Chapter 13 - When the Empire Began to Burn
"Dante!"
Ruby dropped beside him.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Her hands shook as she pressed them against the wound.
"Stay with me."
Dante looked annoyed.
"Wasn't planning otherwise."
She laughed and cried simultaneously.
Marco tackled Father Michael.
Federal agents flooded the crypt.
Patrick shouted for a medic.
Ruby barely noticed.
"Dante."
"I'm fine."
"You've been shot."
"Technically grazed."
She looked.
The bullet had cut across his ribs.
Painful.
Bloody.
Not fatal.
Ruby nearly collapsed from relief.
Dante touched her face.
"The contract."
Ruby looked toward the stone floor.
Flames consumed the final pages.
The Moretti seal blackened.
Michael screamed from where agents restrained him.
"You have no idea what you've destroyed!"
Ruby stood.
She looked at the burning paper.
Then at the man who had manipulated both their families for decades.
"Yes, I do."
The last piece curled into ash.
Dante slowly rose with assistance.
Father Michael's expression became almost triumphant.
"Fools."
Ruby frowned.
"You think destroying paper destroys the empire?"
Dante's eyes narrowed.
Michael smiled.
"The accounts were copied."
"By who?"
Michael looked at Patrick.
Patrick went still.
Ruby noticed.
"Dad?"
Patrick looked sick.
Michael laughed.
"Tell her."
Ruby's heart sank.
Patrick whispered, "Years ago, I made a backup of the account keys."
"Why?"
"Insurance."
"Where?"
Patrick closed his eyes.
"Gallagher Holdings."
Ruby stepped backward.
"What?"
"Inside the corporate treasury."
Dante looked at him.
"Meaning anyone with chairman-level access—"
"Could retrieve them."
Ruby thought of the board.
Her father's death.
Charles.
Vale.
"Who has access now?"
Patrick looked at her.
"You."
Ruby froze.
"And the acting chairman."
Ruby whispered, "Charles."
Everyone looked toward the crypt stairs.
Charles was gone.
Again.
Ruby almost screamed.
Dante grabbed Marco's phone.
"Lock down Gallagher Tower."
Marco made the call.
Too late.
A notification appeared on Ruby's phone.
GALLAGHER HOLDINGS — EMERGENCY BOARD MEETING.
She stared.
Scheduled for nine the next morning.
Agenda:
TRANSFER OF CONTROLLING ASSETS.
Ruby looked at Dante.
"Charles is going to move the money."
Patrick shook his head.
"He can't without majority approval."
"Who controls the votes?"
"Currently? You."
Ruby exhaled.
"Then he needs me."
Dante's expression hardened.
"Or he needs everyone to believe you're unavailable."
Ruby's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Charles.
"I'm sorry."
Ruby closed her eyes.
"Stop saying that."
"I mean it."
"Where are you?"
"Gallagher Tower."
"Don't move the accounts."
"I have to."
"No, you don't."
"Michael has people everywhere."
"Michael is in custody."
Charles laughed bitterly.
"You think he's the end?"
Ruby's stomach tightened.
"Who else?"
Charles lowered his voice.
"The board."
"Which member?"
"Most of them."
Ruby stared.
"The company is infected, Ruby."
Patrick heard.
His face drained.
Charles continued.
"Your father spent years finding criminals outside Gallagher Holdings."
"But not inside."
"Exactly."
Ruby felt ill.
"Why call me?"
"Because tomorrow they're going to vote."
"On what?"
"Removing you."
Ruby stared.
"For what reason?"
"Instability. Exposure to organized crime. Marriage to Dante."
Dante's mouth tightened.
Charles continued.
"They'll claim your relationship compromised the company."
"Can they win?"
"If three trustees support them."
"Which trustees?"
Charles named them.
Ruby knew all three.
Men who had hugged her at Patrick's funeral.
Again.
Always funerals.
"Why are you helping me?"
Charles was silent.
Finally:
"Because Patrick was right."
"About what?"
"I became a coward."
Ruby's anger softened slightly.
"Then stop."
"I don't know how."
"Start tomorrow."
Silence.
Then Charles whispered, "If I come to that meeting, they'll kill me."
Ruby looked at Dante.
He heard.
Dante spoke loudly enough for Charles.
"Then we'll make sure they don't."
Charles laughed nervously.
"The Moretti solution."
"No."
Ruby looked at Dante.
"The Gallagher solution."
Dante raised an eyebrow.
She continued.
"We expose them."
Agent Sloan approached.
"We can build a sting."
Ruby nodded.
Patrick looked worried.
"You're walking into a room full of people who may have ordered my death."
Ruby stared at him.
"You spent twenty-nine years deciding what I could handle."
Patrick flinched.
She softened.
"Let me decide now."
He looked at her.
Then nodded.
"All right."
The next morning, Ruby entered Gallagher Tower wearing an ivory suit.
Not because white meant innocence.
Because Catherine had once taught her that if people expected you to look frightened, elegance could become armor.
Dante walked beside her.
"No guns in the boardroom," Ruby said.
He looked offended.
"I'm aware."
"Marco?"
"No visible guns."
Ruby sighed.
"Dante."
"Kidding."
She stared.
He wasn't.
They entered the top-floor boardroom.
Twelve directors sat around the table.
Three federal microphones were hidden on Ruby.
Patrick remained in a secure location.
Catherine and Elena were both under protection.
Charles's chair remained empty.
Ruby sat at the head of the table.
An older director named Harold Mercer cleared his throat.
"Mrs. Moretti."
"Ms. Gallagher is fine."
He smiled thinly.
"We are here because recent events raise concerns about your fitness to control this organization."
Ruby folded her hands.
"What events?"
"Your association with criminal figures."
Ruby glanced at Dante.
He smiled pleasantly.
Several directors looked away.
Mercer continued.
"Gallagher Holdings cannot survive if its chairwoman is compromised."
Ruby nodded.
"Interesting."
She opened a folder.
Everyone stiffened.
Not the acquisition folder.
Another.
Inside were transaction records recovered from Patrick's ledger.
"I agree."
Mercer's face changed.
Ruby slid copies around.
"That's why I'd like to discuss which members of this board sold access to Gallagher shipping routes."
Silence.
One director stood.
"This meeting is over."
Ruby smiled.
"Sit down, Mr. Caine."
He didn't.
Dante remained motionless near the wall.
Caine looked at the exit.
Federal agents entered.
Panic erupted.
Mercer shouted.
"You don't understand!"
Ruby stood.
"I understand perfectly."
Then the boardroom doors opened again.
Charles entered.
Everyone froze.
He carried a laptop.
Mercer's face turned white.
Charles walked toward Ruby.
"I brought the account mirror."
Ruby looked at him.
"All of it?"
"All of it."
He placed the laptop down.
Mercer suddenly reached inside his jacket.
Dante moved.
A gun appeared.
Someone screamed.
Before Mercer could aim at Ruby, Charles stepped between them.
The gun fired.
Charles staggered.
Ruby screamed.
Dante disarmed Mercer.
Agents tackled him.
Ruby dropped beside her uncle.
Blood spread across Charles's chest.
"Stay with me."
Charles smiled weakly.
"Was that brave enough?"
Ruby cried.
"Idiot."
He coughed.
"Runs in the family."
Paramedics rushed in.
As they lifted him, Charles gripped Ruby's hand.
"There's one more file."
"What?"
"On the laptop."
"Which file?"
Charles's eyes fluttered.
"Ruby."
She leaned closer.
"The file called Catherine."
Ruby froze.
Her adoptive mother's name.
May you like
Charles whispered:
"Don't open it in front of Dante."
