Chapter 22 Shadows of Vengeance
Stefans POV~
I leaned against the floor-to-ceiling windows, with a glass of bourbon in my hand, the sting of the gas explosion that raged in my chest. Valenticia. Carter’s voice an hour ago had assured me, that she was alive, shaken, but unharmed in the gas leak.
A miracle, he’d said.
I didn’t believe in miracles.
The gas leak wasn’t random. Nor was the server crash at Clawford Enterprises two days earlier, or the cryptic threats that had been whispered through back channels. Someone was playing pieces in a game I was not yet ready to dive into, and Valenticia was at the centre of it. My hand tightened around the glass, the bourbon rattling.
I didn’t allow myself to use that word, but it knotted in my gut, disguised as anger. And if they laid a finger on her, and gods help them and they did, I would burn their world to ash.
I put the glass down and walked back and forth, memory fragments clicking together. Rosanna’s offer of a marriage of convenience for business...a marriage of commercial convenience– to strengthen the Clawford dynasty, was a calculated and chilly act.
The memory hit like a punch.
Marcus, my teacher, the man who’d picked me from the start and taught me the game, and then sold me to get a better one. I was nineteen, bloody and jaded, training in the only reality that counted: no one is safe. I’d promised I’d never let anyone in close again. But Valenticia with her fire, with her failings, was falling through the cracks.
I hated it.
I needed it.
My phone vibrated, Gideon’s name come up on screen. I answered, my voice clipped. “What do you have?”
“Servers are already a dumpster fire, but I got something,” Gideon said, his voice low. “An email, hidden deep in encrypted backups. From Gregor to Victor Galden. Cited what they called ‘the heiress problem.’ Mean anything to you?”
Victor Galden.
The name was a spectre from a bad deal — a Lovtan mogul who had a history of putting enemies in unmarked graves. Two years earlier, I’d gotten the best of him in a port contract that was going to cost him millions. He hadn’t forgotten. And “the heiress problem”? That meant only Valenticia. The Clawfords had been a dynasty, their riches a lure for vultures such as Galden. If he was behind it, the gas leak was the opening move.
“Email it to me,” I said in a low tone. “And dig deeper. I need to know every fucking thing Galden is up to.”
“On it,” Gideon replied. “Watch your back, Boss. This is bigger than we realized.”
I hung up, my mind racing.
Galden wasn’t a man that'll go into action alone. Gregor, the slippery opportunist, who is no doubt his puppet, but who else had been involved? I had questions and I needed answers now. There was one person who could know more — Lena Korsakov, a former Galden associate who’d betrayed him and lived to tell about it. She owed me one and I would be damned if I didn’t collect.
__
The bar was located in the underbelly part of the city where the city’s lies festered. Lena was sitting in a booth in the back, her hair catching the low light, examining me as I sat across from her.
“Stefan Myles,” she chuckled, stirring her martini. “You come around only when the world’s burning. What’s burning?”
“Victor Galden,” I said, hitching forward. “He’s going after the Clawfords. I need to know why.”
Lena’s smile turned into a cold glare. “You’re jumping into the deep end, Myles. Galden’s on a vendetta, all right. Word is, he’s financing Nexus Ventures, sinking money into their merger with Clawford Enterprises. But it’s not just business. It’s personal.”
“Personal how?” I pushed, my heart rate quickening.
She leaned closer, her voice a soft murmur. “The Clawfords double-crossed him if you recall. A real estate transaction, from before Valenticia’s era. Her father disgraced Galden, and bid above him there, in public. Victor never forgets slights. And now, with the merger in play, he spies an opportunity to destroy their empire and her.”
My jaw tightened. Valenticia, the merger, and the gas leak are all connected. Galden wasn’t out to make a joke, he was seeking revenge. And Valenticia, the Clawford heiress, was the perfect target to strike.
“There’s something else,” Lena said, glancing toward the entrance, where no one was waiting. ‘Galden knows you’re in it. You sure she’s worth it?”
I didn’t answer. Still, the question ate at me. Was she worth it? It was going to be a business transaction, an attempt to gain a foothold in the Clawfords and bolster my own interests. But every time I saw her, every time she dared me.
“Be careful, Lena,” I said, plopping a card bearing my private number on the table. “If you hear something else, call.”
With a nod, she pocketed the card. “Don’t say I didn’t tell you,” she said.
__
Back in the penthouse, I made myself another bourbon. The discussion with Lena stirred in my head but it was Carter’s voice on the next ring that pulled me back to reality.
“Boss, the explosion wasn’t a gas leak,” he added, his voice strained. “Forensics identified the remains of military-grad explosive. C-4, professional hit. Someone wanted her dead.”
I gripped the phone, I forgot the bourbon. “Gregor?”
“Could be,” Carter said. “Or Galden. Hell, maybe both. I’m grabbing any footage that comes out of the area, but this was clean. No prints, no witnesses.”
“Keep digging,” I ordered. “And have someone check on Valenticia. She’s not safe.”
“Already done,” Carter said. “But Boss, there’s another thing on these servers; Gideon located another file. It’s that bid on your land deal. Somebody accessed it before the crash.”
The words hit like a punch.
My bid for a big play in the purchase of these lands was worth billions, and that was my leverage in this city. If Galden or Gregor had it, they could wreck everything. I made my way over to the safe in my study, heart pounding. The security code worked, the door flew open and I felt my stomach dropped. The folder was gone. Just a blank where my future should have been.
The sound of footsteps from the living room stopped me cold.
Instinct took over, my hand going for the Glock in my drawer.
Stealthily, I hid in the shadows of the penthouse.
I scanned the room, and, nothing.
And then a soft hiss, a flash of light just outside the window.
The glass shattered, flames bursting as it landed on the floor.
I rolled into cover, the heat burning my flesh, the flames engulfing the darkness.