“Apex Logistics building. Underground garage. Twenty min
Vincent’s expression became still.
Apex Logistics was a shell company tied to the O’Connor family.
The Irish.
For five years, the Romanos and the O’Connors had lived under a fragile truce. Before that, they had buried men on both sides. The O’Connors were old South Side blood. Hard drinkers. Hard hitters. Old grudges. Declan O’Connor, their underboss, had once sent Vincent a gift box containing a watch taken from the wrist of a dead Romano captain.
“She’s meeting the Irish,” Vincent said.
“I can’t confirm she meets Declan personally,” Leo replied. “But there’s more.”
Vincent waited.
“She carries a second phone. Burner. Hidden in the lining of her Birkin bag. One of our guys caught it on a coffee shop camera.”
Vincent stood.
For a moment, he did not feel anger.
He felt insulted.
Evelyn Sterling had sat across from him, kissed him, asked for his secrets, smiled at his mother’s grave, touched his hand in public, and all the while treated him like a mark.
“Union Station,” Vincent said. “Tonight.”
At 2:00 a.m., Union Station was a cathedral of echoes.
The grand hall was nearly empty, its marble floors reflecting dim security lights. Vincent walked beside Leo, flanked by three men who looked like tired travelers but moved with the quiet rhythm of soldiers.
Locker 402 sat in a neglected corridor near old maintenance access doors.
Vincent slid the brass key into the lock.
It turned.
Inside lay a manila envelope and a cheap prepaid phone.
Vincent opened the envelope first.
Photographs spilled into his hand.
Evelyn in the back seat of a black Lincoln beside Declan O’Connor.
Evelyn entering Apex Logistics through a private elevator.
Bank transfers from Sterling Global accounts to offshore entities controlled by the O’Connors.
Then came the document.
A federal informant agreement.
He knew the seal. He knew the language. He knew enough lawyers to understand exactly what he was holding.
At the bottom was an elegant signature.
Evelyn Sterling.
Leo exhaled through his teeth.
“She’s playing everyone.”
Vincent turned the pages slowly.
“She gives the feds my shipping routes. They raid my warehouses. The Irish take my territory. She marries me before the fall, claims the legitimate assets, and walks away clean.”
“With her father’s lawyers guiding the knife,” Leo said.
