Chapter 413
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Chapter 413:
Gaston’s most trusted driver, Old Chen, stood by the rear door of the lead car in a crisp black suit and white gloves. He bowed respectfully and pulled the heavy door open.
Gaston helped Jocelyn gather her massive skirt, guiding her carefully into the plush leather interior.
The door closed with a heavy, vault-like thud. The convoy slowly accelerated, merging onto the highway and heading toward the Long Island estate — toward the wedding of the century.
The twelve black bulletproof Rolls-Royce Phantoms moved down the Long Island Expressway in perfect, synchronized formation, cutting through the autumn traffic like a massive steel serpent.
Inside the lead car, the atmosphere was perfectly serene.
Jocelyn rested her head against Gaston’s broad shoulder, watching the vibrant red and gold leaves blur past the tinted windows. Her heart beat with a slow, steady rhythm. For the first time in her life, she felt absolutely no anxiety about the future.
Gaston’s large hand enveloped hers, his thumb stroking the back of her knuckles in a slow, hypnotic motion. His dark eyes were fixed forward, his expression an unreadable, stony mask.
In the driver’s seat, Old Chen gripped the leather steering wheel. Despite the climate-controlled air conditioning, a thick layer of cold sweat beaded on his forehead. His eyes darted to the rearview mirror every few seconds, his knuckles bone-white against the wheel.
Two miles away, deep inside the dense private woods surrounding the Collins Long Island estate.
A hired mercenary, known on the dark web only as Viper, lay flat on his stomach in the damp dirt. He wore a filthy oversized camouflage jacket, his face smeared with dark mud to eliminate the glare of his pale skin. He looked like a feral animal.
In his trembling right hand, he clutched a heavy black plastic detonator.
O𝗋gа𝘯𝗂𝘇𝘦 𝘺𝗼𝘶𝘳 𝗅i𝗯𝗋𝗮𝘳𝘆 о𝘯
His eyes were bloodshot, wide, and manic. A sick, euphoric grin stretched across his cracked lips.
In the frantic seventy-two hours before her guilty plea and subsequent remand to Rikers Island, Aspen had activated a lethal contingency plan. She had liquidated the very last hidden cryptocurrency wallet she possessed — a secret, untraceable fund she had extorted from a former lover years ago, completely concealed from her father’s bankrupt accounts. From her holding cell, through a burner phone smuggled by a corrupt guard, she had finalized the contract. She had used the money to threaten Old Chen’s family in China, forcing the loyal driver to betray Gaston, compelling him to plant a brick of military-grade C4 plastic explosive directly above the exhaust manifold on the undercarriage of the lead Rolls-Royce.
Viper stared at the glowing screen of an iPad resting in the dirt beside him. A pulsing red GPS dot moved rapidly across the digital map, tracking the transmitter concealed in the bomb.
The dot was exactly three miles away.
“You thought you won, Jocelyn,” Viper whispered to the dirt, repeating the precise words his client had demanded he say at this exact moment. “She took your money. She took your freedom. Now she takes your life p>