Chapter 16 - The Hunter's Blind
By four in the morning, my penthouse study had been transformed into a tactical operations room.
Veronica, my chief legal counsel, sat beside Gabriel, reviewing the contents of the USB drive on an air-gapped terminal. Standing near the window was Mateo Ruiz, a former federal police commander who had run my private executive protection team for six years.
"The audio files are genuine," Veronica reported, her face pale under the desk lamp. "Ricardo recorded four private phone calls between you and the Swiss trustees regarding the off-shore restructuring of the cement holdings in 2022. If leaked without context, the tax authorities could freeze our operational accounts for six months while conducting an audit."
"And the gun?" I asked, turning to Mateo.
Mateo pulled up a street-level surveillance feed on his tablet. "We tapped his phone location through the burner SIM Ximena gave us. He’s currently parked in a stolen silver Nissan three blocks from this building, sitting in the dark near the entrance of the underground commercial delivery ramp."
"He thinks I use that ramp for my morning departures," I said.
"Yes," Mateo nodded grimly. "He’s been there since 2:30 AM. He has a loaded Taurus nine-millimeter in the glove compartment and four extra magazines. Victoria, this is no longer a corporate dispute. This is an active assassination threat. We have enough to have the special tactical unit swarm the car right now."
"No," I said instantly.
Veronica looked up, startled. "Victoria, he’s armed! If the police take him, he gets ten years for attempted homicide and illegal weapons possession!"
"Ten years?" I repeated, turning to face them. "Ten years in a comfortable minimum-security facility where his mother can visit him with clean clothes and where corrupt wardens can give him a cell with a television? Where he can spend a decade writing memoirs about how the evil Victoria Vance ruined his life?"
"Victoria," Gabriel said cautiously. "What are you suggesting?"
"I am suggesting that Ricardo De La Vega gets precisely what he prepared for," I said, my voice dropping into that chilling, absolute calm that always signaled total warfare. "He prepared a stage. He wants an audience. He wants a confrontation. We are going to give him one—on my terms, on my property, where every word, every breath, and every bullet is accounted for."
I looked at Mateo. "Where is the old Las Lomas estate currently?"
Mateo blinked, confused by the sudden change of subject. "The mansion you sold? The new owner, the German pharmaceutical consortium, hasn't begun renovations yet. It’s sitting empty, fully staged with the temporary corporate furnishings, under their private security contract."
"Call their managing director in Frankfurt," I commanded. "Offer them double their monthly lease rate to use the ground floor of that property for twelve hours tomorrow evening. Tell them it’s for a confidential commercial film shoot."
Sofia stepped closer, her breath catching. "Victoria... you're going back to the mansion?"
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"No," I said, a terrifying, beautiful smile touching my lips. "Ricardo is going back to the mansion. Because that is where his fantasy began. And that is where I will bury it forever."
***
