Larkin had Thomas pinned to the floor, his forearm pressed hard against his cousin’s throat, cutting off his air supply. The room was dead silent except for Thomas’s ragged, choking gasps.
“You insane bastard,” Larkin growled, his voice dropping into a lethal whisper. “You brought a gun into my office? You pointed it at my CFO?”
“Kill him,” Thomas choked out, clawing desperately at Larkin’s arm. “Larkin… he’s… he’s selling us out to the… Morettis…”
“That’s a lie and you know it,” I said, stepping forward, the steel tip of my stiletto hovering inches from Thomas’s face. I looked down at the man who had spent three years mocking my gray clothes and cheap shoes. “Thomas, your offshore accounts in the Caymans were frozen by federal marshals twenty minutes ago, courtesy of a tip I sent before we walked into this office. The Morettis have already abandoned you because you’re a liability.”
Thomas’s eyes rolled back in horror. “You… you destroyed me.”
“No,” I corrected coldly. “I balanced your books.”
Larkin looked up from the floor, his gaze meeting mine over his cousin’s broken form. There was no hesitation left in his eyes—only absolute, ruthless devotion.
“What do we do with him?” Larkin asked, his voice steady.
“We don't kill him,” I said, lowering the pistol and placing it neatly back on the desk. “Killing him makes him a martyr to the old guard. Instead, we hand him over to the federal authorities on federal wire fraud and treason charges, while we systematically absorb every single asset he tried to steal from this syndicate.”
Larkin held my gaze for a long second, then let out a sharp, dark laugh.
“God, you’re ruthless, Penelope,” he murmured.
“You didn't hire a librarian, Mr. Steves,” I replied, straightening my blazer. “You hired a war machine.”
Within an hour, federal agents had quietly hauled Thomas out of the building through the freight elevator, his reputation and freedom gone forever. The forty-fourth floor returned to silence, but the power dynamic within the Corsaro-Steves syndicate had shifted permanently.