Chapter 6 - The Trap at Midnight

Midnight at the abandoned municipal shipyard was a graveyard of rusting cranes, rotting wooden piers, and pitch-black shipping containers. The cold ocean wind whipped off the harbor, carrying the sharp scent of salt and decaying kelp.
Adrien Moretti stepped out of his black sedan, alone.
He wore a dark tactical turtleneck and a heavy wool overcoat, his right hand resting inside his coat pocket, wrapped around the grip of a suppressed Sig Sauer P226. He didn't bring Dante. He didn't bring backup. This was between him and Viktor Varga.
"I knew you'd come, Moretti!" Varga's voice echoed across the concrete docks, bouncing off the hollow hull of a rusted freighter.
Varga stepped out from the shadows of a towering crane, flanked by six armed enforcers holding automatic submachine guns. Varga looked pleased with himself, a cruel smirk twisting his scarred face.
"You're getting soft, Adrien," Varga taunted, walking in a slow circle around him. "Running errands for a baker? Interrogated by toddlers? What happened to the ruthless bastard who took over the North District?"
"Age teaches you what matters, Varga," Adrien said, his voice unnervingly calm. His eyes darted across the perimeter, calculating angles, escape routes, and sniper positions.
"What matters is power," Varga spat, his smile fading into venomous hatred. "And you took my shipping lanes. You took my docks. Now, I'm going to take everything else. I'm going to pay a little visit to Clara and her sweet little girls. I'll make sure they remember the name Varga before—"
Click.
The distinctive sound of a sniper rifle bolt cycling echoed from the top of the container crane directly above Varga.
Varga froze. He looked up, his eyes widening in panic.
Dante stepped out from the catwalk high above, holding a high-powered rifle with its laser sight locked squarely between Varga's eyes. At the same moment, twenty of Adrien’s elite syndicate enforcers emerged from the shadows behind Varga's men, their weapons raised and ready.
"You really thought I'd come alone, Viktor?" Adrien smiled coldly. "You mistake my domestic habits for weakness."
Varga’s face drained of color. "Hold on! Wait—"
"You threatened my family," Adrien interrupted, his voice dropping an octave into pure ice. "And in my world, that is a fatal error."
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The firefight was swift, brutal, and utterly one-sided. Within thirty seconds, Varga's men were disarmed and pinned to the concrete. Adrien walked slowly toward Varga, who was now kneeling in the dirt, trembling.
Adrien raised his pistol, pressed the barrel squarely against Varga's forehead, and whispered, "Tell hell I sent you."
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