Chapter 11 - Alina Walked Into the Trap Alone
Marco tackled Alina behind the kitchen island.
Glass rained across the floor.
No bullets followed.
Instead, smoke poured through broken windows.
“Gas,” Marco said.
They covered their mouths.
Emergency lights flickered.
The front door opened.
Marco moved toward it.
Alina grabbed his shirt.
“Don’t.”
Footsteps approached.
Then Claire Bennett’s voice shouted from the hallway.
“Federal agents!”
Within minutes, the apartment was secured.
The attack had not been designed to kill.
It was another message.
We can reach you.
Anywhere.
Claire pulled Alina aside.
“You need protective custody.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
“I’m done hiding.”
“People die from statements like that.”
“People have already died.”
Claire looked at her for a long moment.
“You remind me of your mother.”
Alina froze.
“You knew her?”
Claire sighed.
“My father investigated Starlight.”
Another secret.
“Who was your father?”
“Special Agent Thomas Bennett.”
Alina recognized the name from Diego’s letter.
The federal official who had received the evidence.
“I thought Vale intercepted my father’s file.”
“He did.”
“What happened to your father?”
“Career destroyed. False corruption charge. He died convinced he failed Diego.”
Claire’s eyes hardened.
“This case is personal for me too.”
That changed everything.
Together they created a plan.
They would leak false information that Alina had discovered the ledger’s final location.
Then monitor who responded.
Marco hated the plan.
“Absolutely not.”
Alina stared at him.
“Your vocabulary remains inspiring.”
“You’re bait.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Claire intervened.
“She will have federal surveillance.”
“I’ve seen your federal surveillance.”
Claire did not flinch.
“Fair.”
Eventually Marco agreed under one condition.
He would be nearby.
Alina refused.
“You’re too recognizable.”
“I don’t care.”
“You walking into a room is basically an announcement.”
Claire almost smiled.
Alina continued.
“You need to trust me.”
Marco looked at her.
Those words again.
Trust me.
He finally nodded.
The trap was set at an old bank branch.
News of the fake discovery traveled through channels only five people could access.
Within six hours, someone requested Alina’s location.
Not Sebastian.
Not Vale.
Not Dominic.
A judge.
Eleanor Whitmore.
The same judge pictured beside Antonio in the old foundation photograph.
Claire was stunned.
“Whitmore sits on the federal appellate bench.”
“She’s connected?”
“Apparently.”
They followed her communications.
Whitmore contacted Dominic.
Then Alexander Vale.
Then someone using an encrypted number in Buenos Aires.
Sebastian.
The entire surviving network moved at once.
Alina entered the old bank carrying a decoy ledger.
Claire’s agents surrounded the property.
Nothing happened.
Five minutes.
Ten.
Twenty.
Then a woman entered.
Judge Whitmore.
Sixty-eight.
Elegant.
Calm.
She sat opposite Alina.
“You look exactly like Elena.”
Alina gripped the case.
“You knew my mother.”
“I knew everyone.”
“Did you kill my father?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Whitmore smiled sadly.
“You still think this story has one villain.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“Your father died because four frightened men each made one selfish decision.”
“Explain.”
“Antonio ordered him followed. Vale ordered the evidence intercepted. Sebastian changed the route of the car.”
“And the fourth?”
Whitmore’s gaze became colder.
“Vittorio.”
Alina’s stomach tightened.
“Marco’s father?”
“He discovered the plan and sent Luca to warn Diego.”
“That doesn’t sound selfish.”
“He did it secretly because exposing Antonio publicly would have destroyed the family.”
Alina understood.
Vittorio tried to save Diego without sacrificing his empire.
He failed.
“What happened to the car?”
“Sebastian’s driver forced Diego off the road.”
Alina stopped breathing.
“My father’s accident.”
“Yes.”
“Where is Sebastian?”
Whitmore looked toward the window.
“Closer than you think.”
A red dot appeared on her chest.
Alina saw it first.
“Down!”
They dropped.
A shot struck the wall.
Federal agents stormed outside.
The shooter escaped.
Again.
But Whitmore was arrested.
And before agents took her away, she whispered one final sentence to Alina.
“Dominic isn’t helping Sebastian.”
Alina stared.
“What?”
May you like
“He’s been trying to kill him for twenty years.”
That night, Dominic disappeared.
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