Chapter 107: Clean Hands
Liam moved into the villa before noon.
The last temporary room was left behind. He had delayed this long enough.
The place had sat ready for weeks papers clean, security already running, every system tested.
There was no reason to keep sleeping in rented beds when the real house was waiting.
The gates closed behind the final vehicle with a heavy, solid sound.
He walked the main floor once, checking what he already knew was perfect, then stopped in the kitchen and ran the tap just to hear water that belonged to him.
The silence of the house settled around him differently than the silence of hotels. This one was his.His phone rang while he was still standing at the sink.
Sabrina.
"We need to talk," she said. The playful tone from the party was still gone. Only the directness remained.
"I will send you my location." They arrived forty minutes later. A black car rolled up the driveway and stopped under the portico. Sabrina stepped out first. Selene followed.
They came into the living room without wasting time.
Sabrina took in the high ceilings and the long glass wall that looked out over the private grounds, then turned to him.
"Derek knows." just as I thought.
"He saw us," Selene said. Her voice was quieter than her sister’s.
"Upstairs. He’s been sitting on it. That won’t last. Derek won’t hold something that heavy forever. He’ll use it the moment it gives him an edge."
Liam leaned against the kitchen counter.Then you should do something about him.
The silence that followed stretched longer than it should have.
Selene was the one who finally broke it. You want us to do it our own way.
"Yes."
Sabrina walked to the glass wall and stared out at the grounds for several seconds before turning back. Her jaw was tight.
"There’s a clean way," she said. Derek already has a reputation with women when he thinks no one important is watching.
We tell Dexter he forced himself on one of us the night of the party. Our word will be enough. Dexter won’t dig for proof.
She said it evenly, but her eyes stayed on Liam’s face, waiting for some acknowledgment.
Selene shifted her weight slightly. "Once we say it, there’s no walking it back. Derek doesn’t get to be part of anything again. Our brother will make sure of that."
Liam met both of their eyes in turn. Okay that’s fine I know what I’m asking is too much.
Another beat of silence passed between the sisters. the shared acceptance of a cost they were choosing to carry. Sabrina looked at Selene. Selene gave the smallest nod.
"We’ll handle it," Sabrina said.
They left without anything else.Liam stayed in the kitchen after they were gone. He poured a glass of water this time instead of liquor and stood there drinking it slowly, listening to the quiet of the house.
The twins had influence of their own. Today they had chosen to use it for him, and they had done it with their eyes open. That mattered the most.
The summons came that evening.
Dexter called Derek to the main house of the compound. Enough people were present to make certain whatever happened would travel through the organization by morning.
Derek walked in still carrying the same swagger he had always worn around the men who answered to him. That swagger lasted less than a minute.
Sabrina stood beside her brother. Her face was calm. Her voice did not shake when she spoke.
She told Dexter that Derek had put his hands on her after the party. That he had counted on her silence. That she was finished being silent.
Derek laughed, sharp and disbelieving. He called her a liar. He started talking fast, pointing toward the idea of Liam, trying to turn the accusation around before it could fully land.
Dexter did not let him finish the sentence.
The first punch caught Derek clean across the jaw and spun him sideways into a table. The second landed before he could get his hands up properly.
Derek swung back in a wild, panicked arc. Dexter stepped inside it and drove a short, heavy hook into his ribs. The air left Derek in a wet, broken sound. He dropped to one knee, gasping.
Dexter grabbed him by the front of the shirt, hauled him upright, and put him hard into the wall. Another punch followed. Then another. Derek’s nose broke with a dull crack. Blood ran freely down his mouth and chin.
He tried to cover up. Dexter slapped the guard aside and kept hitting him short, controlled shots that landed with the finality of a man who had broken bodies before and did not need to raise his voice to do it again.
When Derek finally slid down the wall to the floor, Dexter kicked him once in the side. Derek curled in on himself, coughing blood onto the expensive carpet. One eye was already swelling shut. He could no longer stand on his own.
Dexter stood over him, breathing hard, knuckles split open and dripping.
"You’re finished," he said. His voice was flat, almost quiet. "You don’t use my name. You don’t come near my family. You don’t exist in this group anymore. If I hear you even breathed in their direction again, I end it myself."
Two of Dexter’s men dragged Derek up by the arms. He could barely walk. They took him through the front of the house and threw him out the main gates in front of enough witnesses to make sure the story would spread cleanly by morning.
No one moved to help him.
By the time the gates closed, Derek was gone from that world no protection, no name, no future inside the circles he had once moved through with confidence.
Liam received the confirmation just before midnight. A short message from Sabrina:
It’s done. He deleted it and set the phone face-down on the counter.
The villa felt different after that. Quieter. One more threat had been removed without him having to do it with his own hands.
The twins had carried the weight of the lie and the consequences that came with it. They had real influence, and they had chosen to spend some of it for him.
He walked the length of the main hall once, then stopped at the security panel and checked the feeds. Everything looked normal. No alerts. No movement at the perimeter.
Liam turned off the main lights on the ground floor and went upstairs.