Chapter Six, Denied
The cabin was dead quiet except for the soft tapping of my fingers against the keyboard.
I’d been at this for hours, hunched over the small coffee table, my eyes glued to the lines of code on the screen.
The glow of the laptop was the only light in the room, throwing harsh, blue-tinted shadows against the walls.
Outside, the wind groaned softly through the pines, and the occasional creak of the wooden cabin only seemed to underscore the silence.
It was the kind of silence that let my mind wander—something I didn’t particularly enjoy unless it wandered onto thoughts of my girl.
I sat back for a moment, cracking my knuckles and flexing my fingers.
The tension in my shoulders pulled tight, my body screaming at me to stop, to stand up, to do anything other than keep sitting here, sifting through layers of encryption and firewalls.
But I couldn’t stop now. Not when I was this close.
Gio’s father hadn’t just hidden his secrets; he’d buried them. This wasn’t just paranoia. This was a man who had spent decades building his empire on lies and leverage, a man who had made enemies out of everyone—including his own blood. And I wanted to ruin him. Needed to ruin him.
Through gritted teeth, I muttered curses under my breath.
I wasn’t just hacking a system. I was dismantling a legacy, and it was fucking difficult.
The faint buzz of the laptop’s fan hummed under the soft clack of my keyboard as I tunneled deeper into the encrypted pathways. Each firewall I broke felt like another door unlocked, each step pulling me closer to whatever it was Gio’s father didn’t want anyone to see.
And then I found it.
A private server, hidden behind layers of proxy servers, masking software, and encryption.
I stared at the screen, my pulse picking up.
I knew this was it. This wasn’t just a random storage folder or a low-level account.
This was where the real dirt was—blackmail, transactions, records of every underhanded deal Giorgio had made to keep himself in power.
Whatever he didn’t want anyone to see. Especially someone like me.
If we could get into this server, get to his secrets, we could destroy him without ever risking Reaper’s siblings, mother, or anyone else innocent in the crosshairs.
But there was a catch. There always was.
The server was locked behind a user-specific passcode.
Not just any passcode—a biometric one tied to an individual user.
No brute-forcing my way through this. No clever backdoor.
Whoever had access had to legitimately log in, or the entire system would lock down—and likely alert whoever was still monitoring it.
I glared at the blank field on the screen; the cursor blinking as if it were mocking me. My inked hands hovered over the keyboard as I ran through every possibility in my head. There had to be a way. Not just because I never failed, but because this was my Heaven.
I wasn’t going to start letting her down now.
The floor creaked behind me, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Gio standing in the doorway of the bedroom.
His hair was a little messy, falling across his forehead, and his dark eyes were sharp but tired.
He’d barely slept in days—not since Emilio had called him to say that his father was getting worse.
That Giorgio had forced Vincente and his wife into having an heir they didn’t want.
That he’d set up an arranged marriage for Idalia the minute she turned eighteen in a few days. With a piece of shit gangster that was twice her age.
“You’re still at it?” Gio asked, his voice low.
“Yeah,” I said, leaning back in the chair and nodding toward the screen. “I think I found something.”
That got his attention. He crossed the room and sat down across from me, his arms resting on the table as he leaned in. “What is it?”
“A server,” I said, turning the laptop slightly so he could see. “A private one. But if I’m right, this is where your father keeps his worst secrets. The kind of stuff that could take him down without hurting anyone else.”
Gio frowned, his gaze narrowing on the screen. “What’s stopping you from getting in?”
I gestured at the blinking cursor. “The passcode. It’s tied to specific users. I can’t override it without setting off alarms, and I can’t fake an access key without a valid fingerprint. And I can do many things, but I can’t magic up a fingerprint.”
He leaned back, rubbing the back of his neck as he thought. “Who has access? What is it?”
“Your dad, obviously,” I said. “Maybe a few of his trusted lieutenants. And probably you, back when you were running his operations. It looks like it’s the De Luca network for all your business dealings.”
“I know where you’re looking; it’s where all of our… information was kept.” Gio’s lips thinned. “You think my fingerprints will still work at all?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
He sighed but nodded. “Fine. Try me.”
He offered me his fingerprint when I asked him to press it to a tablet I connected to my laptop. His confidence was steady, but I could see the tension in his jaw.
