My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 787

Chapter 787

Raphael

+15 Bonus

The helicopter cut through the night without a single unnecessary light.

Philadelphia was still ahead of us.

I could already see its glow through the dark glass.

I sat alone in the rear cabin, one hand resting on my phone while the other moved through the equipment laid out beside me.

Everything had its place.

Everything had a purpose.

Nothing came with me because I might need it. It came because I had already calculated the situations in which I would need it.

My hands moved automatically, sliding the slick slide of my customized 9mm handgun backward. Click. The spring was taut, perfectly greased. I inspected the chamber, released the slide, and slotted the weapon back into the tactical holster strapped tight across my chest.

Next was the suppressed rifle resting across my lap. I popped out the magazine, checked the spring tension of the thirty brass rounds packed inside, and clicked it back into place.

Everything had to be flawless. I didn’t rely on luck. I relied on calculation, precision, and fucking force.

I had mapped out every single entry point into the Toricelli estate six moves ago. I knew where their guards rotated, I knew which security cameras had a three-second blind spot, and I knew exactly how many seconds it would take for their backup teams to respond once the first alarm tripped.

Then, the silent submachine guns, fitted with custom-built suppressors I had machined myself to eliminate even the smallest flash of light.

I loaded armor-piercing rounds into every single clip, bullets designed to punch straight through the heavy Kevlar vests of the Philadelphia Syndicate’s elite guards.

They thought they had drawn a line in the sand with their Council rules. They thought hiding behind syndicate borders would keep them safe from me. My mind ran through the possibilities again.

I checked the screen on my phone. The tracker was still inside the Toricelli Estate. A small green marker pulsed against the map.

I stared at it.

There.

My thumb stopped above the screen.

She had sent me hundreds of photographs, files, names, research notes, reports, everything she had managed to capture. I hadn’t read through a single one, not yet. I forwarded the entire package to Vincenzo and Adriano without opening the files myself.

They needed the evidence more than I did right now. I sent the files in one encrypted bundle, then another copy

1/3

+15 Benus

through a separate channel.

First I sent them to Vincenzo.

Me: Everything Gianna sent me. Have Silvio go through every page.

Then I sent the same package to Adriano.

Me: Find anything that can strengthen our case before the Council. Financial records. Names. Dates. Anything connecting Toricelli, Vance, and the operation. I want it all.

I watched the delivery confirmations appear one after another. I didn’t need to know what was inside yet.

I trusted Gianna.

If she had risked everything to get those files to me, then they mattered. My thumb hovered over her last message.

I love you.

I had read it three times.

My jaw tightened. She had written as if she had already accepted that she might die.

That wasn’t happening, not tonight, not tomorrow, not ever. I leaned back and closed my eyes for half a second.

Think.

Emotion was noise.

Noise got people killed.

If I let anger take the wheel now, I could lose my focus. One wrong decision. One second of hesitation and Gianna could pay for it. I couldn’t afford that.

I opened my eyes again, the map was still moving.

Good.

I had a location.

That was enough.

For now.

Across from me, the secured cases remained closed. I had brought enough equipment to handle problems I expected and a few I didn’t. Medical supplies. Communication gear. Protective equipment. Tools for getting through locked doors if I needed them.

And weapons.

More than enough. I didn’t plan to use most of them. That was the point. A man who needed every weapon he carried had already lost control of the situation. I checked each case once more, then closed the last one..

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify