Chapter 8 - The Confrontation in the Courtyard
Two weeks later, Dante Conte arrived at the Amalfi estate. He didn't come with a polite delegation this time; he arrived with four armed bodyguards and a face carved out of pure fury. He strode through the front gates as if he owned the place, stopping in the center of the grand stone courtyard.
I stepped out onto the second-floor balcony, looking down at him with a cup of espresso in my hand.
"Dante," I called out, my voice carrying clearly across the open space. "You're a long way from the canals of Venice. Did you get lost?"
Dante looked up, his jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth might crack. "You humiliated me, Nicolo. You walked out of a two-hundred-million-euro meeting over a phone call. The council is laughing behind our backs."
"Then you should join them in the laughter," I replied calmly, taking a sip of my coffee. "Because you won't be doing business with me ever again."
"You think you can cut me out?" Dante sneered, gesturing to his men. "I know about your internal problems. I know your man Salvo was—"
"Salvo is in international waters," I interrupted, cutting him off completely. "And your shell companies in Genoa have already been frozen by the maritime authority. Matteo sent the files to the prosecutor this morning."
Dante’s face went completely pale. The bravado evaporated from his posture in a single second. "You... you investigated us while we were negotiating?"
"I investigate everyone, Dante," I said, leaning against the balcony railing. "Especially men who think they can use my own house to steal from me."
His bodyguards instinctively reached for their holsters, but Matteo and a dozen of my men stepped out from the shadows of the colonnade, their weapons drawn and aimed with absolute precision. Dante realized in an instant that he was completely outmatched.
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"Get off my property, Dante," I said coldly. "And if I ever see you in the south again, I won't just freeze your accounts. I'll bury them."
Without another word, Dante turned on his heel, motioned frantically to his terrified guards, and bolted back toward his vehicles, speeding away before the dust could even settle.
