Chapter 6 - The Empire Strikes Back"What... what is this?" Arthur stammered, his hands shaking as he stared at real-time security feeds displaying his primary warehouses, docks, and safehouses bursting into flames.
"While you were busy setting a cheap trap in a abandoned theater," Matteo said calmly, stepping down off the stage and walking slowly toward the terrified older man, "my men were busy dismantling your entire operation. Your ports are closed, your accounts are frozen, and your lieutenants have already surrendered."
Arthur lunged forward in a blind panic, drawing a hidden pistol from his coat, screaming, "I'll kill you all!"
Before Arthur's finger could even squeeze the trigger, a muffled thud echoed from the upper balcony. A laser dot danced across Arthur's forehead.
A sniper had him dead to rights.
Arthur froze, the pistol slipping from his trembling fingers and clattering loudly against the wooden floorboards. He fell to his knees, defeated, his empire reduced to ash in a matter of minutes.
Kyle scrambled backward on the floor like a terrified animal, pressing himself against the legs of a broken chair, staring up at Matteo with pure terror. "Please... please don't kill me. I didn't mean—I was just trying to get her back—"
Matteo didn't even bother looking down at Kyle. He walked past him as if he were nothing more than dust on the floor, stopping only when he reached Sophie.
The guns were lowered. The theater was quiet once again.
Matteo gently took Sophie’s face in his hands, wiping away a stray tear with his thumb. "It's over, my love. You're safe now. No one will ever touch you again."
Sophie looked into his dark, fierce eyes, realizing with a jolt of overwhelming emotion that the mafia boss hadn't just saved her—he had rewritten her entire world.
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"Take them away," Matteo instructed his guards without breaking eye contact with Sophie.
As Arthur and Kyle were dragged kicking and screaming out into the rainy night, Matteo pulled Sophie gently against his chest, her head resting right over his steady, powerful heartbeat.
