Chapter 13 - The Ascent
-13-
Forty-eight hours after we walked out of the Santa Fe compound, the Calloway family vanished into the background noise of America’s judicial system.
My father, mother, sister, and brother-in-law were placed under federal house arrest pending trial, stripped of their wealth, their social standing, and their illusion of control. They didn't look at me when we parted ways outside the federal courthouse. They didn't apologize. They just packed their meager belongings and disappeared into the gray haze of suburban legal exile.
As for me, I didn't go back to a safe house.
I moved into the penthouse suite of Silverline Holdings’ downtown headquarters in Denver.
With the stroke of a pen, I had legally inherited a multi-million-dollar corporate empire built on fraud, extortion, and murder. But I hadn't inherited it to play their game. I had inherited it to burn their boardrooms to the ground from the inside out.
It was a crisp Saturday morning when I walked into the executive corner office on the fortieth floor. The sun was streaming through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, casting long, sharp shadows across the polished walnut floors.
Noah was sitting on a sleek leather couch in the corner, playing a handheld video game, completely safe, surrounded by private security detail managed directly by Detective Harrison, who had officially retired from the bureau to act as my head of security and corporate investigator.
Harrison walked into the office, holding a thick, encrypted laptop and a cup of black coffee, setting them down on the massive executive desk.
“The federal prosecutors accepted our cooperation terms,” Harrison said, pulling up a chair opposite me. “Vance’s primary shell companies in Zurich and the Cayman Islands have been flagged by international financial regulators. The global asset freeze we initiated yesterday is holding.”
I stared out the window at the distant, jagged peaks of the San Juan Mountains rising on the western horizon—the very mountains where they had tried to leave us to die.
“Vance thinks he won,” I said quietly, spinning my wedding band around my finger. “He thinks by handing me the Calloway debt, he tied an anchor around my neck and dragged me into his syndicate.”
“And what do you think?” Harrison asked, watching me closely.
May you like
I turned away from the window, walking over to the executive desk. I placed my hands flat against the mahogany surface, looking down at the encrypted terminal.
“I think Victor Vance forgot the cardinal rule of corporate auditing,” I said, a cold, sharp smile touching my lips. “Never hand the master keys to a man who has nothing left to lose.”
