Chapter 12 - The Lion's Den
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The Grand Ballroom of the Palmer House Hotel was a glittering sea of diamonds, tailored tuxedos, and dangerous secrets.
When Lorenzo Moretti walked through the double doors, the room went entirely quiet. The apex predator had arrived. But the hushed whispers that immediately broke out weren't about Lorenzo. They were about the woman on his arm.
Hannah kept her chin high, though her heart was hammering against her ribs. She felt the judgmental, calculating stares of the rail-thin socialites and the hardened mafia wives. She heard the faint, snide murmurs.
But Lorenzo didn't give them an inch.
He kept his hand firmly pressed against the small of her back, a constant, reassuring anchor. When a rival boss approached with a fake smile, Lorenzo pulled Hannah slightly closer, a silent, lethal warning that she was off-limits.
"You're doing perfectly," Lorenzo whispered in her ear as he handed her a glass of champagne.
"I feel like a steak in a room full of wolves," Hannah muttered, taking a large sip.
"Let them look," Lorenzo said, his dark eyes scanning the room. "They are looking at the woman who holds my leash."
Hannah choked slightly on her champagne, blushing furiously at the implication.
Across the room, Hannah spotted Vincent. The sleazy cousin was standing near a pillar, talking in hushed, urgent tones to a bald man with a jagged scar across his neck.
"Lorenzo," Hannah said softly, nodding toward the pillar. "Is that the man?"
Lorenzo’s gaze snapped to the bald man. The warmth instantly vanished from his face, replaced by the cold, calculating mask of a syndicate boss.
"Yes," Lorenzo confirmed quietly. "That is Silas. The man who supplied the drugs to Nero's handler."
"What are you going to do?"
"I am going to have a conversation with them," Lorenzo said. He turned to Hannah, his expression softening. "Stay here. Do not leave the main floor. Marco will be watching you."
"Be careful," she whispered.
May you like
Lorenzo smiled, a dangerous, thrilling flash of teeth. "They are the ones who need to be careful, mia bella."
He kissed her hand and melted into the crowd, leaving Hannah standing near the edge of the dance floor. But Hannah wasn't the kind of woman to just wait in the shadows.
