My brother punched me at Dad’s funeral because I refused to hand him the safe key. Blood covered my black dress while relatives dragged him away. “She’s stealing my inheritance!” he screamed. I opened the safe in front of everyone. Inside was no money—only documents proving he had emptied Dad’s accounts months earlier.

"You never cared about Julian," I said, keeping my hands resting flat on the aluminum case, my voice calm despite the adrenaline racing through my veins. "He was just a tool for you to get inside this house."

Serena let out a soft, melodious laugh, though there was no warmth in her face. "Julian was an arrogant idiot who thought he was a mastermind. He was so easily manipulated by a little praise and a few luxury watches. He honestly believed he was taking back his inheritance, while I was simply executing orders for my family."

"Your father worked for the Valentis," I said, referencing Dad's letter.

Serena's smile tightened slightly, a flash of genuine anger crossing her eyes. "My father served the Valenti family for thirty years! And when your father tried to blow the whistle on their offshore clearing houses in 1982, my father took the fall! He spent fifteen years in an Italian prison while Arthur Vance lived comfortably in his Victorian mansion, pretending to be a saint!"

"My father paid off those debts himself!" I countered, stepping slightly to the side to position myself between her and the second transport case. "He spent his entire life protecting this family from the mobsters your father enabled!"

"It doesn't matter now," Serena said, raising the suppressed pistol, aiming it directly at my chest. "Those two cases contain the original bearer deeds for three unlisted island holdings in the West Indies. Without those original deeds, the Valenti family cannot liquidate two billion dollars in frozen assets currently locked by international maritime courts."

"And if you kill me?" I asked, eyeing the heavy brass flashlight sitting near the edge of the wooden pallet. "You think the FBI won't notice that the executor of the Vance estate vanished two hours after flagging an Aegis Holdings wire transfer?"

"The FBI thinks Marcus Vance was the head of the snake," Serena sneered. "They are busy celebrating their little victory in court today. When your body is found in a burned-out rental car three states from here, they will assume one of Marcus's remaining European enforcers took revenge on you. A tragic, poetic end for the heroic sister."

"You're making the same mistake Julian made, Serena," I said, slowly lowering my posture.

"And what mistake is that?"

"You assume I came here alone."

Before Serena could process my words, the high-pitched emergency fire alarm inside the storage facility began to blare violently. The overhead sprinklers burst to life, raining freezing water down upon us, drenching the locker instantly.

Startled by the sudden deluge and the deafening alarm, Serena instinctively turned her head toward the ceiling for a fraction of a second.

It was the only opening I needed.

I grabbed the heavy brass flashlight from the wooden pallet and threw it with all my strength straight at her face. The heavy metal casing struck her wrist, knocking the suppressed pistol from her grip. It clattered across the wet concrete floor, sliding under the gap of the adjacent unit.

Serena shrieked in rage, lunging at me with her manicured nails. We slammed into the metal wall of the storage unit, struggling violently amidst the pouring water. She was stronger than she looked, driven by a fanatical desperation, but I had spent months fighting for my life against far worse than her.

I grabbed her coat lapels, shifted my weight, and slammed her backward onto the wet wooden pallet. She gasped as the air rushed out of her lungs. I pinned her arms to the floor, my knee pressed firmly against her chest.

"The key card system in this building is linked directly to the local fire department and private security, Serena!" I yelled over the deafening alarm and the roar of the water. "The moment the fire suppression system triggered, the perimeter gates locked automatically!"

Serena stared up at me through her wet hair, her eyes wide with frantic panic as the reality of her trap closed in on her. "You... you set the alarm?"

"I synchronized my phone to the facility's wireless smoke detector system the second I walked into the manager's office," I revealed, pulling a small remote transmitter from my coat pocket. "An auditor always prepares for a hostile environment."

The loud sound of heavy footsteps and shouting security guards echoed down the flooded corridor outside.

Ten minutes later, the local police and security personnel pushed open the rolling metal door. Serena was dragged to her feet, handcuffed, and pulled out into the rain, her designer coat ruined, her composure entirely shattered.

As the officers led her away, Samuel Price stepped into the flooded hallway, holding a large umbrella over his head, looking completely unfazed by the chaos.

"You certainly know how to make an audit memorable, Elena," Samuel said, handing me a dry towel.

"Did you secure the second case?" I asked, wiping the cold water from my face.

"It’s already in the back of my armored transport," Samuel assured me, his tone growing serious. "If what your father wrote in that letter is true, Elena, Serena was just the messenger. The Valenti family in Europe now knows we have the original bearer deeds."