Chapter 21
The cold moonlight spilled through the heavy bulletproof glass of the Vance estate, illuminating Brooke's chillingly calm face. The threatening voicemail from Garrett still echoed in her mind, a sharp, ruthless reminder that the monster she once called her husband was not yet truly defeated. He was incarcerated in a federal facility downtown, stripped of all power and honor, but a concrete cell seemed insufficient to contain the vicious ambition coursing through his veins.
Brooke turned and walked back toward the center of the room, her soft cashmere shawl still draped over her shoulders, offering a stark contrast to the cold fire blazing in her beautiful brown eyes. Marcus, her father, stood by the massive mahogany desk with an amber glass of scotch in his hand, his eyes scanning a series of classified security reports with the razor-sharp intensity of a seasoned predator. The skyrocketing Vance-Hale Global stock on the Asian markets was a brilliant victory, a testament to Brooke's absolute leadership, but both father and daughter intimately understood a cruel truth of the underworld: financial power could never deflect a real bullet.
"He used a burner phone from inside the solitary confinement block," Marcus growled, his voice rumbling like an old lion, slamming the glass down on the glass tabletop hard enough to make the liquor spill over the edge. "That means his network hasn't been completely severed. Someone in the federal prison system—someone paid by taxpayer dollars—took a massive bribe to smuggle a device in for him."
Brooke stepped forward, her posture radiating authority with every breath. "It's not just a run-of-the-mill corrupt guard, Dad. Garrett was just stripped of all tangible assets; his offshore accounts are completely frozen under the pressure of the judicial net we cast. He doesn't have a dime of liquid cash to bribe anyone right now, unless there’s another force, a hidden organization backing him from the outside."
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Marcus narrowed his eyes, the deep lines on his forehead creasing with calculation. He mentioned the remnants of the Romanov syndicate, but Brooke gently shook her head, a half-smile full of lethal intent appearing on her lips. "They depleted their resources after we wiped out Mercer Manufacturing. The Romanovs don't invest in insolvent debtors. This is a completely new game, and someone is funding him to target our throne."
She picked up the encrypted tablet, her eyes skimming over the intelligence files. "Tomorrow morning, I want Cole to take the elite security team straight to the federal prison warden's office. I don't care what they have to do—bribe, threaten, or tear through the warden's black file. Find the origin of that phone at all costs. This war is far from over; it's just shifted into a bloodier phase."
