Chapter 281

Adrian looked back at the page.

He did not need to ask whether Ethan had been involved in the earlier events surrounding Emilia and Selena. The answer was already in front of him.

The betrayal went deeper than he had known.

And if Ethan had been passing information to Dante for long enough, then the investigation itself might have been compromised.

Dante had not merely prepared for Adrian’s arrival. He had been preparing for Adrian to come after him for months.

Perhaps years.

"How much did you pay him?" Adrian asked.

Dante tilted his head. "Would it matter?"

"No."

"Then why ask?"

"Because I want to know what kind of man sells someone else’s life for a salary."

Dante’s eyes narrowed. "Don’t pretend you understand what motivates people."

"I understand you."

"No, Adrian. You understand the version of me you’ve constructed from bank statements and secondhand accounts. You’ve spent years putting together a picture and convincing yourself that once you found the last piece, you’d know everything."

He leaned back.

"But people are not evidence folders. We are not neat little patterns that fit together because you want them to."

Adrian held his gaze. His voice lowered.

"You’re a coward who needs a woman chained to a staircase and another with a gun against her head before you can sit across a desk from me and feel powerful."

The room fell silent.

Dante’s expression changed. The pleasantness disappeared first. Then the amusement.

What remained was colder, more honest. "Be very careful."

Dante’s hand moved toward the screen.

Adrian stopped speaking.

For a moment, neither man moved.

Then Dante slowly lowered his hand. "You’re fortunate I have a use for you."

"And you’re fortunate Emilia is on that screen." Adrian answered back.

Dante studied him. "Do you know what I find fascinating about you?"

Adrian didn’t answer.

"You have all this power. All this money. Men who would walk into a burning building because you asked them to. You can make calls that change the course of people’s lives. You can buy property, move markets, destroy reputations, and put people behind bars."

Dante leaned forward.

"And yet, when it comes to the people you love, you’re exactly as helpless as anyone else."

Adrian’s hands tightened beneath the desk.

Dante had found the wound and was pressing on it deliberately.

"That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? You cannot stand the idea that there is one thing you cannot control."

"You’re wrong."

"Am I?"

"Yes."

Adrian leaned forward until they were separated by little more than the width of the desk.

"I don’t need to control everything. I need to make sure the people who depend on me aren’t destroyed by men like you."

Dante’s face hardened. "And how has that been working out for you?"

The question hung between them.

On the screen, Emilia shifted in her chair. Ethan said something Adrian couldn’t hear, and she shook her head.

Her eyes glistened, but she did not look away.

Adrian felt something in his chest twist. He had told her he would keep her safe. He had promised to find Selena.

Now she was sitting in a room he couldn’t find, with a gun pressed against her face, because a man had decided her life was a useful bargaining tool.

Dante was wrong about many things. But he was right about one.

Adrian could not control everything. He could only decide what he was willing to risk.

And what he refused to surrender.

"Release Emilia," he said again. "Then we can discuss the documents. I don’t trust you.’

Dante shook his head. "You’re exhausting."

"Then stop wasting my time."

"You have a very peculiar understanding of your position."

"And you have a very peculiar understanding of how this ends."

Dante stared at him for a long moment. Then he opened the folder again and removed a pen.

He placed it beside the signature line on the first document.

"Let’s simplify this."

Adrian looked at the pen.

"You will transfer every trace of Belmont Oil into my name. Every company listed in these schedules. Every associated holding. Every asset and every account specified in the transfer documents."

He slid the first document closer.

"You will execute the necessary instruments to place the money under my control. You will sign the declarations withdrawing the claims and undermining the evidence that has been assembled against me. You will ensure that the people who can still pursue me understand that continuing to do so will be neither necessary nor beneficial."

Dante placed his palm flat on the stack. "And then you will make me a free man."

Adrian looked up.

Dante’s eyes were steady.

Adrian’s gaze flickered toward the screen.

"Sign."

Adrian did not move.

