Chapter 10 - The Dawn Over the InletBy 4:00 AM, the mansion in Ventnor Heights was as quiet as a tomb.
Judge Arthur Thorne, stripped of his judicial robes, his municipal authority, and his political immunity, sat in the back of an unmarked black sedan flanked by two of my capos, headed west toward the railway station under a cold, starless sky.
The offshore ledger and the Moretti signet ring were safely back in my possession.
Maya and I stood together on the stone balcony of the master study, looking out over the dark expanse of the Atlantic as the first pale streaks of dawn began to bleed across the horizon, turning the ocean from black to bruised violet.
The freezing wind whipped our hair, but neither of us moved.
Maya had the oversized engineer’s coat wrapped tight around her shoulders, her hands wrapped around a fresh cup of coffee she had brewed in the judge's abandoned kitchen.
“You handled that like a seasoned capo,” I observed, breaking the silence as I leaned against the stone balustrade beside her.
Maya took a slow sip of her coffee, her seawater-colored eyes reflecting the rising sun.
“I’m an engineer, Dante,” she reminded me with a faint, knowing smile. “I know how to calculate load-bearing limits. Judge Thorne’s foundation was built on rotten pilings. It was bound to collapse the moment a real storm hit.”
I looked down at her profile—sharp, intelligent, and entirely unintimidated by the lethal world she had just stepped into.
“You saved my shipping monopoly tonight,” I said quietly. “Not to mention my father’s seal.”
“I saved my municipal transit project,” she corrected smoothly. “If your docks had gone under Cartier control, my structural expansion plans would have been scrapped by noon.”
“Call it whatever you like, Maya Lin.”
I reached out, my fingers gently touching the lapel of the oversized engineer's coat she refused to take off.
“It’s time to take off that coat,” I murmured.
Maya looked up at me, her breath catching slightly in the cold morning air.
“And what should I wear instead?” she asked, a spark of playful defiance in her eyes.
May you like
I smiled—a rare, genuine expression that reached all the way to my eyes.
“Whatever you want,” I said, pulling her close against the warmth of my chest as the sun broke fully over the Atlantic inlet. “As long as you stay right by my side.”
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