The temptation of my brother-in-law-Chapter 153 - One Hundred and Fifty-Three

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Three

Malachi’s POV

I was at the airport when Maurice called.

"We have a problem," he said.

I stopped walking. "What kind of problem?"

"David Chen’s company operates multiple private jets. Three of them took off within the same time window last night. One went to Milan. One went to Tokyo. One went to São Paulo."

My stomach dropped. "So we don’t actually know which one Alicia was on."

"No. The passenger manifests for all three are locked down tight. Chen’s company has serious security protocols. I’m working on breaking through but it’s going to take time."

"How much time?"

"Could be hours. Could be days. These aren’t amateur systems we’re dealing with."

I looked at my boarding pass for Milan. Gate C14. The flight that might be taking me to Alicia. Or might be taking me thousands of miles in the wrong direction while she flew to Japan or Brazil.

"Keep working on it. I’ll hold off on boarding until we know for sure."

"There’s something else."

Of course there was. "What?"

"One of our shipments in Dark City was hit. Zhao Wei’s people. They took out four of our men and made off with about two million in product."

Zhao Wei. That bastard had been getting bolder lately, pushing into territory that had been ours for years. And now he was hitting our shipments directly.

"How bad are the casualties?"

"Two dead. Two in the hospital. It was a coordinated strike, professional. They knew exactly when and where to hit."

"Which means we have a leak."

"Looks like it."

I closed my eyes. Alicia was missing. Zhao Wei was attacking. My empire was crumbling from multiple directions at once.

"I’m coming back to Silver Lake," I said. "Cancel the Milan flight. I need to handle this Zhao situation before it gets worse."

"You sure? What about Alicia?"

"What about her? We don’t even know where she is. Could be anywhere in the world right now. I can’t chase ghosts while my business falls apart."

"Boss—"

"Just get the car ready. I’ll be there in twenty minutes."

I hung up. Walked to a quiet corner of the airport where no one could see me. Pulled out my phone and opened the photo gallery.

Alicia smiled up at me from the screen. A photo I’d taken without her knowing, one afternoon in my office when she was concentrating on paperwork. Sunlight coming through the window, catching her silver hair. That little furrow between her eyebrows when she was focused.

Beautiful. Perfect. Gone.

I stared at that photo and felt something I hadn’t felt in years. Something I’d trained myself not to feel because Pa Wood had made it clear that emotions were weakness and weakness got you killed.

My vision blurred. I blinked and felt wetness on my cheeks.

I was crying.

Actually crying. Tears running down my face in the middle of an airport terminal like some pathetic fool who’d lost everything that mattered.

The last time I’d cried I’d been eight years old. Pa Wood had found me after I’d scraped my knee falling off my bike. He’d looked at me with disgust and said crying was for the weak. That Blackwood men didn’t shed tears. That I needed to toughen up or the world would eat me alive.

I’d believed him. Had spent twenty years building walls around anything that might make me vulnerable. Had watched Emily die without shedding a single tear because I’d learned my lesson too well.

But Alicia was different. Alicia had gotten past every defense I’d built. Had made me feel things I’d convinced myself I was incapable of feeling.

And now she was gone and I was standing in an airport crying like the weak man Pa Wood had always warned me not to become.

I wiped my face roughly. Deleted the photo even though it killed me to do it. If I couldn’t have her, I couldn’t torture myself by looking at her.

My phone rang again. Maurice.

"Zhao Wei just hit another location. One of our warehouses on the east side. Same MO. Professional team. They knew exactly what they were looking for."

The grief hardened into rage. Zhao Wei wanted war? Fine. I’d give him war.

"I’m on my way. Call a meeting. Violet, Rose, Dante, and Mavis. I want everyone in the conference room in two hours."

"What about the Alicia situation?"

"Put it on hold. We’ll keep monitoring the jets, tracking phones, whatever. But I can’t focus on finding her while Zhao is dismantling everything I’ve built."

"Understood."

I left the airport and got into the car Maurice had sent. Drove back to Silver Lake with my jaw clenched and my hands fisted, channeling all the pain and confusion about Alicia into cold fury at Zhao Wei.

If I couldn’t control one situation, I’d damn well control the other.

Two hours later, I walked into the conference room where my top people were waiting. Violet, my intelligence operative who knew everything worth knowing in both Silver Lake and Dark City. Rose, my enforcer who handled problems that needed to disappear. Dante, my financial wizard who kept money flowing through legitimate and less legitimate channels. And Mavis, my tech specialist who could hack anything.

"We’re moving operations back to Dark City," I said without preamble. "Zhao Wei thinks he can attack us here while we’re distracted. He’s wrong."

"Back to Dark City?" Violet raised an eyebrow. "That’s Zhao’s territory."

"It was my territory first. I built my foundation there. I know every street, every player, every weakness in his operation. And now I’m going to use that knowledge to crush him."

"This is about more than business," Rose observed. "What happened?"

"Zhao happened. He’s been pushing boundaries for months and I’ve been too focused on other things to properly respond. That ends now."

"What other things?" Dante asked carefully.

"None of your concern. The point is, Zhao Wei made this personal by killing our people. By stealing from us. By thinking he could operate with impunity. I’m going to teach him otherwise."

Mavis pulled up files on her laptop. "I’ve been tracking Zhao’s movements. He’s been in Dark City mostly, but he’s got people here in Silver Lake too. The hits on our shipments were coordinated from here."

"Which means he has someone inside our organization feeding him information."

"That’s my assessment."

"Find them. I don’t care what it takes. Find the leak and eliminate it."

Rose leaned forward. "What’s the plan for Zhao himself?"

"We hit him where it hurts. His money, his supply lines, his reputation. We make him bleed until he understands that attacking the Blackwoods has consequences."

"And if he retaliates?"

"Then we hit him harder. This doesn’t end until he’s destroyed or he backs down. Preferably destroyed."

Violet studied me. "You’re different. Something happened. This isn’t just about Zhao."

"Focus on the work, Violet. My personal life isn’t relevant."

"It is if it’s affecting your judgment."

I slammed my hand on the table. "My judgment is fine. Zhao Wei attacked us. We’re responding. End of discussion."

The room went quiet. They’d never seen me lose control like that. I was always calm, calculated, cold. But right now I was anything but calm.

"We leave for Dark City tomorrow," I said. "Pack what you need. This could take weeks or months depending on how stubborn Zhao wants to be. Maurice will coordinate logistics. Any questions?"

No one spoke.

"Good. Get to work."

They filed out, leaving me alone in the conference room. I pulled out my phone and looked at my messages. Nothing from Alicia. Nothing but that taunting text from the unknown number.

Running won’t save you. But it’s fun to watch you try.

I’d find out who sent these messages. Find out who’d sent Alicia those recordings. Find out everyone involved in taking her from me.

And then I’d make them pay.

But first, Zhao Wei. First, I’d remind Dark City why they used to fear the Blackwood name. Why I’d built an empire from nothing and could do it again.

Alicia had run. Fine. Let her run. Let her hide on the other side of the world. I’d focus on what I could control. On destroying my enemies. On building my power until no one could touch me.

And maybe, eventually, the pain of losing her would fade into something manageable. Something that didn’t make me cry in airports like a weak fool.

Maybe.

But I doubted it.