Chapter 4 - The Execution of the ConspiracyAt 2:00 AM, a heavy, freezing rain swept across the rolling hills of Greenwich, Connecticut.
Inside the grand stone library of the Moretti Estate, sixty-year-old Don Marcus Moretti sat behind his oak desk, sipping vintage scotch, reviewing commercial shipping ledgers.
BOOM!
The reinforced oak double doors of the library were blown inward with explosive force, showering shards of wood and iron across the carpet.
Ten Cross syndicate operators—wearing dark tactical armor—flooded the room, disarming Moretti's four guards in less than three seconds flat.
Stepping through the shattered doorway, wearing his dark charcoal coat, holding a silver sidearm, his eyes burning like twin suns of cold steel, was Gabriel.
Marcus Moretti jumped out of his leather chair, dropping his scotch glass, his face turning an ugly, mottled shade of paper-white as he stared at Gabriel.
"Cross...?!" Moretti stammered, his hands shaking frantically. "What... what is the meaning of this intrusion?! We have a non-aggression pact!"
Gabriel walked slowly across the carpet, stopping two feet from the desk. He pulled his phone from his coat, setting it flat onto the wood, displaying the live video feed from Serena Vale's holding cell.
Serena sat in steel handcuffs, weeping hysterically as she confessed her entire five-year conspiracy to federal prosecutors on camera.
Moretti's jaw sagged open in total, horror-stricken panic. "Gabriel... listen to me! Serena acted alone! I had nothing to do with your wife's medical records!"
"You touched my wife, Marcus," Gabriel spoke. His baritone was smooth, low, and dropping into a freezing register that made the hair on Moretti's arms stand up. "You stole five years of my sons' lives. You made my wife bleed in secret while you tried to take my shipping terminals."
Gabriel didn't pull the trigger.
He raised his hand, making a subtle gesture to Marco standing behind him.
Two uniformed Federal Marshals, accompanied by three lead investigators from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, stepped into the room, slapping heavy steel handcuffs around Moretti's wrists.
"Marcus Moretti," Lead Agent Vance announced cleanly. "You are under arrest for Corporate Extortion, Wire Fraud, and Conspiracy to Commit Human Endangerment."
Moretti wept pathetically as his hands were forced behind his back, his sixty-year-old criminal empire collapsing into total, unadulterated ruin in less than five minutes.
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Gabriel turned his back on the room, walking out toward his Maybach, unbuttoning his coat.
"Marco," Gabriel commanded as the car glided onto the highway back to Chicago. "Liquidate every Moretti asset in Illinois. Assign eighty percent of the dividends to the Claire Vancent Children's Trust."
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