Chapter 7 - The Price of a KingdomWalking away from a criminal empire turned out to be much more complicated than Mave had hoped.
“You can't just quit?” she asked.
Leo stared at her across the kitchen.
“No.”
“People quit jobs every day.”
“Most jobs don't involve international smuggling networks.”
“Fair.”
They were back at the estate.
The gatehouse was being rebuilt.
Mave had refused to stay hidden in the penthouse.
Leo had refused to let her sleep alone.
Both pretended the arrangement was temporary.
Neither believed it.
Leo spent three weeks restructuring everything.
Illegal routes closed.
Protection operations ended.
Cash businesses were sold.
Castiglion Maritime remained.
Legitimate shipping.
Warehousing.
Port logistics.
Construction.
Thousands of legal employees depended on it.
That was the part Leo refused to destroy.
Carmine hated the transition.
Not because he wanted crime.
Because he hated paperwork.
“I'd rather get shot,” he said during one meeting.
Mave slid another compliance form toward him.
“That can probably be arranged.”
Carmine glared.
Leo hid a smile.
Strangely, Mave became useful in the transition.
Not as an accountant.
Not as an executive.
As someone who had spent three years listening to powerful men overlook invisible employees.
She knew which supervisors stole overtime.
Which managers harassed staff.
Which warehouses had broken safety equipment.
Which contractors lied.
Leo began asking her questions.
Then he started inviting her to meetings.
Then board members noticed that when Mave raised an eyebrow, Leo reconsidered decisions.
The newspaper called her “the mysterious heiress housekeeper.”
Mave hated the nickname.
Leo framed the article.
“You're enjoying this.”
“Immensely.”
“You're terrible.”
“Yes.”
One problem remained.
Volkov.
Sergei had vanished after Dominic's arrest.
Carmelo Vescari remained missing too.
Then, one Thursday afternoon, Leo received a package.
No return address.
Inside was a watch.
Salvatore Castiglion's watch.
The one removed from his body after the car bombing.
Leo sat completely still.
Mave found him in the study.
“What is it?”
He showed her.
Her stomach dropped.
“Who had that?”
“Police evidence.”
“And now?”
“Someone stole it fourteen years ago.”
A note lay beneath the watch.
YOUR FATHER BEGGED TOO.
Mave's skin chilled.
Leo stared at the words.
“He didn't beg.”
“You don't know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
Leo's eyes were empty.
“Because my father would rather die than let anyone see fear.”
Mave sat beside him.
“Maybe that isn't strength.”
He looked at her.
“Maybe being afraid and still choosing something good is stronger.”
Leo gave a tired smile.
“You've become very philosophical since inheriting millions.”
“I still buy generic cereal.”
“You don't have to.”
“I like generic cereal.”
“That may be your most disturbing trait.”
She leaned against him.
“We deal with this together.”
Leo looked at the watch.
“No.”
Mave sat up.
“Excuse me?”
“This ends because of me.”
“Here we go.”
“What?”
“The noble idiot routine.”
“Mave.”
“No.”
She stood.
“You do not get to decide I'm excluded whenever you're scared.”
“This man helped murder my father.”
“He also kidnapped me.”
“Exactly.”
“Which means I get a vote.”
Leo stood too.
“I can't watch them take you again.”
“And I can't watch you disappear into revenge.”
They stared at each other.
Mave's voice softened.
“If you shut me out, they win.”
Leo closed his eyes.
He knew she was right.
He hated when that happened.
Carmine entered five minutes later.
“Bad time?”
“Yes,” they said together.
Carmine nodded.
“Excellent.”
He placed photographs on the desk.
“Found Vescari.”
Carmelo had been photographed entering a private marina outside the city.
Property connected to Volkov.
Leo looked at Mave.
She looked back.
“No.”
“What?”
“You're making the face.”
“What face?”
“The one where you plan something suicidal.”
Carmine muttered, “She really does know you.”
Leo ignored him.
They devised a plan.
Not an attack.
That surprised everyone.
Leo contacted federal agents handling Dominic's case.
Mave contacted a journalist.
Carmine contacted dockworkers who still considered Salvatore's murder unfinished business.
Their goal wasn't blood.
It was exposure.
Volkov survived because everyone feared him privately.
Leo intended to make him vulnerable publicly.
Bank records from Evelyn's ledger were released.
Shell corporations traced.
Bribes documented.
Carmelo's legal fraud revealed.
By morning, Volkov's legitimate companies were under investigation.
By afternoon, three banks froze accounts.
By evening, two politicians denied ever meeting him.
