861 He Thought He Was Safely Drugging His Wife Every Night At 7:14 To Keep Her Hidden... But When She Secretly Tested The Soup At A Lab, The Terrifying Truth Unlocked A 12-Year-Old Syndicate War!

The guards drew their weapons in a chaotic flurry, but they were too slow.

Bang. Bang.

Two precise, suppressed rounds punched through the air. Both guards dropped instantly, their weapons clattering uselessly against the floorboards.

Arthur scrambled backward toward the corner, his hand frantically reaching for his shoulder holster, but Daniel didn't give him the chance. A swift, brutal kick to Arthur’s wrist sent his pistol skittering across the room, followed immediately by the heavy barrel of Daniel's gun pressing against Arthur’s temple.

"Move an inch, Arthur, and I'll scatter your brains across this desk," Daniel growled.

Marcus stood frozen near the window, his expression hardening as he looked at the man he had once thought manageable. "You're a fool, Daniel," Marcus hissed, his voice trembling slightly with suppressed rage. "You think you can walk out of here with her? The entire harbor is surrounded by my men."

"Your men are currently dealing with Salvatore and a container full of heavily armed syndicate loyalists who didn't appreciate finding out you've been selling them out to the feds," Daniel replied smoothly, never breaking eye contact with his father-in-law.

Daniel glanced over at me, his gaze softening for a fraction of a second as he saw the restraints and the doctor holding the syringe. The fury in his eyes flared brighter than before. He kept his gun trained on Arthur with his right hand while using his left to whip out a tactical blade and slice through the heavy zip-ties binding my wrists.

I rubbed my raw wrists, gasping for air as I stumbled out of the chair and fell against Daniel's side. He wrapped a protective arm around my waist, pulling me close.

"Are you alright?" he murmured, his voice laced with desperate concern.

"I am now," I whispered, burying my face against his shoulder, breathing in the scent of cedar and gunpowder that meant safety.

"You think you've won, boy?" Marcus sneered, taking a slow step forward, his hands resting casually on the edge of the desk. "You can shoot Arthur. You can kill me. But you will never find the physical hard drive containing the master decryption codes. It's already halfway to Zurich."

Daniel didn't flinch. Instead, a cold, knowing smile touched the corners of his mouth.

" Zurich?" Daniel tilted his head. "Marcus, you always were a creature of old habits. You think I spent the last three weeks watching Ethan play in the park just to track a girl?"

Marcus’s confident facade falter for a single, fleeting second. "What are you talking about?"

"Ethan didn't just find Lily," Daniel said softly, stepping away from the desk while keeping his gun locked on Arthur. He reached into his tactical vest and pulled out a small, encrypted micro-drive—the exact one Ethan had pocketed from Lily back at the park. "He found the secondary backup server you installed in the municipal archives twelve years ago. The Zurich transfer was intercepted forty-eight hours ago."

Marcus’s face drained of all color. He lunged across the desk like a cornered animal, reaching for a hidden panic button embedded in the mahogany wood.

Before his finger could press it, Daniel pulled the trigger—not hitting Marcus, but shattering the control panel inches from his hand in a shower of electrical sparks.