Chapter 4 - The Sicilian War
The peace of the mountain sanctuary was broken forty-eight hours later.
Bellini’s primary backer—a ruthless Sicilian Don named Don Salieri—refused to accept the arrest of his operatives. He issued an ultimatum to the Moretti family: surrender the eastern shipping terminals and hand over the "secretary spia" who had exposed their plot, or face an all-out war across Chicago.
In the command center of the estate, Luca stood before a wall of security monitors, surrounded by his top capos and tactical advisors.
"We don't negotiate with Salieri," Marco, his security chief, said sternly. "We hit his warehouses downtown before he can mobilize his men."
"No," Sophia’s voice cut through the room.
The tough mob capos turned in surprise as Sophia walked into the command center, wearing a sharp white silk blouse, a charcoal pencil skirt, and her silver watch. She held a thick stack of printed financial ledgers.
"If you attack his warehouses, you play right into his hands," Sophia stated calmly, laying the ledgers on the table. "Salieri's liquid capital is tied up in international trade credits passing through Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. I spent the last six hours analyzing his shell company filings."
Luca walked over, looking down at the numbers with sharp interest. "What did you find, Sophia?"
"Salieri didn't just want your terminals to expand his empire," Sophia explained, pointing a slender finger at a series of complex wire transfers. "He's bankrupt. He borrowed eighty million dollars from an offshore syndicate in Dubai that comes due in forty-eight hours. If he doesn't secure your terminals to guarantee that loan, his own backers will eliminate him."
Luca’s face broke into a cold, brilliant smile. "We don't need to fire a single bullet."
"Exactly," Sophia agreed, her brown eyes flashing with sharp intelligence. "We execute a legal freeze on his European trade credits using the fraud evidence from Bellini's contract. By 9:00 AM tomorrow, Salieri won't have enough money to pay his own bodyguards."
The capos in the room looked at Sophia with absolute awe.
May you like
Luca looked at her with pure, unadulterated pride. He stepped beside her, sliding his hand down to wrap his fingers tightly around hers in front of all his men.
"Execute her plan immediately," Luca commanded his team. "And prepare my car. Tomorrow, Signorina Bennett and I are going to end this war."
