Chapter 9
The sentence was simple.
If the fund cannot survive transparency, it should not survive.
Alina remembered saying it at 1:00 a.m. after Lucy fell asleep between them during a storm.
No staff.
No phones on the nightstand.
No meeting.
No email.
Lorenzo’s face hardened.
“Bedroom.”
Anthony understood immediately.
A sweep of the private suite found a listening device inside the wooden base of a lamp.
Alina stared at it.
Her breathing went shallow.
Lorenzo reached toward her.
She stepped away.
Not from him.
From everything.
“How long?”
The security specialist examined it.
“Months. Maybe longer.”
Derek was brought in.
He looked genuinely horrified.
“I didn't place that.”
Lorenzo watched his eyes.
He believed him.
That was almost worse.
The surveillance went beyond Derek.
Beyond ordinary access.
Someone had been inside the deepest layer of their home.
The device transmitted to a local receiver.
The receiver address led to a club storage building managed by Ramona.
Marcus called it ridiculous.
Ramona called it fabricated.
But the equipment serial numbers connected to a private security supplier.
The purchaser:
North Haven Sporting.
Derek’s company.
Derek went pale.
“I ordered equipment for Marcus.”
“What equipment?”
“Cameras. Audio systems. Trackers.”
“Did you know where they were going?”
“No.”
Marcus laughed from across the room.
“Convenient.”
Derek turned on him.
His hands curled.
“You told me it was for counter-surveillance.”
Marcus smiled.
“You believed me.”
The insult landed.
Derek took one step.
Lorenzo raised a hand.
He stopped.
That was the shift.
Weeks earlier, Derek obeyed Marcus because Marcus solved problems.
Now he stopped for Lorenzo because he finally saw how he had been used.
Then the technician checked the receiver logs.
One microphone had been active longer than the others.
Seven months.
Not in Lorenzo’s bedroom.
In Alina’s private office.
May you like
And the first recording date was three days before she began investigating Marcus.
Someone had been watching her before she even knew there was something to find.
