Chapter 8 - The Secret Deal With the Government
Samuel inserted the data card into Vincent’s secured phone.
A video appeared.
Anthony sat in the same bedroom decades earlier.
Daniel Russo stood beside him.
Anthony looked directly into the camera.
“Marcus is protected.”
Vincent frowned.
“Protected by whom?”
The video continued.
“At seventeen, Marcus entered a sealed cooperation agreement with a federal task force. He traded information about Carlo in exchange for immunity.”
Marcus’s expression collapsed.
Vincent stared at him.
“You were a federal source.”
“I was a child trying to survive.”
“You kept informing.”
“I gave them rivals.”
“You gave them our men.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“I gave them men you would have killed eventually.”
Vincent’s calm became more dangerous.
“That was not your decision.”
Anthony explained that removing Marcus would have exposed the cooperation agreement and triggered a federal strike against the entire organization.
So he created a false story.
Daniel Russo was blamed.
Marcus remained close.
Anthony hoped to gather enough proof to dismantle the arrangement without destroying both sons.
He died before completing it.
Daniel escaped with the evidence.
The final file contained years of Marcus’s communications with federal agents, rival crews and private contractors.
Not all his deals were made under government direction.
Some were personal.
He sold information to protect himself.
He arranged arrests that removed competitors.
He helped build Vincent’s empire while secretly ensuring Vincent could never become powerful enough to threaten him.
“You were controlling both sides,” Vincent said.
Marcus’s eyes hardened.
“I was keeping us alive.”
“You were keeping yourself necessary.”
Marcus looked at Elena.
“Her father knew too much.”
Elena’s breath stopped.
Vincent spoke slowly.
“You killed Daniel.”
Marcus finally admitted it.
“I ordered him brought in. He resisted.”
Elena raised her pistol.
Vincent did not stop her immediately.
Marcus looked at her.
“If you shoot me, you become exactly what he spent his life trying to escape.”
Her finger tightened.
Then relaxed.
She lowered the weapon.
“No. You live long enough to hear every charge.”
Marcus laughed.
“You think the law can touch me?”
Samuel held up Vincent’s phone.
“The recording is uploading.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
The phone was transmitting Anthony’s files to multiple secure locations.
Elena had activated the upload when she pressed the pistol into Vincent’s hand.
She had never only been saving him.
She had been preserving the evidence.
Then Marcus’s remaining intruders turned their weapons away from Vincent.
May you like
And aimed them at Marcus.
👉 The men Marcus hired had discovered he planned to kill them after opening the safe.
