Chapter 3 - The Broken Jaw of Richard Vale
With a single, effortless jerk of his shoulder, Luca threw Thomas Vale across the room.
The younger man flew through the air, crashing into the antique oak armoire, shattering the mirrored doors before slumping unconscious onto the floor among the broken glass.
Luca stepped out of the suite into the hallway.
He stopped three inches in front of Richard Vale.
He towered over the sixty-one-year-old shipping magnate, his shadow completely blotting out the ambient sconce light.
“You came into my house,” Luca said softly, his hands resting easily at his sides. “You sat at my banquet table. You drank my wine.”
“Luca, please! We are business associates! My logistics firm handles sixty percent of your grain freight—"
“You put your hand on Emma’s waist downstairs,” Luca continued, as if the man hadn't spoken at all. “And then you sent your nephew upstairs to batter a nineteen-year-old child because my fiancée told you this family traded women for contracts.”
Richard Vale backed away, his heels hitting the wall. “Vanessa arranged it! She showed me the agency roster! She said the Sullivan girls were indebted and compliant!”
Luca slowly drew back his right fist.
He didn't swing wild. He didn't lose control.
With clinical, bone-shattering precision, Luca drove his heavy, scarred knuckles directly into the center of Richard Vale’s jaw.
CRACK.
The sound of shattering bone echoed through the corridor like a dry branch snapping under an iron boot.
Richard Vale’s head snapped sideways, his teeth and a spray of dark crimson exploding across the wallpaper before his body collapsed onto the carpet like a wet coat.
The older man curled into the fetal position, clutching his shattered face, groaning through a mouth full of blood.
Vanessa screamed, pressing both hands against her mouth, stumbling backward until her spine struck the banister.
“Luca! My God! You’ve killed him! He sits on the municipal port commission!”
Luca didn't look down at the bleeding billionaire.
He pulled a silk handkerchief from his breast pocket, carefully wiping the specks of red from his scarred knuckles before dropping the cloth directly onto Richard Vale’s face.
He turned his gray, predatory eyes onto his fiancée.
“Daniel.”
Daniel stepped up beside him, his weapon lowered, his face rigid as flint.
“Boss.”
“Drag Richard and Thomas Vale down to the holding vaults beneath Pier 14,” Luca commanded smoothly. “Strip their phones, their wallets, and their shoes. Hand them over to Assistant United States Attorney Marcus Vance when the federal task force arrives at midnight.”
He looked at Vanessa.
May you like
“And bring Miss Bellini into my private study. It is time to review the accounts.”
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