flash
The silence inside the elevator stretched, heavy with a sudden, suffocating tension that had nothing to do with the proximity of their bodies and everything to do with the ghost that had just entered the space between them. / Chapter 2 / 6

Chapter 2 - THE BLOODLINE AND THE BAKERY

"Get down!"

Dante tackled Ruby to the reinforced concrete floor, his massive frame shielding her body as a second high-caliber bullet tore through the metal frame of the elevator where her head had been a second prior.

"Viktor! Return fire!" Dante roared into his collar mic, his hand reaching inside his charcoal suit jacket to draw a matte-black semi-automatic pistol.

Ruby gasped, her hands covering her ears as gunfire erupted in the enclosed space of the garage. It was deafening, terrifying, and completely removed from the quiet, flour-dusted sanctuary of Sweet Haven Bakery. This was the underworld—the raw, bleeding edge of Chicago that she had only read about in newspapers.

Dante dragged her behind the thick wheel of his armored SUV. "Are you hit?" he demanded, his hands quickly running down her arms, her waist, checking for blood with a frantic intensity that surprised even him.

"No, I—I'm fine," she stammered, staring at the gun in his hand. "Who is shooting at us?"

"The Valenti family," Dante growled, shooting a glance over the hood as his security team neutralized the shooters on the upper rafters. "They've been looking for your father’s inheritance for over two decades. They thought Lorenzo Moretti buried it. But he didn't. He gave it to his most trusted driver—Thomas Castellano."

"My father was a driver?" Ruby’s head spun. "No. He had a garage on the South Side."

"A front," Dante said, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the back seat of the SUV as Viktor slammed the door behind them and hit the gas. The tires screeched against the concrete as they sped out into the blinding Chicago daylight. "Your father was the only man who knew where my father hid the ledger containing the identities of every corrupt judge, politician, and federal agent in the state. If the Valentis get that ledger, they control the city. If I get it, I can finally free my family from this blood feud."

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The notification light on my phone blinked a furious, rhythmic amber. Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six missed calls. Ryan’s texts were no longer polite; they were mutating into panicked, all-caps demands. “Mom is crying hysterically. The bank is threatening default. What kind of monster cuts off a widow? PICK UP THE PHONE.”

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"I don't know anything about a ledger!" Ruby cried, clutching her satchel. "I was eleven!"

"The key is in that bag, Ruby," Dante said, his gray eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that burned. "And until we find it, you cannot go back to your bakery. You belong to my world now."

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