The Heiress' Revenge

Chapter 209: Leverage

Ariana’s POV

Two days.

Forty-eight hours since the first message came through, and I hadn’t slept for more than twenty minutes at a stretch every time I closed my eyes, I saw their names spelled out on that screen.

"Talk to me," I said.

"The number was a burner. Untraceable, bought with cash at a corner shop in Birmingham three weeks ago, the phone itself went dark about an hour after the last message was sent. Whoever this is, they’re disciplined and professional."

"I already knew that." My voice came out sharper than I intended. "Tell me something I don’t know."

A pause with paper rustling on his end. "I started digging into your history. Specifically, anything that might have flagged you when you moved to England."

"And?"

"And you’re not going to like it, Ariana. I found a pattern, and about six months after you arrived, there have been flagged queries on your immigration file, your property records, and someone has been running a background check on you secretly. The kind of searches that don’t leave much of a footprint unless you know exactly where to look."

My stomach turned to ice. "How long?"

"Since you got here, they’ve been watching you for years."

I stood up, needing to move, needing to do something with the energy crawling under my skin. "That doesn’t make sense. If they wanted something from me, why wait? Why now?"

"Because of Dante."

I stopped pacing. "Explain."

Levi took a breath. "The organization behind this, and it is an organization, Ariana, not one person with a grudge, has ties to international arms dealing. Eastern European connections primarily. Former Soviet bloc, I’ve seen their signature before years ago on a case involving a missing journalist in Prague."

"Arms dealers? What do arms dealers want with me?"

"Not with you but with him."

The word hung in the air between us.

Dante.

"Dante’s been running his own investigation for months," Levi continued. "Publicly... he has many business rivals"

I sank back into my chair, the leather groaning beneath me. "They didn’t know I was alive until he started looking."

"That’s my theory. You’ve been invisible for years with a new name, country, and life. You covered your tracks well, I know, because I helped you do it when Area asked." A trace of something pride, maybe, or regret colored his voice. "Maybe your reveal has now shown the people who wanted you gone in the first place have realized their problem didn’t disappear the way they thought it did."

I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to process. Trying to think past the fear that had become a permanent resident in my chest. "What kind of problem?"

"I’m still working on that, but whatever you knew, or whatever they think you knew, it was enough to make them want you dead, and now that they’ve found you again, they’re not just going to walk away."

"They threatened my children. If they wanted me dead, why not just—"

"Because dead bodies attract attention, dead children even more so." Levi’s voice was gentle, now the way you’d talk to someone standing on a ledge. "This is leverage, Ariana. They don’t want a massacre, but rather they want control. You keep quiet and stay away from Dante, you make sure he stops digging, and your kids stay safe."

"And if I don’t?"

"Then it gets worse. You’ve already seen how fast they can move, how much they know...they’re inside your life in a way that takes resources and planning. This isn’t a bluff."

I closed my eyes, trying to keep calm for a second, but who was I kidding?

"What do I do?" I whispered.

"You do what they say for now." Levi’s tone was reluctant, like the words tasted wrong in his mouth. "Keep Dante at a distance, and every remains unharmed"

"And if he doesn’t stop?"

Silence.

"Levi."

"If he doesn’t stop, then we need to consider other options. Relocation, new identities. It would be harder this time, but it’s possible."

I’d done it once before. I’d survived it, but I wasn’t sure I could survive doing it to them.

"Keep digging," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "I want to know who’s behind this. If I’m going to make a move, I need to know who I’m up against."

"Ariana—"

"And I need you to do something else for me." I opened my eyes. "I don’t want Ares knowing about this."

Levi was quiet for a long moment. "You’re sure about this?"

"I’m not sure about anything anymore, but I know one thing." I looked down at my phone, at the screen that had gone dark, the reflection of a woman I barely recognized staring back at me. "If Dante keeps coming for me, the people who are watching won’t hesitate, they’ll kill my children, and then they’ll kill him... they could include Ares as well"

"And you? Who protects you?"

I didn’t have an answer for that.

"It doesn’t matter," I said. "And Levi? Thank you."

I ended the call before he could argue or change my mind.