Chapter 3: An Offer He Couldn't Refuse

"Leo"

If I'd thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest before, now I was certain it had already died and just forgotten to stop beating.

The office on the fortieth floor was enormous, furnished with dark wood and a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the entire city. But the atmosphere inside felt like an execution chamber. The man I'd just learned was Vittorio Marchetti sat behind a massive desk. His suit jacket hung over the back of the chair, and he held a cigar, letting the smoke cut through the room in an intimidating haze.

The two armed guards closed the heavy door behind me. The click of the lock sounded like a gunshot echoing in my ears.

"M-Mr. Marchetti..." I began, my voice coming out higher than I'd intended. I pressed my Marchetti Enterprises badge against my chest, as if that little piece of blue plastic could protect me from a crime lord. "I swear I didn't see anything unusual in that spreadsheet! I just... I thought it was a typo. Five million is a lot of zeros, right? Who hasn't made a decimal error in Excel?"

Vittorio took a slow drag of his cigar, studying me through the smoke in silence. Those gray eyes seemed to read even my deepest thoughts. He exhaled slowly and propped his elbows on the desk.

"You're a terrible liar, Leo Albuquerque." His voice filled the room, cold and measured. "You know exactly what you saw. And you know that what's in that spreadsheet shouldn't be accessible to a junior analyst who spills coffee on people."

I swallowed hard. My legs trembled so badly I thought I'd collapse onto the expensive carpet.

"Look, I'm not going to tell anyone! I've got a cat to feed, I'm behind on rent... I just want to leave, forget this floor exists, and keep doing my reports in peace at my rickety desk downstairs. Please don't kill me!"

To my utter shock, the corner of Vittorio's lips twitched upward. It wasn't a friendly smile — it was the smile of a predator who'd just cornered the perfect prey.

"Who said I'm going to kill you?" He stood, walking slowly until he was inches from me. His cologne, mixed with the cigar smoke, made me slightly dizzy. He was too tall, too imposing. "In my world, Leo, people who know too much tend to... disappear. But you've got a sharp mind for numbers. I reviewed your file. You spotted the system flaw in under ten minutes — something my senior accountants took hours to notice."

He reached out and, with his fingertips, lifted my blue badge, reading my name directly off the plastic before meeting my eyes again.

"I have a proposal for you. Starting today, you no longer work in the general department. You're my personal financial assistant. You'll handle my private accounts. All of them."

I lost the ability to breathe.

"P-Private accounts? Like... the money you use to buy the ships and... and the other things from the spreadsheet?"

"Exactly." Vittorio turned his back, walking to the desk. "You'll help me organize the cash flow. In exchange, I triple your salary, pay off your back rent, and guarantee that no one touches a single hair on your head." He paused, his expression hardening. "But if you refuse... well, I can't guarantee you'll leave this building in one piece today."

I looked at the locked door, then back at the most dangerous man in the city offering me a fortune to step into his underworld. I didn't have a choice.