Chapter 6 - The Blood of the Docks
Marco froze, his hand dropping away from my arm as he spun around to face his boss.
“Boss... I was just—she was poking around where she shouldn't—”
Adriano didn't break his stride. He crossed the wet concrete with long, measured steps, his eyes locked entirely on Marco. The two armed guards in the sedan scrambled out of their doors, but before they could raise their weapons, two of Adriano’s elite enforcers stepped out from the darkness of the rafters behind them, clicking the safety catches of their submachine guns into place with mechanical precision.
“Drop your weapons,” Adriano commanded. The air in the warehouse felt charged with static electricity.
“Boss, she’s a civilian, she’s a threat to the syndicate—” Marco stammered, raising his hands defensively as Adriano closed the distance between them.
“She is not a civilian,” Adriano said, his voice cold enough to freeze blood. “She is the rightful owner of half this harbor. And you laid your hands on her after I gave a direct order.”
Before Marco could blink, Adriano’s fist struck him square across the jaw with the force of a falling beam. Marco staggered backward, crashing against a stack of wooden pallets and sliding onto the concrete, spitting blood.
Adriano stood over him, breathing heavily, his knuckles bruised. He didn't look down. Instead, he turned his gaze toward me, walked over, and shrugged off his heavy cashmere coat, draping it gently over my shivering shoulders.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice softening the instant he looked at me.
“No,” I whispered, pulling the warm coat around myself. It still smelled faintly of his cologne and rain. “How did you find me?”
“I have trackers on all my vehicles, Eliza,” he said grimly. He turned back to Marco, who was groaning on the floor. “Reynolds, take Marco and his men to the south facility. Strip them of their rank, freeze their accounts, and put them on a cargo ship bound for South America tonight. If any of them set foot in Port Alder again, bury them.”
“Yes, Mr. Costello,” Reynolds snapped, hauling Marco up by his collar.
As the guards dragged a screaming, cursing Marco back toward the sedan, Adriano turned back to me. The storm raged outside the broken windows, but inside the hangar, the noise of the world seemed to fade away.
May you like
“You shouldn’t have come after me,” I said softly. “It’s dangerous.”
“Everything I do is dangerous, Eliza,” Adriano replied, stepping closer until I could feel the heat radiating from his chest. “Especially the moment I decided to keep you safe.”
