Chapter 6 - The Woman They Thought Was LeverageAt 9:17 the next morning, Nema Reyes walked into one of Chicago’s oldest banks wearing a black dress that cost more than every outfit she had owned during her previous twenty-nine years combined.
Dom hated the plan.
That alone gave Nema a small amount of satisfaction.
“You stay beside me,” he said as the elevator climbed.
“You’ve said that six times.”
“I’ll say it seven.”
“Try it and I’ll take another elevator.”
Leo coughed suspiciously behind them.
Dom looked at him.
“Something funny?”
“No, boss.”
The elevator opened.
A private banking manager greeted them.
Twenty minutes later, they stood inside a secure vault.
The brass key opened box 614.
Nema expected documents.
Instead, the box contained a flash drive and a handwritten notebook.
Dom recognized the notebook immediately.
“My father’s.”
Nema handed it to him.
He opened the first page.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Union officials.
Developers.
A state senator.
The network was enormous.
“This could destroy half the city,” Nema whispered.
Dom looked at the flash drive.
“And probably explain the other half.”
They copied everything.
Dom wanted the originals destroyed.
Nema refused.
“Evidence matters.”
“In my world, evidence gets people killed.”
“In the real world, evidence can put people in prison.”
Dom looked at her.
“You still believe those are different worlds?”
Nema considered the question.
“No.”
That answer surprised both of them.
They returned to Dom’s downtown office.
For three days, Nema barely slept.
She studied her mother’s records.
She learned names.
Connections.
Companies.
She discovered that Elena had quietly tracked the network for years.
Her mother had not been hiding.
She had been waiting.
And Nema realized something important.
Bianke believed she was frightened.
Everyone did.
A waitress.
Poor.
Untrained.
Protected by Dom.
Weak.
Leverage.
She decided to use that assumption.
On the fourth night, she walked into Dom’s study.
“I want to contact Bianke.”
“No.”
“You didn’t hear the plan.”
“I heard enough.”
“He wants the ledger.”
“No.”
“We give him one.”
“No.”
“A fake.”
“No.”
Nema folded her arms.
“You’re difficult.”
“I was informed recently.”
“He’ll meet me.”
“He’ll kill you.”
“He won’t until he has the ledger.”
Dom stood.
“Nema.”
“You said paranoid men make mistakes.”
His eyes narrowed.
She smiled slightly.
“I listen.”
“This isn’t a game.”
“I know.”
She stepped closer.
“He thinks I’m your weakness.”
Dom said nothing.
“Let him.”
That landed.
Nema continued.
“He thinks you care about me enough to become reckless.”
“I do.”
The simplicity of the answer stopped her.
Dom walked toward her.
“I care enough that I will burn every building Arthur Bianke owns before I allow him within ten feet of you.”
Nema’s heart tightened.
“That is exactly why he’ll believe it.”
Dom stared at her.
She touched his chest.
“Trust me.”
His jaw tightened.
“That’s a dangerous thing to ask from a man like me.”
“Then learn.”
The meeting was arranged.
Bianke chose an abandoned luxury hotel near the river.
Nema arrived alone.
At least, that was what Bianke believed.
A microphone was hidden beneath her collar.
Leo had positioned men in adjacent buildings.
Dom listened from a van two blocks away.
Nema carried a leather case.
Inside was a fake ledger.
Bianke waited in the ballroom.
“You look like your mother.”
His first words.
Nema stopped twenty feet away.
“You knew her.”
“I knew everyone worth knowing.”
“You killed Rafael Vasquez.”
Bianke smiled.
“Did Dom tell you that?”
“My mother did.”
His smile faded slightly.
Good.
Nema held up the case.
“You want this?”
“Very much.”
“I want something first.”
“Money?”
“No.”
“Protection?”
“No.”
Bianke looked amused.
“What does the waitress want?”
“The truth.”
He laughed.
Nema remained still.
Finally he shrugged.
“Your mother was clever.”
“Clever enough to beat you.”
The amusement disappeared.
“She stole something that belonged to me.”
“She protected evidence.”
“She interfered.”
“So did I.”
Bianke stared.
Then smiled again.
“Yes.”
He stepped closer.
“You spilled the coffee.”
“I did.”
“Tommy underestimated you.”
“So did you.”
Bianke’s eyes hardened.
“What do you want to know?”
“Did you kill my mother?”
“No.”
Nema studied him.
“Cancer killed Elena.”
“Did you threaten her?”
“Yes.”
“Did Tommy watch her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because we never found the ledger.”
Nema’s throat tightened.
“Why pay for her treatment?”
“Guilt.”
The answer surprised her.
“Tommy loved your mother.”
Nema froze.
Bianke smiled at her reaction.
“He never told you?”
“No.”
“They were together once.”
The floor seemed unstable beneath her.
“Before you were born.”
Nema’s pulse thundered.
Bianke continued.
“Tommy spent years protecting her without my permission.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because truth is more destructive than bullets.”
Nema understood.
He wanted to destabilize her.
She refused to let him see it.
“Here’s another truth,” Bianke said.
“Dom’s father wasn’t innocent.”
“I never assumed he was.”
“He ordered men killed.”
“Not surprising.”
“He built the same empire Dom controls today.”
“I know.”
Bianke’s smile weakened.
Nema stepped closer.
“You expected me to discover criminals were criminals and suddenly collapse?”
Silence.
“You really don’t understand women like my mother.”
Bianke’s face changed.
Nema lifted the case.
“Last question.”
“What?”
“Why poison Dom?”
“Because war requires openings.”
“And Tommy?”
“Disposable.”
Nema’s expression hardened.
Bianke extended his hand.
“The ledger.”
She threw the case across the floor.
He opened it.
His eyes scanned the pages.
Then stopped.
He looked up.
“This is fake.”
Nema smiled.
“Correct.”
Bianke reached inside his coat.
The ballroom doors exploded inward.
Dom entered with Leo and four armed men.
Bianke’s guards raised weapons.
Nobody fired.
For several seconds, twenty years of betrayal stood inside one room.
Dom walked toward Nema.
He never looked away from Bianke.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You disobeyed approximately twelve instructions.”
“Thirteen.”
“Of course.”
Bianke laughed.
“You really care about her.”
Dom’s expression remained cold.
“Yes.”
“That makes you weak.”
“No.”
Dom stopped beside Nema.
“It makes me predictable.”
His hand found hers.
“And predictable men can still be dangerous.”
Police sirens approached outside.
Bianke looked toward the windows.
His expression changed.
“You called the police?”
Nema answered.
“I did.”
Bianke stared at her.
Not Dom.
Her.
“You think police can touch me?”
“Not regular police.”
Federal agents entered moments later.
Nema had anonymously sent copies of the ledger to three federal offices, two newspapers, and an investigative journalist.
Dom looked at her.
“You did what?”
“Insurance.”
“You gave federal agents my father’s ledger?”
“A redacted copy.”
Dom almost looked proud.
Bianke did not.
For the first time, fear entered the old man’s face.
His empire had survived bullets.
Bribes.
Murders.
Wars.
But information was different.
Information multiplied.
Once released, it could not be shot.
Bianke was arrested.
As agents led him away, he looked back at Nema.
“Your mother would hate what you’ve become.”
Nema held his gaze.
“No.”
She looked at Dom.
Then at the agents.
May you like
Then at the ledger that had haunted her family for eleven years.
“She’d hate what I had to survive.”
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