Chapter 4 - The Truth in the VaultWalter Pruitt collapsed flat onto his face on the floorboards, weeping pathetically as he clutched his hands together in groveling terror.
"Don Lorenzo! Please! Forgive me!" Pruitt wept. "Three years ago... after Kira's parents died... I took a fifty-thousand-dollar loan from Mario Valenti to keep the shop open! I couldn't pay the interest! They forced me to use the shop basement to store smuggled cargo coming off the riverfront!"
Kira gasped, her hazel eyes widening in utter, horror-stricken shock. "Walter...?! You used our shop to store smuggled goods?!"
"I had no choice, Kira!" Pruitt sobbed. "If I didn't agree... they threatened to burn the building down with you and Ethan upstairs!"
Lorenzo’s storm-gray eyes turned ice-cold.
He looked over his shoulder at his chief bodyguard, Marco. "Take Walter Pruitt and these three men to the security wing at Pier 19. Let the Valenti family know that 4th Street is officially under Moretti protection."
"Yes, Don Lorenzo," Marco bowed, dragging the four men out into the rain.
Lorenzo turned back toward Kira and Ethan. He reached out his broad, warm hand, gently setting a thick leather key card flat onto the mahogany counter.
"Your apartment above this shop is no longer safe, Kira," Lorenzo spoke gently, his deep voice carrying a solid, unshakeable authority. "Mario Valenti is a desperate man who is losing his hold on the riverfront. He will try to use you to leverage my foundation."
Kira looked at the key card, then up into Lorenzo's dark face. "Mr. Moretti... we can't accept this. We don't belong in your world. We're just..."
"You are the sister of the Anna Moretti medal winner," Lorenzo interrupted smoothly, his long fingers gently touching the back of her hand on the counter. "My mother established that foundation to protect young people who fought for their education. You spent ten years fighting for your brother, Kira."
May you like
He stepped closer, his broad frame shielding her from the draft coming through the shattered window.
"Now," Lorenzo promised softly, his storm-gray eyes holding hers with an unbroken weight, "it's my turn to protect you."
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