Page 111 of A Dangerous Kind of Love

Marco doesn’t hesitate. “How many.”

“Anyone who’s been close enough to know anything Donnelly had access to,” I say. “If there’s even a chance, they’re in the room.”

Luca shifts beside me, already working through the logistics. “You want them all together, or do you want to separate them and deal with them one at a time.”

“I want them together,” I say. “I want to see them before they have time to think.”

Marco nods once. “The dock warehouse gives us control over the space. We can manage entry and keep it contained.”

“That’s where we do it,” I say. “And we do it now.”

Luca glances at his watch, already calculating. “I can have them there in thirty minutes if I stagger the calls. No one gets enough time to compare anything before they walk in.”

“Do it that way,” I say. “No one speaks on the way. No calls between them. No stops.”

Marco pulls his phone back out. “Who am I calling first.”

“Start with Sal, then Enzo, then Adam,” I say. “After that, Nico, Matteo, and Christian. Anyone else who’s been near anything Donnelly had access to. If there’s even a chance, they’re there.”

“And if someone asks what this is about,” Luca says.

“They won’t,” I answer.

He nods once. “Understood.”

Marco is already dialing as he heads for the door. Luca follows him out, pulling his phone out as he goes.

The dock warehouse is already open when I walk in, the space wide and quiet, the air carrying the presence of the water outside. Luca is inside, standing near the entrance, watching the door as the first of the men start to arrive.

“They’re coming in spaced out,” he says as I step further into the room. “No one’s had time to talk.”

“Good.”

Sal walks in first, his attention sweeping the room before it lands on me. His posture tightens as he steps further inside, but he doesn’t say anything. Enzo follows, quieter, watching everything with a focus that tells me he’s already trying to understand what this is before it’s said. Adam comes in next, tension already set in his jaw, his eyes moving from Sal to Enzo before settling on me. Then Nico, Christian, and Gio.

No one speaks. I let the silence build. Long enough for it to settle into them, long enough for whatever they’re thinking to start turning over in their heads.

Then, I step forward.

“One of you made a decision,” I say, my voice even. “And it’s a decision you don’t get to walk back from.”

No one moves.

“If you’re standing here, you work for me. You operate under my name. You get paid because of what I built, and you move the way I tell you to move.”

My gaze slides down the line again.

“And one of you decided to fuck with that.”

I pause.

“You didn’t slip. You didn’t make a mistake. You made a choice,” I continue. “You decided you knew better. You decided you could take something that belongs to me and hand it off like it wouldn’t come back on you.”

Silence tightens.

“I’m not standing here to ask who it is,” I say. “I’m not interested in hearing excuses, and I’m not giving anyone the chance to lie to my face.”

I let that sit, watching them, letting the pressure build without pushing it.