Chapter 27
Rachel didn't hesitate. With absolute, surgical precision, she initiated a massive, cascading transfer protocol.
"I can't just delete the money," Rachel explained, her fingers moving in a blur across the keys. "The international banking system will flag a deletion and freeze the servers to protect the assets. I have to move it. I have to route it somewhere the Romanovs can never reclaim it."
"Send it to the legitimate shipping accounts," Gabriel suggested.
"No, that leaves a paper trail back to us. They could sue us in federal court for asset forfeiture," Rachel countered, her mind operating on a level of strategic brilliance that left Gabriel in awe. "I'm routing the entire Romanov liquidity pool into a decentralized, anonymous blockchain trust."
"And who owns the trust?"
Rachel looked up at him, a fierce, protective smile touching her lips. "Lily does. It's a blind trust encrypted under her legal name, locked until she turns eighteen. The Romanovs just became the primary investors in my daughter's college fund."
Gabriel let out a low, disbelieving laugh. He leaned down, pressing a hard, passionate kiss to the top of her head. "Remind me never to play poker with you, Mrs. Moretti."
On the screens before them, the massive financial numbers began to plummet. Forty million. Thirty million. Ten million.
Within five minutes, the Romanov’s primary operational accounts were completely, utterly drained. The screen flashed a series of zeroes.
"It’s done," Rachel whispered, leaning back in her chair, the adrenaline finally beginning to crash. "They have nothing left to pay their mercenaries. The war is over."
"Not yet," Gabriel said, his slate-gray eyes turning back to the heavy steel door of the server room. "Vanessa won't know the accounts are drained until her mercenaries try to cash their daily checks. She’s still out there, and she’s desperate. A desperate enemy is a chaotic enemy."
As if summoned by his words, the secure intercom on the wall buzzed sharply.
Gabriel pressed the receiver. "Bruno, report."
"Boss," Bruno’s voice came through, static lacing his heavy baritone. "We have a massive perimeter breach at the main gates. Three armored transport trucks just rammed the barricades. We have forty-plus heavily armed hostiles swarming the grounds. It’s an all-out assault."
Rachel’s blood ran cold. Vanessa wasn't waiting. She had launched a final, desperate siege on the estate.
"Hold the perimeter as long as you can, Bruno. Fall back to the interior chokepoints if they breach the main doors," Gabriel ordered, his voice terrifyingly calm. "I am coming up."
"Gabriel, no!" Rachel grabbed his arm as he turned toward the door. "You can't go up there! There are forty men!"
"I am not going to sit in a bunker while they tear down my house and threaten my family," Gabriel said, turning to face her. He framed her face with his large hands, his thumbs gently wiping away a stray tear that had escaped her eye. "You stay here. You lock the blast door, and you do not open it for anyone but me or Bruno. Understand?"
"I won't lose you again," Rachel whispered, the memory of him taking a bullet on the grand staircase flashing vividly in her mind.
"You aren't going to lose me," Gabriel promised, his eyes burning with an unyielding, immortal devotion. "I have a wife and a daughter who need me. I am invincible."
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He kissed her one last time—a fierce, desperate brand of a kiss—and turned, sprinting out of the server room and into the corridor.
Rachel watched him go, her heart hammering against her ribs. She slammed her hand against the control panel, and the heavy steel blast door slid shut with a deafening, final clang, sealing her and Lily in the dark.
