Chapter 4 - The Predator's Turn
The meeting was set in a private dining room at a secluded, high-end Italian restaurant in the River North district—a place where the waiters knew to look away and the private rooms had thick, soundproofed walls.
I arrived alone, wearing a sharp charcoal-gray wool coat over my white suit.
Sitting at the end of the long mahogany table was Victor Valenti, the head of the Valenti syndicate. He was a man in his early sixties, with thick silver hair, sharp gray eyes, and a quiet, terrifying stillness. Beside him sat two men in dark suits, their hands folded neatly in front of them.
"Eleanor Sinclair," Victor said, his voice a deep, gravelly purr. "Or is it Grant now? I hear you went back to your maiden name."
"Eleanor Grant is fine, Mr. Valenti," I said, sitting in the leather chair opposite him. I didn't wait for him to offer it. "I believe we have a mutual problem."
"Do we?" Victor asked, leaning back. "Your ex-husband took eight million dollars of my family’s money and let the federal government freeze it. His mother tells me you’re the one who handed the keys to the treasury department. She says you have the recovery codes."
"Beatatrice is a desperate woman who has never worked a day in her life," I replied calmly, looking Victor straight in the eye. "She thinks financial software is run by magic. The federal government didn't freeze your money, Mr. Valenti. They froze Richard’s corporate accounts. Your money was never in those accounts."
Victor’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Explain."
"Richard was sloppy," I said, pulling a small, encrypted flash drive from my purse and setting it on the table. "He tried to launder your shipping revenue through his personal real estate acquisitions. If the feds had found it, they would have traced it back to your docks within forty-eight hours. I intervened."
I slid the drive across the table.
"I rerouted your eight million dollars into a secure, offshore escrow account in Switzerland three hours before the federal raid," I said. "The feds think that money was spent on bad investments. It is completely clean, completely untouched, and completely yours. The codes to access the escrow are on that drive."
Victor stared at the tiny metal drive, then at me. A slow, respectful smile crept onto his face. "And what does a brilliant woman like you want in exchange for eight million dollars of my money, Mrs. Grant?"
"I want Richard to have no allies left in this city," I said, my voice cold as ice. "I want the Valenti family to withdraw any legal or financial support they were planning to offer his defense. I want him to stand in that federal courtroom completely alone."
May you like
Victor reached out, his large hand covering the flash drive. He pulled it back to his side of the table.
"My family doesn't like sloppy partners, Eleanor," Victor said softly. "Richard Sinclair was a tool we used until he became blunt. You have just proven to be a much sharper instrument. The deal is done."
