Chapter 24 - The Trap is Set
The digital trace led straight to an abandoned maritime warehouse located on the desolate northern fringes of the harbor—the exact kind of damp, echoing concrete structure where the old guard used to settle blood feuds decades ago.
Gabriel wanted to send a tactical strike team led by Marcus to clean out the hideout in ten minutes flat. But Tessa shook her head, proposing a much more dangerous, psychological approach.
"An army going in there triggers a shootout that destroys whatever intelligence they're hiding," Tessa argued in the estate's war room as Marcus and Gabriel listened intently. "We don't send an army. We send a messenger. Me."
"Absolutely not," Gabriel rejected instantly, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "I am not letting you walk into a trap set by vengeful ghosts from Palermo."
"It's not a trap if they think they're the ones springing it," Tessa countered calmly, pulling up the warehouse floor plans on the digital terminal. "They sent that note because they want to negotiate terms. They think I'm just a vulnerable civilian who married into the syndicate. If I walk in alone, unarmed, carrying the ledger they're looking for, their arrogance will override their caution. They'll try to interrogate me. And that's when Marcus and your enforcers lock the perimeter."
Gabriel stared at her, his chest heaving with internal conflict. He loved her fiercely, but he also respected her tactical brilliance more than anyone else in the organization. He knew she was right.
May you like
"One hour," Gabriel finally conceded, his voice dark and lethal. "If you aren't out of that warehouse in exactly sixty minutes, Marcus and every man I have will tear the building down to its foundation."
"Deal," Tessa said.
