Chapter 11 - The Hostile Takeover
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At nine-fifteen the following morning, Vance Hollis stormed out of the private elevator on the fortieth floor of the Hollis Logistics Tower, flanked by three corporate attorneys. His phone had been ringing nonstop since dawn. Every single one of his cargo vessels in the Port of Providence was sitting idle, the longshoremen refusing to touch a single container, and his primary commercial credit line at Citizens Harbor Bank had just been frozen pending an emergency audit.
"Get the governor on the phone!" Vance barked at his secretary as he pushed through the double glass doors of his executive suite. "Someone is orchestrating a wildcat strike on my berths, and I want state troopers—"
Vance stopped dead on the Persian carpet.
Sitting behind Vance’s antique mahogany desk, calmly pouring himself a cup of espresso from a silver carafe, was Dante Ferraro. Standing beside the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the bay was Delaney Marsh, dressed in a sharp black leather jacket and dark jeans, her bruised knuckles resting lightly in her pockets.
"Dismiss your lawyers, Vance," Dante said pleasantly, setting the porcelain cup onto its saucer. "Unless you want them subpoenaed as co-conspirators in an attempted murder-for-hire involving Captain Richard Miller of the Providence Police Department."
Vance’s face turned the color of wet ash. He waved a shaky hand behind him.
"Wait outside," Vance told his legal team. "Close the doors."
Once the heavy glass locks clicked shut, Vance stepped toward the desk, trying to summon the bluster that had bullied city councilmen for thirty years.
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"What is the meaning of this, Ferraro? We have had an arrangement on the docks for a decade—"
"We had an arrangement until ten-thirty last night," Dante interrupted, spinning Vance’s laptop around on the desk. On the high-resolution screen, the rooftop security footage played on a silent loop: Preston ripping Noel’s blue silk dress, followed by Delaney snapping his arm. "And then at two o'clock this morning, you sent two hitmen after the woman who stopped your son from doing worse."
