Chapter 19 - Mafia Boss Unleashed
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“Are you hurt?” Adrien demanded, pulling back to frantically check her face, her arms, scanning her for any sign of injury.
“I’m fine,” Norah choked out, clinging to his ruined jacket. “Adrien, what did you do?”
“I sent a message,” Adrien said, his voice entirely devoid of humanity.
He led her out of the panic room. The hallway of the conservation lab was a bloodbath. The bodies of Romanov hitmen littered the floor, dispatched with brutal, surgical precision. Adrien’s men had slaughtered them to the last man.
Adrien didn't shield her eyes. He walked her through the carnage, holding her tight against his side.
“Your father crossed a line,” Adrien said quietly as they stepped into the armored SUV waiting in the alley. “I tried to handle this like a businessman for your sake. But they brought violence to my doorstep. Now, I handle it like a Moretti.”
Within four hours, the city’s underworld was violently rearranged.
Adrien didn't just target the hitmen. He unleashed the full, terrifying might of his syndicate. By sunset, Viktor Romanov’s warehouses on the docks were burned to the ground. Two of his lieutenants were found hanging from the city bridges. And Viktor himself was dragged out of his penthouse and thrown into the trunk of a car, never to be seen again.
As for Richard Bennett, he was found cowering in a cheap motel outside the city limits. Adrien’s men didn't kill him. Death was too easy. They shattered both of his knees with a sledgehammer, ensured he signed a full confession to financial fraud, and left him tied to a chair in front of the FBI headquarters with a bow on his chest.
Celeste and Vanessa, now completely broke and disgraced, were forced to move into a tiny, run-down apartment in the poorest district of the city, cut off from their friends, their wealth, and the society that used to worship them.
Norah sat in the penthouse of Adrien’s estate, watching the news reports of her father’s arrest. She didn't feel sad. She felt completely, finally free.
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The door opened, and Adrien walked in. He had showered, washing the blood and smoke away, dressed in a soft grey sweater. He looked like the man who had fallen in love with her in the library again.
But Norah knew exactly what he was capable of now. And surprisingly, it didn't scare her. It made her feel safe.
