Chapter 70 The Twin Fronts
The silence in the entrance hall stretched on.
Finn shifted uncomfortably, clearly uncertain whether to leave or stay. Marcus kept his eyes carefully neutral, hands at his sides.
Finally, Liam spoke.
"Everyone out."
His voice was quiet but held absolute authority.
The guards filed out immediately. Finn and Marcus followed, though Marcus hesitated at the door, glancing back at Alessia with something like concern.
Then they were alone.
Liam moved to the stairs, sitting down heavily on the third step, his head in his hands.
Alessia stood frozen in place, watching him process what she'd done, waiting for the explosion she knew was coming.
But when he looked up, his eyes weren't angry.
They were exhausted.
"You played me," he said quietly. "You let me think you were being reckless when you'd actually planned every step."
"I didn't play you. I just didn't tell you everything." She moved closer but didn't sit. "Because you would have stopped me."
"Damn right I would have." He rubbed his face. "Do you understand what you've started? The task force will investigate. The Council will find out. And we'll be caught between federal agents who want to arrest everyone and criminals who want us dead."
"I know."
"And you think you can manage both sides? Feed the feds just enough to keep them busy while we dismantle the Council's failsafes?"
"Not me. We." Alessia finally sat beside him on the stairs. "I can't do this alone. And neither can you. We need each others different skills and connections."
Liam was quiet for a long moment.
"This is insane," he said finally.
"Yes."
"We're fighting a war on two fronts. Against people who've been doing this for decades. While you're pregnant and have a target on our backs."
"Yes."
"And you think we can win?"
"I think we don't have a choice." Alessia's voice was fierce. "Because if we don't try, if we just accept the Council's control, we're dead anyway. Just slowly. Our child grows up as their puppet. We spend our lives being managed and manipulated. That's not living, Liam. That's surrendering."
He turned to look at her, and she saw the moment he made his decision.
"Okay," he said. "We do this. Together. No more secrets or making moves without telling each other."
"Agreed."
"But that means you trust me with your plans. And I trust you with mine. We're partners. Equals. In everything."
"That's what I've been saying."
"I know. And I'm sorry for treating you like you needed to be locked up and protected. You were right. I was turning into every other Don who thinks women are property to be guarded." He took her hand. "You're not property. You're the strongest person I know. And if we're going to survive this, I need to remember that."
Alessia felt tears prick her eyes again, but these were different. Not anger or frustration.
Relief.
"So what's the plan?" she asked.
Liam stood, pulling her up with him, and they moved to his study where they could talk privately without guards overhearing.
He spread papers across his desk—Council documents they'd accumulated, family organizational charts, financial records.
"The Council has dead man's switches. Automatic releases of information if core members are arrested or killed. That means we can't just take them down directly. We need to find and neutralize those switches first."
"How?"
"By using the Council's own resources against them. We're consultants now. We have access to information, to meetings, to the inner workings. We use that access to identify where the switches are. Who controls them. How they're triggered."
"And the task force?" Alessia asked.
"We feed them information carefully. Enough to build pressure on the Council, to make them nervous, but not enough to trigger the switches." Liam's finger traced connections on the organizational chart. "We control the pace of the investigation. Keep Reyes focused on lower-level corruption while we handle the core."
"That's a razor's edge to walk. If Reyes figures out we're manipulating her—"
"Then we're in trouble. But if we don't control the pace, if the feds move too fast, the switches trigger and chaos erupts. Thousands die. Maybe tens of thousands depending on what the Council has set to release."
Alessia studied the documents, her mind racing through possibilities.
"We need more information about the switches, Council operations and their contingency plans."
"Which means we need to be more involved with them. Accept more consulting work. Get deeper into their structure."
Alessia's hand moved to her stomach. "This baby is our shield right now. But it's also a countdown clock. Once I give birth, that protection ends."
"So we have seven months. To dismantle the switches. To build a case strong enough to take down the Council permanently. To secure our freedom and our child's future."
"Seven months." Alessia's laugh was slightly hysterical. "That's not much time to destroy a fifty-year-old criminal empire."
