Nico closed the laptop.

“I’m going.”

Julian blocked the mausoleum door.

“No.”

“Sofia is in Adrian’s custody.”

“That is why you will not walk into Vance Tower alone.”

“The message demands Ghost.”

“The message came from a man who tried to kill us both. I have no obligation to respect his instructions.”

“He’ll kill her.”

“He will kill her the moment she is no longer useful.”

Nico stepped closer.

“Then move.”

Julian did not.

Nico’s fear hardened into anger.

“You don’t get to lock me in another beautiful room while someone I love dies.”

“I am not leaving her there.”

“You just said—”

“I said you are not going alone.”

Julian removed his phone.

“Marcus, assemble everyone still loyal to me. No Vance digital channels. No company vehicles.”

Nico watched him.

“You have a plan?”

“I have you.”

“That is a terrible plan.”

“It has survived four days.”

Marcus’s voice answered through the phone.

“What’s the objective?”

Julian looked at Nico.

“Take back my company. Save Sofia. Open the ledger.”

Vance Tower rose above Lower Manhattan in black glass and steel.

Adrian controlled the building’s security, elevators, and communications. Victor’s remaining soldiers controlled the loading dock and underground garage.

They expected an assault.

They did not expect Nico to walk through the front doors wearing a bloodstained shirt and Julian’s wedding ring.

His hands were raised.

The encrypted drive hung around his neck.

“I’m here,” he called.

Armed men emerged from behind the security desk.

Victor stepped out of the private elevator.

His bruised throat bore the marks of Julian’s hand.

“Where is Vance?”

Nico smiled.

“Still upset he chose me?”

Victor struck him across the stomach.

Nico folded but did not fall.

“Where is he?”

“You really need new material.”

Victor grabbed Nico’s hair and forced his head back.

“You destroyed your family for a man who treats you like property.”

“He asked before putting on the ring.”

Victor’s face twisted.

Nico pressed his thumb against the ring.

Three floors below, the signal reached Marcus.

The garage doors opened.

Julian’s team entered.

Alarms erupted through the tower.

Victor looked toward the security screens.

Nico drove his forehead into Victor’s nose.

The older man staggered.

Nico ran for the private elevator.

The doors opened before he reached them.

Adrian stood inside with a gun against Sofia’s ribs.

Her hands were bound.

“You always did enjoy creating distractions,” Adrian said.

Nico stopped.

Sofia’s eyes found his.

She shook her head once.

Do not surrender.

Adrian smiled.

“Get in.”

Nico entered the elevator.

Victor followed, blood running from his nose.

The doors closed as gunfire broke out in the lobby.

Adrian pressed the button for the abandoned trading floor on level forty-one.

“Julian will reach us,” Nico said.

“That is the idea.”

“You want him alive.”

“I need his biometric authority.”

“For Jonathan’s identity?”

“For every asset his father locked away.”

Sofia stared at Adrian.

“You killed Jonathan Vance.”

“Victor arranged the unpleasant part.”

Victor wiped his face.

“And he paid for it.”

Nico looked at his uncle.

“And my mother?”

Victor’s silence answered first.

“She should have minded her own accounts,” he said.

Sofia lunged.

Adrian tightened the gun against her.

“Careful.”

Nico’s vision narrowed.

For ten years, he had imagined his mother’s killer as a shadow, a code, or an anonymous contractor.

Instead, the man stood beside him complaining about a broken nose.

“You sent me to Connecticut after killing her.”

“I convinced your father that distance would protect you.”

“You were afraid I knew what she found.”

“You were seventeen and useless.”

Nico smiled without warmth.

“Still think that?”

The elevator opened.

The trading floor had been abandoned during a Vance renovation. Hundreds of empty desks stood beneath dead monitors. City lights burned beyond the windows.

A camera waited in the center.

So did Elena.

Two armed men held her beside a chair.

Adrian pushed Sofia toward them.

“Connect the ledger.”

Nico approached the central terminal.

“Where is Julian supposed to stand?”

“He’ll come.”

“He may choose the company over me.”

Adrian laughed.

“You still don’t understand him.”

“And you do?”

“I have watched Julian protect the Vance name his entire life. Then you appeared, and he started sacrificing pieces of it.”

Nico inserted the drive.

The terminal requested his biometric confirmation.

He pressed his thumb against the reader.

The ledger began decrypting.

Thirty percent.

Adrian watched the screen.

“Jonathan built an empire and left it to a son too sentimental to use it.”

“Julian is many things,” Nico said. “Sentimental isn’t one.”

The lights went out.

A single gunshot followed.

One of Elena’s guards fell.

Emergency lighting flashed red.

Julian emerged between the empty trading desks.

His injured arm remained secured beneath his coat. A handgun rested in his other hand.

Victor seized Nico from behind and pressed a blade against his throat.

Adrian pointed his weapon at Sofia.

“Drop it,” Adrian said.

Julian stopped.

The ledger reached fifty-two percent.

“Let them go,” Julian said.

“You know what I want.”

“My biometric access.”

“And executive control of Vance Capital.”

“You already have operational control.”

“I want the name.”

Julian looked at Nico.

Victor’s blade pressed closer.

A narrow line of blood appeared.

Something savage entered Julian’s eyes.

Nico held his gaze.

Wait.

Trust me.

Julian lowered his weapon.

Adrian smiled.

“Kick it away.”

Julian obeyed.

Victor whispered into Nico’s ear.

“He chose you because you amuse him. When this is over, you’ll still be the bastard he bought.”

Nico looked at the ledger screen.

Seventy percent.

“Maybe,” he said.

Then he slammed his heel onto Victor’s foot and drove his head backward.

Victor’s nose broke again.

Nico twisted free.

Sofia dropped to the floor as Elena struck her guard with the chair.

Julian moved.

He crossed the space and drove Adrian into the terminal. The gun fired into the ceiling.

Victor recovered and lunged at Nico.

Nico caught his wrist with both hands.

They crashed across a desk.

The blade fell between them.

Victor reached for it.

Nico grabbed his loosened tie, wrapped it around Victor’s wrist, and pulled until the older man cried out.

“You were right about one thing,” Nico said. “I destroyed the Russo family.”

He tightened the tie.

“But you killed it first.”

Marcus and his team flooded the floor.

Victor was dragged away.

Adrian lay facedown beneath Julian’s knee.

The ledger reached one hundred percent.

Every monitor on the trading floor came alive.

Payments.

Names.

Shell companies.

Recordings.

The evidence linking Adrian and Victor to Isabella Russo’s murder, Jonathan Vance’s death, the attacks at the gala, and the Columbia ambush filled the screens.

Sofia stared at it.

“This can bring down both organizations.”

Adrian laughed from the floor.

“And half the people in this city who protected them.”

Julian stood.

He looked at the empire displayed around him.

Then he turned to Nico.

A final authorization prompt waited on the terminal.

RELEASE COMPLETE ARCHIVE?

Julian removed the Vance signet from his hand and placed it beside Nico’s wedding ring.

“No contract,” he said.

Everyone fell silent.

“No cage. No debt.”

Nico looked at him.

Julian’s expression was calm, but the decision beneath it was absolute.

“You control the ledger,” Julian continued. “Choose what survives.”

Nico placed his finger over the final key.

Then he pressed it.

Every screen went black.