Chapter 5 - ALLIANCES OF CONVENIENCE
The estate was on total lockdown. Snipers on the roof, guards at every door. The Rossi family had drawn first blood, and the streets of Chicago were about to run red.
I called a meeting of the Five Families in the underground vault of my nightclub. The air was thick with cigar smoke and tension. Antonio Rossi sat across from me, a smug, venomous smile on his face.
"You took my daughter, Hale," Rossi spat. "You think hiding her in your bed protects you? Give her back, and maybe I let you keep your southside territory."
I leaned forward, planting my hands on the table. "Your daughter is my wife. She wears my ring and she carries my name. In our world, that makes her mine to protect. You so much as look at her direction, and I will burn your empire to ash."
"She's a traitor!" Rossi yelled, slamming his fist down.
"She's a Hale now," I replied coldly. "And I don't negotiate with dead men."
I walked out of the meeting knowing I had just triggered an all-out mob war. When I returned home, Emma was in Oliver's room, reading him a story. She looked up as I entered, her eyes searching mine.
"He wants me dead," she stated simply.
"He wants you back to sell you to the Russians," I corrected. "But it's not going to happen."
She stood up, crossing the room to stand inches from me. "Why are you doing this, Preston? You could have handed me over. It would have stopped a war."
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"Because you kept a promise to my dead wife," I said softly, reaching out to brush a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "And because my son needs a mother. And maybe... because I'm tired of the quiet."
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