THE SOUND ENGINEER’S GAMBIT

The revelation hung in the air like toxic smoke. Marcus. The patriarch of the syndicate, a man confined to a wheelchair and an oxygen tank for the last three years.

"It makes no sense," Dante paced the room, running a hand through his hair. "Marcus handed you the empire, Lucius. Why kill you to take it back?"

"He didn't want the empire back," Avery said quietly, staring at the audio waveform on her phone. "He wanted Seraphina."

Both brothers turned to her.

"Think about it," Avery said, her analytical mind connecting the dots. "Seraphina knew exactly what the toxin was. She screamed for a specific antidote before anyone even knew she was burned. She was in on it. But why? If Lucius dies, she gets the money, but she loses the protection of the syndicate."

"Unless the new head of the syndicate was her co-conspirator," Lucius finished, his voice laced with venom.

"But Marcus is seventy years old and dying," Dante argued.

Avery shook her head. "But his son isn't."

Lucius froze. Marcus’s son, Julian, had been exiled to Europe five years ago for attempting a hostile takeover of a legitimate shipping firm.

"We need proof," Lucius said. He turned to Avery. "Can you isolate the location of that transmission? If we can prove Marcus’s compound was the origin point, I can call a tribunal."

"I need my equipment," Avery said. "My laptop is still at my apartment."

"Dante, take a team. Go to her apartment and retrieve it."

"No," Avery interrupted. "My building requires a biometric scan at the lobby, and my hard drives are encrypted to my voice. I have to go."

Lucius hated it, but he nodded. "I’m going with you. Dante, lock down the estate. Nobody gets near Lily."

An hour later, the armored SUV pulled up to a rundown, brick apartment complex in the Narrows. The rain had started to fall, washing the grime of the city into the gutters.

Lucius and Avery walked up the rusted fire escape, two armed guards sweeping the perimeter.

Avery unlocked her door. Her apartment was tiny, cramped, and dominated by thousands of dollars of high-end audio equipment—the source of her crippling debt.

She immediately went to her desk, firing up her rig, while Lucius stood by the window, his presence making the small room feel microscopic.

"You live like a ghost," Lucius noted, looking at the bare walls. No photos, no art.

"I live like someone who owes eighty thousand dollars in private student loans," Avery corrected, her fingers flying across the keyboard. She fed the audio file into her software.

As she worked, Lucius walked over to her small kitchenette. Resting on the counter was a stack of unopened mail. At the top was a thick, legal envelope bearing the logo of Vance Holdings—Lucius’s legitimate front company.

Lucius frowned. He picked it up and ripped it open.

"Avery," Lucius said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Why do you have a debt collection notice from my company?"

Avery spun around, confused. "What? I don't. My loans are through a private bank."

Lucius walked over and slapped the papers onto her desk.

Avery stared at them. It was a contract. A predatory, high-interest loan for eighty thousand dollars, signed by her. But the debt was owned by Vance Holdings.

"I never signed this," Avery breathed, her hands shaking. "I swear to God, I’ve never seen this before."

Lucius looked closely at the signature. Then he looked at the date.

"This was engineered," Lucius realized, the pieces clicking into place. "Answer One, Open Two."

They knew Julian and Marcus were behind the hit. But the new question was far more insidious.

"You weren’t an accidental hero tonight, Avery," Lucius said, his dark eyes locking onto hers. "Your private loans were bought out by my company a week ago. You were scheduled to work the lighting board tonight because the staffing agency that hired you is owned by Marcus."

A reversal so deep it made Avery’s stomach violently drop.

"They brought you there to be the fall guy," Lucius said softly. "The broke, desperate student heavily in debt to the mafia boss. If I died, the police would find this contract. They would say you poisoned me to escape the debt."