Chapter 3 - Dead Man's Ledger
Sofia opened the water-tight case. Inside lay a satellite phone, two passports with faded stamps, a loaded Glock 19, and a worn leather ledger. Her fingers traced the embossed crest on the cover—the seal of her late father’s logistics empire, the empire Julian had usurped piece by piece through poison, betrayal, and a fabricated marriage.
""Hector has been hiding in the hills since Julian took the boardroom,"" Mateo said, watching her carefully. ""He thought you were complicit. He thought you gave your father's legacy away for a golden cage.""
""I was a hostage,"" Sofia murmured, checking the chamber of the pistol with practiced efficiency. ""Julian told me Hector had been assassinated. He kept me isolated, drugged on prenatal vitamins laced with sedatives."" Her hand tightened on the grip until her knuckles turned ivory. ""He pushed me out because yesterday, I found the audit.""
""The audit?""
""The paper trail detailing the systematic slaughter of every family loyal to my bloodline,"" she said. ""He needed me dead before the merger with the European cartel on Friday. Once dead, my family’s remaining thirty percent shares revert to him by spousal inheritance. If the baby is never registered as born, the dynasty dies with me.""
Mateo pulled a battered pickup truck out from behind a camouflage tarp outside. ""Then we leave tonight. If Julian's sweep teams check the drop coordinates, they’ll trace the currents straight to this beach by sunrise.""
Sofia wrapped herself in a dry flannel shirt Mateo provided, slipping the firearm into her waistband. She stepped out into the night mist, looking up toward the distant highway lights tracing the spine of the coastal mountains.
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Suddenly, the red laser dot of a sniper scope painted the wooden frame right beside her head.
A suppressed rifle cracked through the wind. Mateo grunted, spinning backward against the truck door, crimson flowering across his shoulder.
