Chapter 7 - The Confrontation in the Study
BANG!
The heavy oak doors of Matthias Savelli’s grand study were thrown open so hard they slammed against the wood-paneled walls.
Inside the room, seven senior syndicate capos, along with Julian Vance, sat around a long mahogany conference table covered in tactical maps and financial ledgers.
Matthias sat at the head of the table. He instantly stood up, his hand dropping to the custom Kimber pistol holstered at his hip.
Clara stumbled into the room, her dark hair wild, her chef's apron torn at the shoulder, her chest heaving violently as she gasped for air. She was bleeding from a small cut on her temple where a piece of flying glass had grazed her.
"Clara!" Matthias roared, his heart leaping into his throat at the sight of her blood. He moved around the table in a flash, catching her before her knees hit the Persian rug.
"What happened to you?!" Matthias demanded, his hands grasping her waist, his grey eyes burning with an apocalyptic rage.
"Matthias..." Julian Vance said smoothly, standing up from his chair with an annoyed sigh. "The cook has clearly lost her mind. Guards, remove her immediately!"
"Don't you dare touch her!" Matthias barked, his voice echoing like thunder through the room.
Clara gripped Matthias’s lapels, shoving the bloody, ink-stained papers straight against his chest.
"Read them, Matthias," Clara gasped out, her eyes shining with fierce, triumphant determination. "Read the transfers. Look at the signatures!"
Matthias snatched the papers from her hands, his sharp eyes scanning the financial documents in a microsecond. His face went from dark anger to an absolute, terrifying mask of icy death.
He looked at the Panamanian account numbers. He looked at Colette Dane's receipts.
And then he looked at Julian Vance.
"Odette remembered the ring, Matthias," Clara said, her voice carrying across the silent, frozen room. "The black stone. Square. Large. The man who poisoned your mother wasn't an outside enemy. It was the man who was stealing millions from your family."
Every capo at the table slowly turned their heads toward Julian Vance.
Julian’s face went dead white. His hand twitched toward his inner jacket pocket—
SNAP.
Matthias moved faster than the human eye could follow.
He pulled his Kimber .45 and fired a single, devastating shot straight through Julian’s right hand.
BLAM!
Julian shrieked in agony as his hand—along with his square black onyx ring—was completely shattered, sending him crashing backward over his leather chair, blood spraying across the polished wood floor.
At that moment, two guards dragged a weeping, terrified Colette Dane into the room, shoving her onto her knees beside the bleeding accountant.
Matthias didn't look at the traitors on the floor.
He stepped over Julian’s groaning body, reached down, and picked up the shattered black onyx ring from the floorboards. He tossed it casually into the roaring fireplace, where it vanished into the white-hot coals.
He walked back to Clara, who was leaning exhausted against the edge of the heavy desk.
The seven capos sat in utter, petrified silence as Matthias Savelli—the most feared crime boss in the city—dropped to one knee in front of his curvy, blood-stained cook.
He pulled a clean white silk handkerchief from his pocket and gently, tenderly, wiped the smudge of blood from her cheekbone.
"You saved her," Matthias whispered, his voice shaking with a deep, primal emotion that none of his men had ever heard before. "You saved my mother."
"I told you I wasn't going to fail, Mr. Savelli," Clara murmured with a faint, beautiful smile.
May you like
Matthias stood up, reaching down to take her warm, soft hand into his. He pulled her flush against his broad chest, placing his arm around her waist in a firm, possessive grip that announced her new status to every man in the room.
"Clear this trash out of my house," Matthias ordered his capos, pointing a cold finger at Julian and Colette. "And bring the family doctor to my quarters. Now."
