Chapter 4 - the shadow over fifth street
Through the front glass of the bakery, a sleek silver sports car sat idling at the curb. Stepping out of the passenger side was Victor Valenti—Marcus Valenti’s twenty-eight-year-old son—dressed in an expensive leather jacket, flanked by two heavy enforcers.
Victor pushed open the bakery door, the brass bell chiming loudly. He looked around the cozy shop with arrogant contempt, stopping near the counter where Lily and Sophie were sitting.
“Nice little place you have here, lady,” Victor sneered, tapping his fingers on the glass display case. “It’d be a shame if the health inspector found a reason to shut it down. Protection fees are due today.”
Claire stepped out from the kitchen, her body instinctively blocking her daughters. “I paid my city permits, Mr. Valenti. Get out of my shop.”
Victor laughed bitterly, reaching out to grab Claire’s arm. “You don't tell me what to do, sweetheart—”
Before Victor’s fingers could touch her sleeve, a massive, broad hand clamped around his wrist like an iron vise!
Adrien stepped out from the kitchen shadow. His towering frame, broad shoulders, and terrifyingly calm aura instantly filled the room with suffocating authority. He twisted Victor’s wrist backward with effortless, crushing force, forcing the younger mobster down onto his knees on the wooden floorboards!
Victor gasped in pain, his face turning bright red. “Moretti?! What are you doing here?!”
“You are standing in my wife’s bakery, Victor,” Adrien said, his deep voice dropping into an icy, lethal register that made the two enforcers at the door freeze in terror. “And you just laid a hand on the mother of my children.”
Sophie held up her pink notebook, writing frantically. “Mr. Adrien = 100 points for flipping the mean man.”
Adrien leaned down into Victor’s face. “Tell your father that if he or any of his men step onto Fifth Street again, I will tear down every business he owns in this state.”
Adrien shoved Victor toward the door. The terrified mobster scrambled to his feet and fled out into the rain alongside his enforcers, their sports car speeding away into the city traffic.
May you like
Claire stood behind the counter, her chest heaving, staring at Adrien in breathless awe.
Adrien turned back to her, his tone instantly softening as he looked at Claire and the three little girls. “Pack your bags, Claire. You and the girls are coming to my estate on Lake Shore Drive today.”