Mave watched television beside Leo.
“You're destroying him with paperwork.”
Leo looked almost disappointed.
“It's surprisingly satisfying.”
“Growth.”
“Don't ruin it.”
Then the phone rang.
Carmine answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He looked at Leo.
“Dock seventeen.”
Leo stood.
“What happened?”
“Fire.”
The news helicopter footage showed flames rising from a Castiglion warehouse.
Employees ran.
Firefighters arrived.
Mave stared.
“Anyone inside?”
“Night shift.”
Leo's face went pale.
He grabbed his coat.
Mave followed.
“No.”
She ignored him.
“Mave.”
“My shares. My company too.”
He swore.
They arrived twenty minutes later.
The warehouse burned violently.
Carmine met them.
“Everyone accounted for except one supervisor.”
“Who?”
“Martin Shea.”
Mave knew him.
Quiet father of three.
She turned toward the flames.
“No.”
Leo grabbed her arm.
Firefighters searched.
Ten minutes later, Martin emerged coughing between two rescuers.
Alive.
Mave cried.
Leo pretended the smoke was affecting his eyes.
Then Carmine found the device.
A message painted on a nearby container.
ONE KINGDOM FOR ONE WOMAN.
Leo stared.
Mave looked at him.
“This isn't about business anymore.”
“No.”
“What does he want?”
“Me to choose.”
“Between?”
Leo looked toward the burning warehouse.
“You and everything my father built.”
Mave's expression changed.
“Leo.”
“I choose you.”
“Don't.”
“There is no decision.”
“Thousands of people work for this company.”
“I can rebuild.”
“Not if Volkov keeps burning it.”
“I don't care.”
“I do.”
Leo stepped closer.
“You are not worth less than a company.”
“And those employees aren't worth less than me.”
They stood amid sirens and smoke.
Mave touched his chest.
“We don't choose.”
“What?”
“We take both.”
Leo stared.
“How?”
“You keep thinking like a mafia boss.”
“I am a mafia boss.”
“Former.”
“Debatable.”
She pointed toward the cameras.
“Volkov wants you emotional. Publicly reckless. He wants shareholders scared.”
Leo understood.
“He wants the board to remove me.”
“And install someone he controls.”
“Carmelo.”
“Exactly.”
Leo smiled slowly.
Mave disliked that smile.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Because I know where he'll go next.”
Three days later, Castiglion Maritime held an emergency shareholder meeting.
Reporters surrounded the building.
Mave entered beside Leo.
For the first time, she did not wear an apron.
She wore a simple black suit.
Her mother's trust documents were in her hand.
Inside, shareholders argued.
Carmelo appeared remotely through video.
He claimed Leo had destabilized the company.
Leo let him speak.
Then Mave stood.
“My name is Mave Quinn.”
The room quieted.
“I own twelve percent of this company because my mother spent her life running from the men who tried to steal it.”
She placed copies of Evelyn's evidence on the table.
“Those men are still trying.”
Carmelo's screen went silent.
Mave continued.
“So here's my vote.”
She looked at Leo.
“I vote to keep Leo Castiglion as chairman.”
Leo's expression softened.
“And I introduce a motion.”
Board members shifted.
“To remove every director connected financially to Carmelo Vescari or Sergei Volkov pending investigation.”
Chaos erupted.
An hour later, the motion passed.
Volkov's corporate route into Castiglion Maritime collapsed.
Outside, reporters shouted questions.
Leo and Mave walked toward their car.
Then someone screamed.
Leo turned.
A man pushed through the crowd.
Gun.
Leo shoved Mave down.
Three shots exploded.
Carmine tackled the shooter.
Leo staggered.
Mave looked up.
Blood covered his shirt.
“Leo!”
He collapsed.
Everything disappeared except him.
Mave crawled.
“No.”
His eyes fluttered.
She pressed both hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
“Mave.”
“Don't talk.”
“Bossy.”
“Shut up.”
He almost smiled.
Sirens screamed closer.
Mave's hands were covered in blood.
Leo's blood.
“I love you,” she said.
His eyes closed.
“Leo!”
Someone pulled her back.
Medics surrounded him.
For the first time since this nightmare began, Mave understood exactly what Leo had felt every time she came home late.
The helpless terror.
The rage.
The certainty that loving someone meant giving the world a weapon.
And as the ambulance doors closed, Mave made a decision.
If Leo survived, neither of them would ever live this way again.
No empire.
No revenge.
No inheritance was worth this.
May you like
They would choose each other.
Or there would be nothing left to save.
