Chapter 4
The first major transaction Tristan approved involved Barrone Maritime.
It was one of Lucius’s legitimate companies.
Shipping containers.
Commercial storage.
Port logistics.
Boring enough that most capos ignored it.
Profitable enough that Lucius did not.
Three days after Lucius disappeared, Tristan authorized the accelerated sale of a warehouse property near Newark.
Closing was scheduled for the following week.
Lucius immediately stopped it.
Tristan erupted when he learned.
“You can’t.”
Lucius looked at him across the library.
“I own the controlling interest.”
“The buyer will walk.”
“Then let them.”
“You don’t understand what you just did.”
That reaction mattered.
“What am I supposed to understand?”
Tristan looked toward Selene.
She was not in the room.
Still, the habit was there.
“Nothing.”
Lucius leaned back.
“Then the sale stays dead.”
Tristan stood.
“You think every decision made while you were gone was some coup.”
“You were wearing my crest.”
“Because your wife put it on me.”
There it was.
Lucius stared at him.
Tristan realized what he had said.
“Selene physically gave you the crest?”
“Yes.”
“And the acting papers?”
“She arranged them.”
“What did you arrange?”
Tristan’s face hardened.
“I signed what needed signing.”
“You don’t even know what was in the warehouse sale.”
“I know enough.”
“Then tell me why it had to close within twenty-one days.”
Silence.
Lucius saw something he had not expected.
Tristan was not pretending to know more than he did.
He genuinely did not know.
That became the third clue.
The man supposedly crowned to replace Lucius had authority.
But not information.
After Tristan left, Lucius’s outside counsel reviewed the warehouse transaction.
The sale price was reasonable.
The buyer was legitimate.
Nothing immediately looked corrupt.
Then the attorney found an unusual provision.
The seller—Barrone Maritime—would retain responsibility for certain historical liabilities even after the property transferred.
Lucius frowned.
“Who agrees to sell a building but keep old liability?”
“Someone who cares more about getting rid of the asset than protecting the seller.”
“Why?”
May you like
“We need the historical files.”
Those files were missing.
