my eyes.

It was a cold, sharp smile.

"Checkmate, Jax."