"Then we better get started."
They worked late into the night, building their strategy, identifying targets, planning their approach.
It was nearly 2 AM when Alessia's phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number:
The ledger is authentic. Building the case. Need your testimony within two weeks. - Reyes
She showed it to Liam.
"Two weeks. That's fast."
"If she moves that quickly, the Council will notice. Will start preparing countermeasures."
"Then we need to slow her down. Buy ourselves time." Alessia typed a response:
Two weeks is impossible. I'm being watched. Need at least a month to arrange safe testimony. Will contact you when ready.
She hit send before she could second-guess herself.
Liam nodded approval. "Good. That gives us time to start identifying the switches."
A soft knock on the study door interrupted them.
They both tensed, hands moving instinctively toward weapons.
"It's me," Siobhan's voice called softly. "Can I come in?"
Liam and Alessia exchanged glances. They'd thought she was asleep. Had assumed their conversation was private.
"Come in," Liam said.
Siobhan entered, and Alessia was struck by how different she looked from the frightened girl who'd been kidnapped by the cartel weeks ago.
Her red hair was pulled back severely. Her face was pale but determined. Her green eyes—so like Liam's—held a hardness that hadn't been there before.
Killing Alessia's father had changed her. Had stripped away whatever innocence she'd been clinging to.
"How much did you hear?" Liam asked quietly.
"Enough." Siobhan closed the door behind her. "You're planning to destroy the Council. You're working with federal agents. You're pregnant and using that as a shield while you fight a war on multiple fronts."
"Siobhan—"
"I want in." Her voice was steady. Resolute. "I want to help."
"Absolutely not." Liam stood, moving toward his sister. "This is too dangerous. You're already traumatized from what happened with the cartel, with—" He couldn't finish. Couldn't say with killing Don Scarpetti.
"With murdering Alessia's father?" Siobhan finished for him. "You can say it. I know what I did. I live with it every day."
She moved further into the room, her arms wrapped around herself but her spine straight.
"They took my brother. Not you—Declan. The Council killed him to keep their war going. To keep both families weak and manageable. They orchestrated everything that's hurt this family for twelve years."
Tears welled in her eyes but didn't fall.
"And then they took my peace. My ability to believe I could escape this life. I killed a man, Liam. I'll never be the same. I'll never be able to just walk away and be normal."
"All the more reason to protect you—"
"I don't want protection!" Her voice rose, echoing off the study walls. "I want justice. I want revenge. I want to help destroy the people who made me into someone who could kill. Who turned our family into weapons aimed at each other."
She looked at Alessia, her eyes fierce.
"You understand. You've been fighting them your whole life. You know what it's like to be used. To be controlled. To have your choices stolen."
Alessia nodded slowly. "I do."
"Then let me help. Let me be part of this." Siobhan's hands clenched into fists. "I'm not asking to be on the front lines. I'm not stupid. I know I'm not trained like you. But I can do something. I can be useful. I can—"
"You can be a blind operative," Alessia interrupted, an idea forming.
Liam turned to her. "What?"
"Think about it. The Council knows about us. They're watching us. Monitoring our movements. But Siobhan?" Alessia looked at the young woman. "You're just the traumatized sister. The art student who got dragged into family business. They're not watching you the same way they're watching us."
"You want to use my sister as bait—"
"Not bait. As an asset they don't know we have." Alessia's mind was racing now. "We need to identify the Council's mole in our organization. The person reporting our movements. And we can't do that if they know we're looking. But Siobhan can move through the compound, through our operations, in ways we can't. She can watch. Listen. Report back."
"That's still dangerous—"
"Everything is dangerous now." Siobhan's voice was firm. "And Alessia's right. I can help. The Council dismissed me as irrelevant the moment they saw me. Just another mob wife-in-training. But that means I can be your eyes and ears where you can't be."
Liam looked between them, clearly torn.
"Liam," Alessia said gently. "You can't protect everyone from everything. And Siobhan deserves agency. Deserves to choose how she responds to what the Council did to her family."
