Chapter 6 - The Tiger Awakes
Inside his downtown estate, Lorenzo was reviewing shipping manifests when Marco stepped into the office, his face deathly pale.
"Boss," Marco said, his voice trembling slightly. "It's Emily. She didn't make it home from school."
Lorenzo didn't move. His body went entirely still, the pen in his hand snapping in half under sudden, terrifying pressure.
"Explain," Lorenzo whispered.
"Viktor Vance’s men intercepted her two blocks from her house," Marco reported. "Viktor just called the secondary line. He wants your eastern port territories in exchange for the girl. He gave you two hours."
Lorenzo stood up slowly. The quiet, gentle man who played blocks with baby Noah vanished instantly. In his place stood the undisputed king of Detroit’s underworld—a predator whose rage could scorch an entire city.
"Two hours?" Lorenzo said, his voice dropping to a icy register that made the room temperature seem to plunge. "He thinks he has two hours?"
He reached into his desk drawer, pulling out his heavy black coat.
"Call the entire crew," Lorenzo commanded. "Every vehicle. Every man. Block every road out of the 8th Street district."
"Boss," Marco hesitated. "If we start an all-out war with Viktor's syndicate—"
Lorenzo turned, his eyes burning with an intense, lethal fire.
"They took my daughter, Marco," Lorenzo said coldly. "Burn it all down."
Meanwhile, inside the damp, dark warehouse on 8th Street, I was tied to a wooden chair in the center of a vast, dusty floor. The air was freezing, and three armed men guarded the perimeter while Viktor Vance sat on a crate, flicking a silver lighter open and closed.
"Don't look so scared, kid," Viktor sneered, looking down at me. "Your rich benefactor will hand over his empire to get you back. You're just business."
I looked Viktor in the eye, shivering from the cold, but remembering Lorenzo's words to me in the kitchen.
You were brave.
May you like
"Lorenzo isn't coming to hand anything over," I said, my voice surprisingly steady. "He's coming to stop you."
Viktor laughed mockingly. But before his laugh finished, the massive steel doors of the auto plant were violently blown off their hinges with a deafening explosion.
