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Vito Rizzuto’s face turned into a mask of rage when he saw that ruined microphone in the glass of water and heard the name of his worst enemy. “You are definitely not an intelligent man, Mr. Keller!” he hissed. “Are you threatening to bring John Hopkins to my door?” Zack adjusted his suit jacket and sat down. “No, Mr. Rizzuto, I’m not threatening, I already brought him to you. CIA Director Hopkins of Organized Crime is in room 2301 at the Le Blanc Hotel, less than five minutes from here,” he said. “I asked him for help in freeing my wife, and he asked me to trade her for you. Unfortunately, he’s a bit intransigent and you can’t negotiate with him on many things, he doesn’t understand the value of money like you and I do.” “And you couldn’t come here without bringing him!?” the old man growled furiously. “Depends on how much of an idiot you think I am.” Do you think I’d go into the house of Canada’s biggest drug lord without backup? For a minute the old man looked at him with a hatred that slowly turned into respect. He didn’t usually have intelligent enemies, but when the opportunity presented itself he didn’t usually turn down a fight. “And am I to understand that that’s the only microphone you have?” he asked. “You can check the rest of my teeth and you won’t find one,” Zack declared. “Besides, I have no intention of risking the rest of my life against a mob boss, because if I help stop him you’re not going to leave me or my family alone, and that’s precisely what I’m looking for: to get out of this country with clean hands. I’ll pay you, you do me the favor, and John Hopkins must return to his country empty-handed, like so many other times.” Rizzuto sat back in his seat and thought about it for a moment. That man must really have some balls to dare put him under John Hopkins’s crosshairs. “You’re right about one thing, Director Hopkins has walked away empty-handed many times,” he hissed. “I know how to deal with him. And as for Mason Lee, you heard it yourself, he’ll pay me for the drugs he took and the guy is still productive. He’s not really stealing anything from me. Thanks for reading LeeNovelas.com.” Zack smiled confidently and nodded. “You’re right. Mason isn’t stealing anything from you, he’s doing much worse: he’s using your name in Vancouver as an endorsement to tempt a family man, and he set the sights of a complete stranger, a stranger with connections in the CIA, on you,” Zack declared, standing up. “Mason Lee took my wife from me, and he put my daughter in danger. I know you understand the value of family more than anyone, Mr. Rizzuto, so my offer is simple: name your price and keep your end of the deal, and we’ll never see each other again. Or face the consequences, but I won’t mind getting myself killed to make Mason Lee disappear from this world.” Vito Rizzuto was a cold and arrogant man, but he was not a foolish man. Before that day I had never even heard of Zack Keller,But Zack Keller had brought the American Central Intelligence Agency to his doors because of an idiot who had mixed business with his personal affairs. “A million,” he declared. “I want a million for Mason Lee’s life.” Zack gulped. He understood what he was about to do, he understood what would happen if John Hopkins didn’t stop this and he knew he probably wouldn’t, but above all there were Andrea and Adriana, and if he had to sacrifice his conscience for them, then he would. He walked over to the desk and handed Mr. Rizzuto a pen. Remember. Read this novel only at LeeNovelas.com, not on other sites. “I’m going to need your account number,” he declared without hesitation. The old man stared at him for a moment and nodded, wrote down the long number and Zack opened the transfer application on his cell phone. With a single click, the million dollars were transferred from his bank account to Rizzuto’s account, as the agreement stipulated. “Done,” he said. Rizzuto opened his computer again and checked his account, into which he had immediately deposited all the money. “You seem to be a very determined man, Mr. Keller.” “Yes.” “Do you need any collateral? A body part, perhaps?” the old man asked coldly. “Your word is enough, Mr. Rizzuto, I’m paying for it,” Zack said with a smile. “From now on we are sadly linked, so see that you don’t get caught, because I have no desire to go to jail for a contracted murder.” Vito Rizzuto stood up smiling. That was the best of all, knowing that now Zack Keller of all people could betray him, because he had a transfer of a million dollars that proved his complicity. “I will keep my part of the deal, Mr. Keller,” Rizzuto said as he shook his hand firmly. “When I get back to Vancouver your wife will be free and Mason Lee will never bother you again.” “I hope so, and I hope we never see them again.” And with those words, Zack left the room and disappeared into the shadows of that cold night. He left there and didn’t bother to go to the hotel where the Director of the CIA was supposed to be waiting for him. He was in a hurry, with a very clear objective in mind and a destination, so he drove to his own hotel. As soon as he walked through the door he grabbed the remote control and turned the television on as loud as it would go. “Everything okay?” he asked, looking into the bathroom. While in Le Blanc the entire CIA team was going crazy because Zack had destroyed the microphone, in the luxurious bathroom of his room was John Hopkins, with a single computer and a happy face. “Everything perfect,” he answered. “We have audio and video.” And something more important, Zack declared, showing him his phone. “Is this…? Your account number?” John asked, unable to believe it. “How did you get it?” He looked at him for a moment and shook his head with a condescending smile.”Did you really pay him a million dollars?” “Did you expect this to be just lip service?” Zack replied. “Men like him aren’t all talk, and with that account number and a good hacker you can get all the information you need to incriminate him. You said it yourself, demons only kill each other.”Jhon set aside his computer and shook his hand. “All I can tell you, Zack Keller, is that it really has been a pleasure meeting you,” he declared. “Now let’s finish our business.” He made a phone call and barked orders left and right until he finally got the answer he was hoping for. “Listen, I can get Andrea out right now, but that will make things too obvious,” he explained. A week. Can your wife handle another week? “My wife can handle anything,” Zack replied. “Then trust me, help her get through another week and take her with you as soon as she is delivered to you,” Jhon told him. “I sincerely hope that now they can be happy.” Zack nodded as he gave him a hug and said goodbye as if he were an old friend. “If you need me, I’m sure you can find me,” he said. Just an hour later, Zack was getting on a plane to Vancouver and Andrea was being dragged out of her cell by an angry guard. Being dragged out of her bed in the middle of the night was not normal, so Andrea was terrified, her eyes darting frantically from side to side trying to find anything that would indicate the direction they were going. The guard noticed, but she didn’t care. They stopped in front of a solitary cell, a much colder and darker place than the rest. “No, wait… I didn’t do anything!” she exclaimed desperately trying to resist, but the guard hit her hard, she was pushed inside unceremoniously and the door closed behind her with an echo that resonated for a long time until it faded deep in her mind. Andrea fell onto the stone bed, without a blanket and with no other company than the cold of the morning, and understood that whatever Zack had done… it hadn’t gone well.