CHAPTER 3
"Wait! Please! You don't know who I am!" Bradley gasped, his voice cracking with sheer, unadulterated terror as he was forced down onto his knees beside our table. "I'm a senior partner at Hayes Financial! I have political connections in this city!"
Leo didn't even turn his head to look directly at him; instead, he casually reached for my cloth napkin and gently wiped a stray drop of sauce from my chin.
"You speak too loudly in rooms you do not own, little man," Leo said quietly, his scarred thumb lingering softly against my warm skin for a brief second. "You walked into a bakery this morning and insulted a queen who carries my legacy inside her."
Bradley’s eyes darted frantically from Leo’s cold, emotionless expression to my face, dawning realization washing over him like an icy bucket of water.
"Chloe...?" Bradley stammered, his jaw trembling violently as he looked at my sweater-covered stomach with newfound, absolute horror. "You... you're with Leo Moretti?"
"She is under my protection," Leo corrected, his gaze finally shifting down to meet Bradley's terrified eyes with the weight of a death sentence. "And every word you uttered to her today was a direct insult to the Moretti family name."
Bradley’s blonde date sat frozen at her table across the room, clutching her pearls in silent horror, completely afraid to move or speak a single word.
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Leo reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a sleek, gold-plated fountain pen and sliding an empty linen napkin across the table toward Bradley.
"Write down the name of your firm, your personal bank accounts, and your residential address," Leo commanded with chilling calm. "By tomorrow morning, you will no longer exist in the financial district of Chicago."
