Chapter 2 - The Underground Interrogation and the Discovery of the Frame-Up
Elias Romano didn't hesitate. Before the two thugs could pull a weapon or grab Hannah, Elias’s men swarmed the parking garage like ghosts, disarming the collectors with practiced, ruthless efficiency. Within minutes, the thugs were zip-tied and tossed into the back of a black bulletproof SUV, while Hannah was ushered inside not as a suspect, but as a witness under strict protection. Twenty minutes later, the vehicle descended into the sprawling, subterranean sublevel beneath Matteo Vescari’s downtown headquarters—a secure fortress where Philadelphia’s underworld secrets were buried permanently.
Matteo was already waiting in the stark, concrete interrogation room, his sleeves rolled up, a glass of amber whiskey untouched on the steel table before him. When Hannah walked in, still wearing her stained waitress uniform with a makeshift bandage wrapped around her bleeding palm, his dark eyes narrowed with a dangerous intensity. “Explain,” he ordered Elias, his gaze never leaving Hannah. Elias dropped the forged eighty-thousand-dollar promissory note onto the table. “Someone inside our financial network, Boss, routed a fake corporate liability through a shell company tied to the Corbett family. They tried to pin it on Ms. Reid to force her out of the city—or worse.”
Matteo stood up slowly, walking around the table until he stood mere inches from Hannah. The air in the room felt heavy, charged with the aura of a predator who realized someone had dared play games inside his territory. “You should have run the moment they handed you that paper,” Matteo said, his voice dangerously low. Hannah crossed her arms defensively, her chin lifting with fierce pride despite her exhaustion. “I didn't ask for your help tonight, Mr. Vescari. I don't know anything about your fake debts, and I certainly don't appreciate being dragged into whatever mafia war you're running.” A flicker of genuine surprise crossed Matteo’s face—nobody spoke to him like that and lived to tell the tale. Instead of anger, a strange, profound curiosity took root in his chest. He turned his attention back to the terrified thugs cowering in the corner. “Find out who paid them,” Matteo commanded Elias, his voice turning ice-cold. “And bring me whoever authorized the Corbett ledger.”