I hit ENTER and held my breath as the system processed the input.
ACCESS DENIED.
“Shit,” I muttered, my fingers freezing over the keyboard as my jaw tensed and I wondered if now was a good time to ask if I could just kill everyone involved again. Or if he would say no.
“Try my other hand,” Gio said tightly, and we did just that.
Once more, we were closed off.
He sat back in his chair, his expression hardening.
“Of course he’d lock me out,” he muttered.
“I reckon he’s cut off access to my money too.
At least anything kept in family accounts.
I think I am now poor…” he shuddered, then stopped, turning so he could wink at me.
“You are rich, no? You could be my sugar daddy; I don’t mind.
I’m happy to be spoiled and play sweet for you, fantasma. ”
I glanced at him, studying the sharp line of his jaw, the flicker of anger in his dark eyes. I had the urge to play games with him, just as a distraction from the darkness I saw. But I was busy, and sometimes work was more important than sex.
Not often, just sometimes.
“If we can’t use you,” I said carefully, “then we’ll need someone else.” I paused, licking my lips. “We can return to the sugar daddy thing later.” He snorted at that.
It wasn’t like I wished any of his siblings dead.
I just wasn’t opposed to using them to do what we needed to do.
They’d been nothing but helpful so far whenever he’d passed along messages through Emilio the last few weeks since they got in contact.
This seemed like yet another thing they could try, but I knew he would never go for it.
There was a difference between secret phone calls and shady business deals, and physically standing with us and giving me access to what I hoped would ruin Giorgio De Luca entirely.
Gio nodded slowly, his gaze fixed on the screen. “Yeah. You’re right. I don’t know how to get us in.”
“This server could be everything,” I whispered, leaning forward. “If we can get in, we might finally have what we need to end this. Cleanly. Without hurting your family. But we need access.” I pushed, hoping he would see reason and offer me what I wanted.
His version of what I wanted, anyway. I couldn’t stress enough that if it were just up to me, I would have murdered everyone who so much as looked his way funny. But alas, he was cursed with having emotions. Ones that made him far kinder than I had the time for with this plan.
Gio didn’t respond right away. He stared at the blinking cursor, his fingers tapping lightly against the arm of his chair.
Finally, he looked up, his expression shifting. “I think I know a way that won’t involve my siblings and has minimal risk,” he said.
I tilted my head, intrigued even if I was disappointed he didn’t just okay the murdering part of my plan. “I’m listening.”
He hesitated, then smirked faintly. “It’s not going to be easy. You’re going to have to play nice with a stranger.”
“You think I can’t be nice?” My brows rose in false offense.
He chuckled softly, running a hand through his hair.
“I have a cousin. Caro. My father sold him off to a gang in England when he was a teenager.” His expression darkened, but he pushed on.
“He’s the black sheep of the family. His father, Dante, disowned him years ago, but I know he still has some access to the systems to make things easier with the gang he is part of.
Nobody would flag him using anything, and he would let us use his fingerprints. ”
I frowned, old trauma rising to the surface of my thoughts. “Sold him off?”
“It’s a long story,” Gio said tightly. “But if we ask him, he might be able to get us in.”
I nodded, the plan already forming in my mind. “Okay. I can do that. Where is he now?”
“England still. So you know, somewhere entirely reasonable for us to get to.” Gio snorted. “I presume you have a plan already? You normally do, fantasma.”
He sat up as I stretched, pulling my laptop towards me again a moment later. My bones ached, and my back was sore. I really wanted to join our girl in bed and then take a nap. But someone had to be the adult in the household and ruin all our enemies, and that was me.
I could fuck and nap later. Or tomorrow. Then every day after that.
“You pack. I’ll sort the plane. We need to be there for only a day or so.
Make sure Heaven’s sensible with her luggage.
It’s going to be wet and cold.” I ordered as my mind raced with ideas.
“I can get one in a few hours, so hold the fort whilst I’m gone.
Make sure you eat our girl out and feed her whenever she wants it. ”
He nodded with a laugh, getting to his feet as he headed into the bedroom to Heaven, leaving me to what I did best.
Taking the things I needed so I could make them mine.
Then use them to ruin someone’s life.
***