Chapter 9 - The VIP Gala
The following evening, the luxury Chicago restaurant was completely, breathtakingly transformed for the exclusive, highly guarded syndicate gala.
The pristine white marble dining tables were pushed aside to create a massive, polished dance floor, brilliantly illuminated by the towering crystal chandeliers. The room was packed with the most powerful, dangerous, and incredibly wealthy cartel bosses, underbosses, and political fixers in the entire Midwest. It was a den of apex predators dressed in expensive tuxedos.
Standing near the grand entrance was Victor. Wearing a brand-new, impeccably tailored designer tuxedo, he was sweating profusely but smiling with intense, arrogant confidence. Grant had flawlessly convinced him that the flash drive was lost in the alley and that Roman suspected absolutely nothing. Victor felt like an invincible, untouchable king who had just successfully outsmarted the devil himself.
Suddenly, the heavy mahogany double doors of the restaurant swung open.
The loud, ambient chatter of the entire ballroom went instantly, suffocatingly dead silent.
Roman Thorne walked into the room wearing a flawless, custom-tailored black tuxedo that accentuated his broad, muscular frame. But for the first time in his life, no one in the room was looking at him.
Walking side-by-side with the billionaire boss was Tessa.
She wasn't wearing a humiliating brown maid uniform or a ridiculous ruffled headband. She wore a stunning, jaw-dropping emerald-green silk evening gown that hugged her curves perfectly and trailed elegantly across the marble floor. Her dark brunette hair was styled in sweeping, glamorous waves, and she wore a priceless, blinding diamond necklace that Roman had personally sent to her apartment that afternoon.
She looked absolutely breathtaking, radiating the untouchable, lethal, and undeniable power of true mafia royalty.
Victor’s jaw literally unhinged. The blood violently drained from his face as he stared in pure, unadulterated horror at the woman he had ordered his men to murder the night before.
May you like
He panicked. Driven by pure, toxic arrogance and blind, desperate fear, Victor aggressively marched directly toward them, intending to order his security to throw her out before she could speak a single word to the cartel bosses.
👉 Victor blindly walked straight into the lethal trap, entirely oblivious to the massive financial guillotine hovering directly above his neck.
