Chapter 5 - The Girl They Thought Was Weak
Dominic arrived seven minutes later.
He looked at the photograph.
Then at Bella.
“You're coming with me.”
“No.”
“Bella.”
“This is my job.”
“The window is destroyed.”
“So I'll clean it.”
“Hale threatened my mother.”
“Which is why I'm not hiding.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“This isn't courage anymore.”
“What is it?”
“Recklessness.”
Bella stared up at him.
“And buying an apartment building overnight was what?”
His mouth tightened.
“Different.”
“Because you're rich?”
“Because I have men trained to deal with this.”
Bella looked around the café.
Customers were gone.
Calvin was sweeping glass.
“This place loses one week of business, Calvin can't make payroll.”
Calvin stopped sweeping.
Dominic looked at him.
“Is that true?”
Calvin sighed.
“Yes.”
Bella pointed at the broken window.
“That’s how Hale wins. He makes ordinary people too scared to resist.”
Dominic stared at her.
“What do you want?”
“Help me keep the café open.”
“You want protection?”
“I want plywood.”
He blinked.
“Plywood.”
“And someone who knows how to install glass.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“That's your plan?”
“It's 8:30. People want coffee.”
By ten, the window was boarded.
By eleven, Dominic's men had repaired the front door.
By noon, customers returned.
Four bodyguards sat awkwardly at separate tables drinking espresso.
Bella walked to Dominic's booth.
“Your men are frightening the customers.”
“They're protecting you.”
“One of them has been staring at the muffin display for forty minutes.”
“He likes blueberry.”
“Then tell him to buy one.”
Dominic looked toward the guard.
“Marco.”
The man immediately stood.
“Yes, boss?”
“Buy the muffin.”
Marco looked confused.
“The blueberry one?”
Bella walked away laughing.
Dominic watched her.
Isabella entered twenty minutes later.
Bella rushed toward her.
“You shouldn't be here.”
Isabella raised an eyebrow.
“Now you're grounding me too?”
Bella hugged her.
Isabella softened.
“I saw the window.”
“We're fine.”
“My son tells me you refused to leave.”
“Your son enjoys giving orders.”
“And you enjoy ignoring them.”
Dominic approached.
“This is why the two of you should never have met.”
Isabella smiled.
“I disagree.”
Then Calvin came from the back office.
“Bella.”
His expression was strange.
“What?”
“There’s a man here.”
Victor Hale stepped from the hallway.
Dominic's guards immediately moved.
Hale raised both hands.
“I came alone.”
Dominic's voice hardened.
“Bad decision.”
Hale looked at Bella.
“I want to talk to her.”
“No.”
Bella surprised everyone.
“Fine.”
Dominic turned.
“Bella.”
“In front of everyone.”
Hale nodded.
“Your café sits on another parcel I need.”
Calvin went pale.
Bella looked at him.
“You knew?”
Calvin avoided her eyes.
Hale smiled.
“I offered your employer enough money to retire.”
Bella stared at Calvin.
“How much?”
Calvin swallowed.
“Bella—”
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand.”
Silence.
Bella looked around the café.
Her café.
Not legally.
But emotionally.
Five years of opening shifts.
Burned fingers.
Christmas mornings.
Regular customers.
Calvin whispered, “I haven't signed.”
Hale placed a contract on the counter.
“Sign today.”
Dominic looked at Calvin.
“If you want to sell, sell to me.”
Hale laughed.
“There it is again. Romano solving everything with money.”
Bella suddenly looked at the contract.
“Wait.”
She picked it up.
“Bella,” Dominic said.
She ignored him.
Her eyes moved across the pages.
Then stopped.
“What is this?”
Hale's expression shifted.
Bella pointed to a paragraph.
“You're not buying the café.”
Calvin frowned.
“What?”
“You're buying the corporation that owns the café.”
Hale said nothing.
Bella kept reading.
“And the corporation owns the alley access behind this entire block.”
Dominic stepped closer.
Bella looked at him.
“That's what he needs.”
Dominic took the contract.
His expression changed.
Hale reached for it.
Dominic moved it away.
“Interesting.”
Hale's smile disappeared.
Bella looked at Calvin.
“Don't sign.”
Hale's voice became cold.
“This doesn't concern you.”
Bella looked directly at him.
“You broke my window.”
“Careful.”
“No.”
She placed the orange he had left that morning on top of the contract.
“You wanted me scared.”
Then she pushed it toward him.
“You picked the wrong café girl.”
Hale stared at her.
Dominic smiled for the first time.
Not politely.
Proudly.
Hale turned and walked out.
Dominic looked at Bella.
“You just found the piece I've been missing for six months.”
Bella shrugged.
“You should read contracts.”
Isabella laughed.
Dominic shook his head.
“You're impossible.”
Bella smiled.
“And yet you keep coming back.”
Their eyes held.
Isabella quietly took Calvin by the arm.
“Come.”
Calvin frowned.
“Where?”
May you like
“Away from these two before they realize what everyone else already has.”
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