Chapter 14 - THE INVISIBLE ENEMY
The retaliation was swift and brutal. Over the next forty-eight hours, Lorenzo’s men dismantled three suspected Bratva operations in the city’s industrial district. But the Volkovs were ghosts. Nikolai Volkov, the rumored architect of the invasion, was a phantom who left no digital footprint.
Evelyn barely slept, fueled by black coffee and sheer determination. She dug through mountains of encrypted bank records, tracing wire transfers that bounced from offshore accounts in Cyprus to shell corporations in Delaware. She noticed a pattern—a recurring sequence of fractional cent skimming that mirrored a technique she had seen years ago when auditing the Vane family.
"Lorenzo," she called out from her array of monitors. He crossed the room instantly. "Look at this. The Volkovs aren't just invading; they’ve been invited. These financial routing numbers... they belong to a domestic account. Someone inside Chicago’s political infrastructure is laundering their staging money. Someone who used to work for the Vanes."
Before Lorenzo could respond, the estate’s proximity alarms shrieked.
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Gunfire erupted outside, heavy and automatic. The reinforced glass of the upper levels shattered under a hail of bullets. The Volkovs weren't waiting for a street war; they had brought an army directly to the gates of Lake Forest.
"Down!" Lorenzo roared, tackling Evelyn to the floor as a secondary explosion rocked the western wing of the house. The pristine white roses from their wedding, still blooming in the gardens, were instantly reduced to ash and fire.
