Victor did not answer.
“Security command,” Marco said.
“Victor’s office.”
“And yet it took you nearly thirty minutes to reach me.”
“We were rerouted,” Victor said.
“By an alert you created.”
Victor’s calm finally collapsed.
“You think I would risk everything because this woman found a damaged wire?”
“No,” Luca said.
“I think you expected the wire to disappear with the car.”
Victor glanced toward the garage door.
Two men moved in front of it.
His hand slipped inside his coat.
Marco caught his wrist before he could remove whatever was there.
The movement was fast, controlled, and over almost immediately.
Another man took a compact pistol from Victor’s inner pocket and set it far from Amelia on a locked cabinet.
Luca never raised his voice.
“No one harms him.”
Victor stared at him.
“That is mercy you would not have shown five years ago.”
“It is not mercy.
I want answers that survive in court.”
That seemed to frighten Victor more than anger would have.
Marco searched Victor’s coat and found a small black case.
Inside was a portable automotive service unit.
Amelia recognized the connector immediately.
She attached it to her computer through an isolated cable.
The device carried the same encrypted serial number recorded by the Bentley’s module.
The proof was no longer circumstantial.
Victor saw it on the screen and stopped denying.
Instead, he attacked.
“You built everything on fear,” he told Luca.
“You made men wait years for your approval while you sat in restaurants pretending to be legitimate.
The city is changing.
Your way is finished.”
Luca’s expression remained unreadable.
“And your better way began by leaving me helpless on an empty road?”
“It began by removing an obstacle.”
The admission settled over the garage.
Marco activated an audio recorder and asked Victor to repeat himself.
Victor realized what he had said.
He looked at Amelia as though she had caused it.
“You should have kept driving.”
Amelia folded her arms.
“My father taught me not to.”
Victor was escorted into one of the SUVs.
Luca ordered that the device, module, cut harness, route messages, and security logs be preserved for his attorneys and the investigators who would follow.
No one celebrated.
The men outside reorganized with quiet urgency.
Calls were made.
Access codes were changed.
People loyal to Victor were removed from posts before they could destroy records.
Inside the garage, the pressure slowly drained from the room.
Amelia looked at the clock.
It was nearly four in the morning.
She had stopped to help a stranded stranger and uncovered an attempt to remove a mafia boss from his own organization.
