Chapter 36 - The Turncoat's Confession
Heinrich’s mercenaries spun around toward the reinforced blast doors. Chaos erupted in the boardroom as the phone on the central conference table began to chime with an urgent priority call.
Heinrich reached forward, stabbing the speaker button with an unsteady finger. "Speak!"
"Heinrich, cut your losses and run!" Julian’s frantic, broken voice echoed from the speaker. He was sobbing, his voice echoing against what sounded like the tiled walls of a federal interrogation room. "She gave them everything! The Swiss ledgers, the shell accounts, the wire transfers for the Cabo yacht... the FBI knows about the sniper! They know about Geneva!"
Victoria slammed her fists on the desk. "Julian, you idiot! Where are you?"
"I'm at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan!" Julian shrieked. "Dominic's lawyers gave me a deal! If I turned state's evidence on the Consortium, they'd keep me out of ADX Florence! I had to take it, Heinrich! Clara played us! She baited you here so the feds could catch your entire board in one room!"
Heinrich slowly lifted his gaze to mine. The mask of European nobility was completely gone, replaced by the cornered fury of a rabid wolf. "You sacrificed your husband's freedom just to draw me out?"
"Julian threw away his freedom the moment he abandoned our child thirty-one hours after his birth," I whispered, standing up with Noah held securely against my heart. "Julian was never my equal. He was just a pathetic, greedy little parasite who thought cruelty made him powerful. But you, Heinrich... you are the root of the rot."
Outside the heavy blast doors, the muffled thunder of flashbang grenades rattled the steel framework. FBI tactical teams were breaching the floor.
"Drop your weapons! Federal agents! Lay down your arms!" the megaphone voices boomed through the ventilation grates.
Heinrich's contractors looked at each other, their discipline crumbling. One by one, recognizing the game was over, they dropped their weapons onto the polished marble and raised their hands.
Victoria collapsed into her chair, burying her face in her manicured hands, weeping hysterically as the reality of a life sentence in a federal penitentiary settled over her.
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Heinrich stood frozen, his eyes burning into mine. "This isn't over, Clara. The Consortium is larger than one board. Larger than one continent."
"Then tell them to send whoever they want," I replied, staring directly into his soul. "Because every time they touch my family, I will burn down another piece of their world."