Dante sighed and picked up the first document himself. "Perhaps you need to understand what happens if you don’t."

He turned toward the screen.

"Emilia."

Her name left his mouth with such casual familiarity that Adrian’s stomach turned.

Dante tapped a button on the remote.

The image changed.

A second camera angle appeared, showing Emilia from the side. Her hands were still secured behind her back. Ethan stood behind her chair, his forearm across her shoulders.

The gun was no longer merely resting against her cheek.

He had raised it to her temple.

Emilia’s eyes closed briefly.

When they opened again, she was looking straight ahead.

Dante watched Adrian’s reaction. "I think she’s wondering whether all those promises you made her meant anything."

Adrian’s chair shifted as he leaned forward.

Dante raised a hand. "Careful."

The warning was quiet, but it stopped Adrian more effectively than a shout.

"You’ve been very busy telling her that you can protect her. That she can trust you. That you will always find a way."

Dante glanced at the screen.

"Perhaps this would be a good time to show her what those promises are worth."

Adrian stared at him.

He wanted to reach across the desk and crush the smile from Dante’s face. He wanted to put him on the floor and force him to tell them where Emilia was being held.

That knowledge sat between them like a loaded weapon.

"You’re not going to kill her," Adrian said.

Dante’s eyebrows rose. "You’re very confident."

"You didn’t bring me here to kill her. You brought me here because you need something from me."

"That doesn’t mean I need her alive."

"It means you need me to believe you won’t kill her."

For the first time, Dante’s smile faltered.

Adrian continued before he could recover.

"You want my signature. You want the companies, the money, and the protection that comes with them. You want to walk away from this investigation with enough control to make the remaining evidence disappear."

He pointed toward the documents.

"If Emilia dies, you lose your leverage. If I die, you lose the only person in this room who can execute the transfers you want. And if your men outside decide they have nothing left to lose, you lose the advantage you’ve spent years building."

Dante’s expression remained still.

"So don’t tell me you’re going to kill her. You have too much to lose."

The silence that followed was dangerous.

"What happens after I sign?" Adrian asked.

Dante regarded him. "That depends on how cooperative you are."

"No. Tell me what happens."

"You complete the transfers. You withdraw the claims. You make the necessary declarations. Then you leave."

"And Emilia?"

"She leaves too."

"With me?"

Dante smiled faintly. "You’re very attached to that detail."

"Answer the question."

"If everything is completed properly, you will both be free to go."

"Both Emilia and Selena."

Dante’s smile disappeared. "Don’t push your luck."

"They walk out together. Alive. No one follows them. No one touches them. No one contacts them afterward."

"You’re trying to add conditions to an agreement you haven’t even accepted."

"I’m telling you what it will take for me to sign."

Dante studied him. Then he glanced toward the screen and pressed another button.

Ethan stepped away from Emilia’s chair.

For one hopeful second, Adrian thought Dante might be about to release her.

Instead, Ethan moved in front of her and crouched until his face was level with hers.

He said something.

Emilia shook her head.

Ethan reached for her chin and forced her to look at him.

Adrian stood so abruptly that the chair struck the wall behind him.

"Get your hands off her!"

Dante didn’t even look at him.

Ethan released Emilia’s chin, but the gun remained against her temple.

"Sit down," Dante said.

Adrian did not.

Dante turned to face him. "I will ask you once more."

His voice had become dangerously quiet. "Sit down."

For several seconds, Adrian remained standing.

He could feel his men waiting outside the building. He could imagine their positions, their weapons, the reports they would be sending to the security chief. They were close enough to hear his order if he gave it.

One word.

That was all it would take to begin the assault. But the screen remained illuminated. And Emilia was still on it.

Adrian slowly lowered himself into the chair.

Dante watched him do it. Then he nodded toward the documents. "Sign."

Adrian looked at the first page. He picked up the pen.

Dante’s shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly. "Good decision."

Adrian held the pen above the signature line.