Chapter 13 - THE THREAT FROM THE FRINGES
The ocean breeze carried a sharp, salty tang as we stood together beneath the canopy of twinkling stars, wrapped in the quiet stillness of the cliffside terrace.
"Penny for your thoughts," Matteo murmured, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind and resting his chin comfortably on my shoulder.
"I was just thinking about how strange life is," I confessed softly, leaning back against his chest. "A week ago, I was just an ordinary baker fighting off morning exhaustion and bad commercial leases. Now I'm dining with syndicate matriarchs and holding the keys to half the real estate in the city."
"You were never ordinary, Emily," Matteo corrected gently, turning me around so I was facing him directly in the moonlight. "You just hadn't found a challenge big enough to match your fire yet."
Before I could formulate a witty retort, the heavy glass door behind us slid open with sudden, alarming velocity.
Sofia burst out onto the terrace, her face pale and her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps.
"Uncle Matteo," Sofia stammered, holding up her tablet computer with trembling hands. "You need to see this security feed right now."
Matteo's relaxed demeanor vanished instantly, his body snapping into high-alert tactical mode as he stepped in front of me and grabbed the tablet from his niece's hands.
"What is it?" Matteo demanded, his voice dropping into a cold, lethal register.
"A perimeter sensor just tripped at the lower gatehouse," Sofia explained rapidly, pointing at a flickering security feed showing the dark winding driveway. "It's not the feds, and it's not our regular staff. It's a lone vehicle belonging to Viktor Vance — Morosco's former enforcer who managed to slip out of the initial sweep."
A cold knot formed tightly in my stomach.
"He's here?" I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"He's acting out of pure, desperate vengeance," Matteo said, his jaw clenching so hard a muscle twitched violently in his cheek. "He thinks if he eliminates us, he can reclaim the remnants of the fractured syndicate."
"How many men does he have with him?" Matteo asked, his eyes locked on the monitor.
"Just himself in an unmarked sedan," Sofia replied, her voice steadying as she looked up at her uncle. "He bypassed the main gates using an old maintenance code, but our interior motion sensors caught him parking near the western greenhouse."
Matteo handed the tablet back to Sofia, turning his head slowly to lock eyes with me for a fraction of a second.
"Stay inside the secure suite with Sofia and lock the reinforced doors," Matteo commanded, his tone brook-zero-argument absolute.
"Like hell I'm staying locked in a room while you walk into an ambush," I fired back, my stubborn temper flaring up with blistering heat. "I didn't survive a bag of flour and a midnight break-in just to sit in a closet while you play action hero."
Matteo stared at me for one agonizing heartbeat, recognizing the absolute impossibility of convincing me otherwise.
A faint, helpless smile tugged at the corner of his mouth despite the gravity of the situation.
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"Fine," Matteo conceded, reaching inside his jacket to pull out a compact, snub-nosed security radio and handing it to me. "Stay behind me at all times, keep the radio on, and if I tell you to run, you run."
We moved together through the dimly lit corridors of the estate, heading toward the western greenhouse where the intruder was attempting to infiltrate the grounds.
