Chapter 5 - Whispers in the Dark Empire
"Lily," Naomi choked out, her voice suffocating on the word, unable to form an answer.
Leo didn't wait for her permission to comfort their child. He reached out, his large palm steady and warm as it cupped the back of Lily's small head, shielding her from the falling rain.
"I'm not a dragon, Lily," Leo said, his voice thick with an emotion that stripped away every ounce of his hardened exterior. "And I'm never going to let anyone hurt you. Or your mother."
Naomi wanted to scream, wanted to pull Lily away and run into the nearest subway station, but she looked down at her daughter. For the first time in her life, Lily wasn't clinging to her with the anxious vigilance of a child raised in poverty; she was leaning into Leo's shoulder, completely relaxed, as if her small body recognized his heartbeat before her mind could comprehend it.
"Get in the car, Naomi," Julie urged quietly from behind the umbrella, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder. "It’s freezing out here. Lily's lips are turning blue. Whatever you two have to fight about, fight about it where it's warm."
Defeated by the cold and her daughter's shivering frame, Naomi scooped Lily into her arms and climbed into the leather interior of the Rolls-Royce. Leo climbed in after them, shutting the heavy door and sealing the chaotic New York downpour outside.
The car glided effortlessly through the rain toward Manhattan's Upper East Side. Inside, the climate control hummed softly, warming the cabin with dry, fragrant air.
"We are not staying at your house," Naomi said immediately, her voice sharp as glass as she adjusted Lily's pink backpack. "I have a motel reservation in Astoria. Take us there."
Leo didn't even look up from his phone as he typed a rapid sequence of commands to his security teams. "The motel in Astoria had two police responses for armed robbery last month, Naomi. You aren't stepping foot in Queens."
"You don't control me, Leo!"
"I control whether my daughter sleeps in a drug corridor," he retorted, his eyes flashing with sudden, cold fire as he looked at her. "You have every right to despise me, Naomi. You have every right to curse my name until your lungs bleed. But you will not endanger Lily's life out of spite for me."
"And your life isn't dangerous?" Naomi countered bitterly, leaning forward so Lily, who was busy marveling at the glowing fiber-optic constellations on the ceiling, wouldn't hear. "You think I don't know who you are? Moretti Holdings is a front for the five families! Your uncle Dominic threatened to kill me five years ago! What happens when your enemies realize you have an heir?"
The air in the limousine dropped ten degrees.
Leo stared at her, the harsh lines of his jaw tightening until the muscle ticked. He didn't deny it. He couldn't. For a man like Leo Moretti, family was both an ultimate throne and an open bullseye.
"My uncle Dominic will never threaten you again," Leo said quietly.
"You can't guarantee that," Naomi whispered.
"I can," Leo replied, the darkness in his tone sending a shiver down Naomi's spine. "Because Dominic is currently in a federal holding cell awaiting sentencing for corporate treason, and the only reason he is still breathing is because I haven't decided which cemetery to bury him in."
Before Naomi could process the sheer brutality of his reality, Leo’s encrypted phone buzzed on the console between them. The caller ID flashed: MARCUS VALENTI.
The head of the rival syndicate.
Leo didn't answer. He silenced the call, but not before Naomi caught the look of predatory calculation that crossed his features.
"He knows," Naomi gasped, the blood draining from her lips as she pulled Lily closer. "Someone already told them about Lily."
May you like
Leo leaned back against the leather seat, his storm-gray eyes narrowing as the car turned onto the private cobblestone drive of his heavily guarded townhouse on 68th Street.
"Let them know," Leo murmured, his voice laced with lethal promise. "They're about to learn what happens when someone touches what is mine."
