Chapter 3 - The King's Awakening
Willa waited in the dark, cramped servant's corridor until she heard Sterling and Dr. Whitfield leave the master suite.
She sprinted back to the bedroom, locking the heavy oak door behind her with trembling hands.
She rushed to Everett's side, completely panicked by the horrific conversation she had just overheard.
"Everett, wake up!" Willa urged, gently shaking his broad shoulders.
Everett opened his dark eyes, instantly recognizing the sheer, unadulterated terror written across her beautiful face.
"They are going to kill you on Friday," Willa choked out, tears of frustration welling in her eyes.
"Whitfield is signing the papers to pull your life support."
Everett absorbed the devastating news without a single flinch of panic.
He had spent his entire life swimming in shark-infested waters; he knew exactly how to survive a feeding frenzy.
He slowly raised his right arm, testing the strength in his atrophied muscles.
His arm shook violently, but the unyielding, iron will of the mafia boss forced it to move.
He reached up and gently wiped a stray tear from Willa's pale cheek.
"They will not touch you," Everett rasped, his voice a low, terrifying growl that promised absolute violence.
"I need your help, Willa."
"Anything," she agreed without a single moment of hesitation.
"There is a hidden wall safe behind the large oil painting of the sailboat," Everett instructed, struggling to speak clearly.
"The code is zero-four-one-nine."
Willa rushed to the painting, swinging it aside on its concealed hinges to reveal a heavy steel safe.
She punched in the numbers, and the heavy metal door clicked open.
"Inside is a secure, encrypted satellite phone," Everett explained.
"Bring it to me."
Willa grabbed the bulky black phone and placed it directly into his shaking hand.
Everett dialed a complex, international number from pure, flawless memory.
The phone rang twice before a deep, heavily accented voice answered.
"Speak," the voice commanded.
"Marco, it is Dante," Everett whispered, using his old, heavily guarded syndicate code name.
There was a long, stunned silence on the other end of the line.
"Boss?" Marco gasped, his voice cracking with sheer, unbelievable shock.
"Sterling told the commission you were a vegetable."
"Sterling is a dead man walking," Everett stated coldly.
"I need an extraction team at the estate by Thursday night, heavily armed and completely off the books."
"Do not trust anyone in the Chicago branch."
"Understood, Boss," Marco replied, his tone instantly shifting into lethal, professional focus.
"We will burn the house down if we have to."
Everett hung up the phone and looked at Willa, who was staring at him with wide, terrified eyes.
"You are not just a businessman, are you?" Willa asked, slowly piecing together the terrifying reality.
"No, Willa," Everett confessed, his dark eyes filled with absolute sincerity.
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"I am the man who owns the monsters."
"And the monsters are coming to take back my throne."
