Chapter 416: Someone Leaked

Moretti led them deeper into the building without speaking much this time. The corridor after the collection room narrowed and turned downward, soft recessed lights running along the walls while the air grew cooler with every step. At the end of a short ramp a reinforced door waited. He entered a longer code, waited for the soft click, then pushed it open.

The underground delivery bay opened in front of them, larger than the showroom above and far quieter. Concrete floors stretched clean under bright even lighting. Two other vehicles sat under protective covers in the far corners, but the center of the bay belonged to one car alone.

The Bugatti Chiron Profilée sat low and wide on the polished floor, its custom gradient paint shifting under the lights from deep black at the nose into a dark, almost liquid blue toward the rear. The lines looked carved rather than built. Every surface pulled the eye forward and then down, as if the car itself refused to sit still even while parked.

Moretti stepped aside and stayed quiet for the first time all morning.

Lucas walked toward it without hurry. He started at the front, eyes moving slowly over the split headlights and the sharp intake vents, then crouched once to check the ride height before continuing along the driver’s side. His hand hovered just above the bodywork without touching it. The paint caught the light differently with every step. Near the rear haunches the blue deepened until it almost looked black again in the shadows under the spoiler.

Bennett stayed a few paces back. She had seen expensive cars before and handled clients who bought them the way other people bought watches, but this felt different. The room around them had gone completely still. Even Moretti, who usually filled every silence with sales talk, kept his mouth shut. Lucas moved around the car like he already owned the air it sat in.

He reached the rear, studied the exhaust outlets and the active wing, then walked the other side with the same unhurried attention. When he finally stopped near the driver’s door he rested two fingers lightly against the handle and looked at Moretti.

"Open it."

Moretti moved at once. The door lifted upward in a smooth silent arc. The interior waited under soft cabin light: dark leather, precise stitching, the low wide dashboard that looked more like a cockpit than a car. Lucas leaned in without sitting, checked the seating position, the steering wheel, the way the displays sat in the line of sight, then stepped back and let the door close on its own.

"Good," he said.

That single word carried more weight than any of the praise Moretti had tried to offer upstairs.

Bennett watched him from the side. Looking at him now, standing beside a hypercar most people would never see in person, she realized she was smiling without meaning to. There was something about the way he carried himself~calm, unshaken, completely sure~that she found herself liking more than she expected.

Moretti cleared his throat carefully.

"We can begin the handover paperwork whenever you are ready. Shipping can be arranged through our usual partners. Secure transport, full insurance, climate-controlled container."

Lucas nodded once.

"Silvermont. International. I want it tracked the entire way. No delays, no open storage."

"Understood." Moretti already had his phone out. "I’ll have the logistics team prepare the route today. You’ll receive the tracking details before the container leaves the building."

While Moretti stepped aside to make the calls, Lucas walked around the car one more time. He stopped at the front quarter and looked at the way the gradient paint caught the overhead lights. The shift from black to blue was cleaner than most photographs showed. Up close it looked almost wet.

Bennett moved closer.

"You’re really taking it back," she said quietly.

"That’s the point."

She glanced at the car again, then at him. "Most people who buy something like this keep it here for a season. Show it off locally. You’re shipping it across an ocean."

Lucas’s mouth curved slightly.

"Silvermont should see it."

Moretti returned a few minutes later with a tablet. Lucas reviewed the shipping terms, signed where required, and Bennett countersigned. The final seals locked into place.

Moretti walked them back toward the exit elevator, already speaking in careful, respectful sentences about maintenance and break-in procedures. Lucas answered only when necessary. Bennett stayed quiet beside him.

The elevator carried them up to the ground-level lobby. Glass walls looked out onto the street. Afternoon light had shifted since they first arrived.

Moretti held the main door open himself.

"If you need anything further, you have my direct line."

Lucas gave a short nod and stepped outside. Bennett followed.

The moment they cleared the doorway the noise hit.

Cameras were already waiting. Not a few phones held up by curious onlookers. Real cameras. Lenses. Reporters pressed near the front steps, some still adjusting their equipment like they had only just arrived. A van with a local news logo sat half on the curb. Someone shouted his name. Another voice called for a comment. Phones rose in a wave from the small crowd that had formed behind the press line.

Lucas did not slow down. He walked straight toward the waiting car. Bennett kept close, shoulder almost brushing his. Questions flew at their backs~how much, why this car, was it true he paid in full, who was the woman with him~but he gave none of them a glance.

By the time they reached the vehicle the crowd had thickened. A photographer stepped too close and got blocked by the driver who had come around to open the door. Lucas paused only long enough to let Bennett in first, then followed. The door shut hard on the noise outside.

The car pulled away from the curb, leaving the cameras and the rising voices behind.

Inside, neither of them spoke for a while.

Bennett finally looked over.

"That was fast."

Lucas kept his eyes on the road ahead.

"Someone leaked our location."

She didn’t ask who. It didn’t matter. The morning that had started with laughter in a private office was already spilling into the open, and Silvermont would see the footage before the day ended.