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then he nodded slowly. "Okay. But you follow Alessia's instructions exactly. You don't take risks. You don't confront anyone. You just observe and report. Agreed?"
"Agreed." Siobhan's smile was grim but grateful. "Thank you. For trusting me. For letting me help."
Over the next week, they implemented their plan.
Siobhan moved through the compound like a ghost. Sat in on meetings she wasn't supposed to attend. Listened to conversations in hallways. Watched who made calls when they thought no one was looking.
And she reported everything to Alessia.
On day six, she came to the study with crucial information.
"The new head of security. Quinn. He's the mole."
Liam's head snapped up. "How do you know?"
"I saw him making a call yesterday. In the garage. Where there's no surveillance. He thought he was alone but I was in one of the cars, reading." Siobhan pulled out her phone. "I recorded part of the conversation."
She played it. Quinn's voice, slightly muffled but clear enough:
"...yes, they're planning something. Don't know what yet. But O'Sullivan's been meeting with his uncle's old contacts in Boston. Might be setting up operations there... Yes, I'll keep monitoring... No, the wife's been quiet. Hasn't left the compound since that incident... Understood. I'll report any changes immediately."
The recording ended.
Liam and Alessia exchanged looks.
"Quinn's reporting to the Council," Liam said quietly. "Everything we do. Every move we make."
"Do we fire him?" Siobhan asked. "Expose him?"
"No." Alessia's mind was already working. "We use him. We feed him false information. Make the Council think we're focused on something else while we actually work on the switches."
"A double-blind," Liam said slowly. "We let Quinn think he's successfully spying on us while we control what he reports."
"Exactly. It's risky. But if we can make the Council look the wrong direction—"
"Then we buy ourselves time. Room to operate." Liam nodded. "Okay. We do it. But carefully. If Quinn suspects we know—"
"He won't. Because we're going to give him something real to report. Something that makes sense with our known operations."
"Like what?"
Alessia thought for a moment. "Boston. You mentioned your uncle had contacts there. What if we actually do set up some operations in Boston? Nothing major. Just enough to make it look legitimate. Quinn reports it. The Council focuses their attention there."
"While we work on identifying the switches here. And continue feeding information to Reyes." Liam smiled grimly. "It could work."
Over the next three days, Liam made a show of planning a Boston expansion. Had loud conversations about it on monitored phone lines. Met with people who could facilitate operations in Massachusetts.
All carefully staged for Quinn to observe and report.
On the fourth day, Siobhan came back with confirmation.
"Quinn made another call. He reported everything about Boston. Said you're planning to move against a rival family there. Expand O'Sullivan territory."
"Good." Liam's satisfaction was evident. "Then the Council's focus will shift. They'll be watching Boston. Not here. Not what we're actually doing."
But what they didn't know—what none of them could know—was what was being said on the other end of Quinn's reports.
\---
In her Hudson Valley estate, Elara listened to Quinn's latest update through her phone, her expression thoughtful.
"So O'Sullivan is moving on Boston," she said to the Council member sitting across from her—Greaves, the lawyer with his silver hair and expensive suit.
"It appears so. Quinn has confirmed multiple meetings. Resource allocation. The signs are clear."
"Interesting." Elara set down her phone. "And convenient. While Liam is distracted expanding territory, we have an opportunity."
"An opportunity for what?"
"The wife. Alessia." Elara's smile was cold. "She's the real threat. The one who gave information to federal agents. The one with the original ledger. The one currently carrying the heir we need to control."
"You want to move against her?"
"I want to secure her. Properly. Remove her from O'Sullivan's influence. Ensure that when that baby is born, it's under our direct supervision. Not his." Elara stood, moving to the window that overlooked her gardens. "Let Liam play his games in Boston. While he's expending energy there, we will move on the wife. Secure the heir. And remind them both who truly holds power in this city."
Greaves nodded slowly. "When?"
"Soon. Within the week. Before she gets further along in her pregnancy. Before they realize we've seen through their misdirection."
Elara's smile widened.
"Good. Let him expend his energy there. While he's distracted, we will move on the wife."