Chapter 6 - The Lion's Den
The air inside the office instantly turned into ice.
I stared at the photograph of Leo on the monitor, my vision blurring as panic surged through my veins like liquid fire. My breathing became short and shallow, my knees buckling beneath me.
"Leo..." I choked out, grabbing the edge of the desk to keep from collapsing. "Oh God... Leo..."
Before I could fall, two powerful arms caught me. Dante pulled me up, lifting me effortlessly and setting me down in his soft leather chair. He kneeled in front of me, grabbing my shaking hands in his.
"Look at me, Emily," Dante commanded sharply. "Look at me right now!"
I forced my eyes down to meet his. His grey eyes were blazing with a cold, terrifying fury, but his hands holding mine were steady as steel.
"He is safe," Dante said, his voice an absolute guarantee. "I have six armed guards stationed at St. Jude's twenty-four hours a day. Nobody touches that building without my permission."
"They... they took a picture of him, Dante!" I sobbed, losing my secretarial composure entirely for the first time in eighteen months. "They know where he is! If anything happens to him—"
"Nothing will happen to him," Dante cut in fiercely. He stood up, turning to his desk phone and slamming a speed-dial button. "Frank! Tactical team to St. Jude’s immediately! Lockdown the facility! Move Leo Davis to the safehouse in Oak Brook under maximum security! Now!"
He hung up, then turned back to me. He reached out, his hand gently cupping the side of my face, his thumb wiping away a hot tear.
"I gave you my word, Emily," Dante said quietly, his voice laced with a lethal promise. "No one hurts what belongs to my house."
"This is Lorenzo Moretti, isn't it?" I asked, forcing my breath to steady, my logical mind fighting through the fog of terror. "He found out about the insurance policy change last week. He realized you were paying for Leo."
"Moretti thinks he found my pressure point," Dante said, his mouth curling into a sinister, dark smile. "He thinks he can use a civilian to force me into giving up the riverfront territory."
Dante walked over to his wall safe, punched in a combination, and pulled out a heavy black leather case. He unzipped it, revealing two sleek, silenced handguns, extra magazines, and an encrypted satellite tracker.
"Where are you going?" I asked, pushing myself out of the chair.
"To end this," Dante said calmly, loading a magazine into one of the pistols with a sharp click. "Moretti made a fatal mistake. He thought you were just my secretary."
"I am coming with you," I said firmly.
Dante paused, looking at me like I had lost my mind. "Absolutely not. You are going to the safehouse with Leo."
"No," I argued, stepping up to him, my exhaustion completely swallowed by a fierce, protective instinct. "Moretti sent that file from a Swiss server, but the photograph was taken from the eastern angle of St. Jude's park wing. The only building with that line of sight is a commercial dental clinic owned by a holding company called Apex Property Management."
Dante stared at me, holding his gun mid-air.
"Apex Property Management is owned by Lorenzo Moretti's second cousin," I continued rapidly. "If they sent that photo twenty minutes ago, the spotter is still inside that dental clinic. I know the layout of that commercial block—I processed their lease extension paperwork two years ago."
Dante looked at me for a long, silent moment. The cold killer in him wrestled with the man who was rapidly falling in love with the extraordinary woman standing before him.
"You stay in the armored SUV," Dante bargained coldly. "You give instructions to Tommy over the radio. You do not step out of the vehicle."
May you like
"Deal," I said without hesitation.
Ten minutes later, we were descending in the private elevator toward the underground garage, flanked by eight heavily armed enforcers. For the first time in my life, I wasn't just managing the books of a Mafia empire—I was going to war with its Don.
