Chapter 3 - The Interrogation in the Petals
The room fell so quiet that the only sound was the steady drip of rainwater falling from the broken ceiling onto the crushed flowers below.
Sophia Bennett tried to sit up, her eyes wild with fear as she saw her small daughter run into the shop.
“Emma!” Sophia cried weakly, reaching out her bruised arms.
“Mommy!” Emma sobbed, breaking away from Luca’s side and flinging herself into her mother’s embrace, burying her face in Sophia’s rain-soaked sweater.
I looked at the mother and daughter held together in the dirt of their ruined shop, then turned around slowly to face Dante Rizzo.
Dante didn't run. He knew better. There were four red laser sights trained directly on his chest.
“Dante,” I said, my voice dangerously calm. “How long?”
Dante swallowed hard, his mask finally slipping away to reveal the bitter, desperate man beneath.
“Eight months, Alessandro,” Dante muttered, his voice shaking with resentment. “Eight months since you refused to give me a share of the harbor contracts! I built the logistics network for this family! I balanced your books! And what did I get? A salary! While you sat in Bella Notte acting like a king!”
“So you created a shadow collection ring,” I said, taking a step toward him. “You hired low-life thugs with snake tattoos to beat small business owners, extort widows, and rob flower shops... all under my name.”
“They were small targets!” Dante yelled, his composure breaking completely. “Who was going to care about a stupid flower shop? Who was going to listen to a broke widow?”
“I listened,” I said softly.
I reached out and grabbed Dante by the lapels of his expensive wool coat, slamming him against the sturdy oak counter of the shop.
“You brought blood to my name, Dante,” I growled, leaning in so close he could see the cold fire in my eyes. “You made a seven-year-old child run barefoot through seventeen blocks of freezing rain because she thought I was going to murder her mother.”
“Alessandro, please!” Dante pleaded, tears finally spilling from his eyes. “We were brothers! Your father raised me!”
“My father raised a man, not a coward who hides behind thugs and hurts women,” I spat.
I turned to Luca.
“Take Snake-neck and his two dogs to the dockyard,” I ordered. “Hand them over to the federal authorities with a full ledger of Dante’s illegal extortion racket. Let them rot in state prison for thirty years.”
“And Dante, boss?” Luca asked, holding heavy plastic restraints.
May you like
I looked down at the flower shop floor, at the crumpled yellow invoice with Dante’s handwriting that lay near my feet.
“Dante stays,” I said coldly. “He’s going to fix every single broken window, clean every drop of blood, and hand over every cent of his offshore accounts to Sophia Bennett.”
