Chapter 10
Marcus pressed his back hard against the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sprawling city lights, his chest rising and falling in rapid, shallow gasps. The polished corporate titan veneer had completely evaporated, replaced by the naked terror of a cornered animal. Jax stepped closer, keeping the firearm steady, his expression carved from stone. "You always relied on other people to do your dirty work, Marcus," Jax said, his voice dangerously low. "When the federal prosecutors came sniffing around ten years ago, you cut a deal, threw our entire network under the bus, and walked away with a corporate portfolio bought with blood money."
Marcus swallowed hard, raising his hands defensively as he tried to find his voice. "I... I did what had to be done to survive, Jax! The syndicate was falling apart anyway. If I hadn't cooperated, we would both be rotting in a maximum-security federal prison right now!" Jax shook his head slowly, the anger burning deep behind his eyes remaining entirely controlled, restrained by years of discipline. "Survival isn't an excuse for slaughtering innocents, Marcus. You didn't just protect yourself; you rebuilt the syndicate under the guise of Apex Transport, and tonight you tried to murder a room full of people just to test my reflexes."
"It was business!" Marcus stammered, desperation bleeding into his tone. "A show of force! I didn't know the kid was standing there. It was just supposed to scare you!" Jax took another step forward, the cold steel of his weapon pressing gently against the center of Marcus’s chest. "A child in a black suit and a toddler in a yellow dress don't care about your business, Marcus. That toddler's clumsy step saved my son's life tonight. And now, your little empire ends right here, right now." Jax reached into his suit pocket with his left hand, pulling out a small, heavy-duty encrypted flash drive and dropping it onto the mahogany desk.
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"What is that?" Marcus asked, his eyes darting down to the drive. "That is a complete, unencrypted data dump of every offshore account, shell corporation, and municipal bribe tied to Apex Transport," Jax replied evenly. " Silas downloaded the entire ledger while we were talking. It’s already uploading to every major federal investigative agency, financial regulator, and news outlet in the country. By sunrise, your assets will be frozen, your holding companies seized, and every corrupt official on your payroll exposed." Marcus’s jaw dropped in absolute horror. "You... you didn't just come to kill me. You came to wipe me out completely."
"Killing you would be too easy, Marcus," Jax said, lowering his weapon slightly but keeping his intense gaze locked onto the other man. "You spent ten years hiding behind corporate glass and bought immunity. You're going to spend the rest of your life answering for every crime you ever committed, stripped of your wealth, your power, and your freedom." Before Marcus could lunge forward in a desperate, final attempt at retaliation, the heavy security doors at the far end of the penthouse buzzed loudly, followed by the heavy thud of federal marshals breaching the ground-floor lobby security. The game was finally, irrevocably over.
