Chapter 92 Declaration of war
Sophia’s POV
I leaned in closer, my lips touching his ear seductively.
“Come home, Gavin,” I whispered. “Come home to me. To us. To where you belong.”
“The both of you absolutely irritate me.”
Gavin’s voice cut through the music like a blade. He reached for his water glass, lifting it to his lips in a way that made my skin prickle. He took a sip, set it down, and the cup made barely a sound against the table.
Everything about him was calm and controlled, like a coiled spring waiting for the perfect moment to release.
“And you keep pushing me to the wall again and again.”
Giovanni shifted beside me, his rings catching the dim light as he swirled his brandy. He was smiling, but I could see the tension in his jaw. He thought he had the upper hand here. We both did.
We were wrong.
Gavin placed his palm over his face, rubbing his temples like we were giving him a headache. For a moment, just a moment, I thought maybe we were getting through to him. That the pressure was finally showing cracks in that impossible armor he wore.
Then he looked up.
His eyes locked with Giovanni’s, and the temperature in the room dropped.I’d seen Gavin angry before. I’d seen him cold, even cruel when the situation demanded it. But this was different. But what was that look? I want to run away from here.
Giovanni held his gaze. Five seconds then ten before he looked away, his eyes dropping to his brandy glass.
The fuck, Giovanni Moretti had never looked away from anyone in his entire life. His father had raised him to be a king, to bow to no one, to meet every challenge with absolute confidence. I’d seen him stare down cartel bosses, Russian mob leaders, even Zeus himself.
But he couldn’t hold Gavin’s gaze.
Gavin reached into his jacket with movements so smooth they seemed almost lazy. He pulled out a cigarette…He lit the cigarette, took a long drag, and smoke curled from his lips as he looked at both of us through the haze.
“I’m taking over all the ports your family controls.”
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
Giovanni’s smile vanished. “What?”
“You heard me.” Gavin tapped ash into the crystal ashtray on the table. “Every port from Miami to New York. Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk. All of them. They’re mine now.”
I felt my heart rate spike. The ports weren’t just valuable…they were the foundation of the Moretti empire. They had billions in revenue, both legal and otherwise, flowed through those docks. Weapons, drugs, people, legitimate cargo that needed to disappear from manifests. Everything.
“That isn’t possible,” Giovanni said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. The charm had completely evaporated now, replaced by the cold killer his father had trained him to be. “My family has controlled those ports for generations. Since before you were even born.”
“That was before you thought you could threaten me.”
Gavin leaned forward, and I saw something flicker in his eyes. Not anger. Something colder than that. Something that made my blood freeze.
“I warned Zeus. Twenty years ago, I walked away and asked to be left alone. I gave up everything…the power, the money, the life. All of it. And the only thing I asked in return was to be forgotten.”
He took another drag of the cigarette.
“But you couldn’t do that, could you? Zeus couldn’t resist. And then you…” he looked at me, and I felt pinned by that gaze like a butterfly on a board, “…you thought you could waltz back into my life and play the same games we played twenty years ago.”
“Gavin…” I started.
“I’m not finished.”
His voice didn’t rise. It didn't need to. The command in those three words was absolute.
I closed my mouth.
Giovanni stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the hardwood floor with a harsh sound that made me flinch. His hand moved inside his jacket, reaching for the gun I knew he kept in a shoulder holster.
The gunshot was deafening.
I screamed, my hands flying up to cover my eyes as I jerked backward. The world seemed to tilt. My heel caught on something and suddenly I was falling, my dress tangling around my legs as I crashed to the floor.
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard the bullet punch through wood. The door behind Giovanni now had a hole the size of a quarter. But Gavin hadn’t moved.
His hands were visible on the table, the cigarette still burning between his fingers. The shot had come from outside.
Giovanni stood frozen, his hand still inside his jacket, his face drained of color as he realized someone else had fired. One of Gavin’s men, positioned somewhere in the restaurant. Somewhere we couldn’t see. Couldn’t reach.
We couldn’t touch him. We couldn’t even get close to him.
“You should sit down,” Gavin said calmly, like he was suggesting Giovanni try the wine. “Or the next one goes through your hand instead of the door.”
Giovanni’s jaw clenched, rage and humiliation warring across his features. But he sat. Slowly.
I scrambled to my feet, my dress was scattered, my carefully styled hair falling into my face. My hands were shaking. I pressed them against my thighs to hide it.
“I guess we’re down to four families now,” Gavin said.
“You’re insane,” Giovanni hissed. “You kill me, my father will…”
“Your father will do what? Declare war?” Gavin leaned back in his chair, completely relaxed. “He already did that e. So let’s be very clear about where we stand, Giovanni.”
Giovanni’s hands were clenched into fists on the table. “Watch your back, Gavin. When I’m done with you, you won’t have anywhere to crawl and hide. I’ll deal with you so terribly you’ll regret ever…”
“Are you done?”
The question was almost gentle. Polite, even.
But it cut Giovanni off mid-sentence like he’d been slapped.
Gavin stood, his movements were unhurried. He walked to the door and opened it, looking at the bullet hole.Then he walked out, the door closing behind him with a soft click.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Giovanni sat frozen, his face pale with rage. I could see his mind working, trying to figure out how everything went wrong.
“We need to leave,” I whispered. “Now.”
Giovanni nodded slowly.