Chapter 6 - The Latin School Incident
At 8:15 AM on Monday morning, the drop-off line at the Latin School of Chicago was a sea of luxury SUVs, pristine town cars, and harried mothers in designer activewear. The rain had cleared, leaving the air crisp, cold, and smelling of wet asphalt.
Dominic’s armored black sedan pulled up to the curb, two security vehicles positioning themselves perfectly to block the line of sight from the surrounding alleys. Hawk stepped out first, his hand resting near his coat lapel, his eyes scanning the rooftops with the practiced regularity of a secret service agent.
Dominic opened the door, stepping onto the concrete. He wore a dark charcoal overcoat over his suit, his face an unbending mask of indifference. Sophia stepped out after him, her yellow rain boots hitting the pavement with a loud, distinct thud. She was rolling her purple suitcase behind her, completely ignoring the school backpack Felix had bought her, which was currently stuffed with her three plastic dinosaurs.
"You don't need the suitcase for school, Sophia," Dominic said as they walked toward the brick entrance.
"The suitcase stays with me," Sophia said, her small fingers clutching the handle tightly. "Mama said if you leave your things in a car, someone else takes the wheels."
Before Dominic could respond, a black delivery van pulled sharply out of the traffic lane, bypassing the school’s security barriers to park directly across the crosswalk. The side doors slid open with a loud, mechanical screech.
Three men in gray work uniforms stepped onto the pavement, their movements too fast, too coordinated to be delivery drivers. The leader, Bruno, moved straight toward Sophia, his hand reaching out to grab the handle of her purple suitcase.
"Hawk!" Dominic roared, his voice cutting through the morning school noise like a gunshot.
In less than a second, the drop-off line turned into a tactical perimeter. Hawk tackled Bruno into the side of the delivery van, the sound of bone hitting sheet metal echoing across the brick plaza. Briggs stepped in front of Sophia, his weapon drawn but held low against his thigh, his body completely obstructing her from the street.
The other two men from the van tried to advance, but Dominic didn't step back. He didn't wait for his guards to handle the threat. He took three long, aggressive strides forward, caught the second man by the throat, and slammed him down across the iron hood of a parked Mercedes with a force that shattered the car’s decorative hood ornament.
"Tell Carlo Valetti," Dominic whispered into the man’s bleeding ear, his grip tightening until the man’s face turned a mottled, dark blue, "that if a single one of his people enters this zip code again, I won't audit his bank accounts. I’ll liquidate his family."
The third man from the van looked at Hawk, looked at Dominic, then scrambled back into the driver's seat, hitting the accelerator before his crew could even get back inside. The van tore down the street, its rear doors swinging wildly against the frame.
The surrounding parents were screaming, rushing their children inside the school doors. But Sophia hadn't moved an inch. She stood behind Briggs, her purple suitcase still firmly in her hand, her dark eyes watching Dominic as he straightened his charcoal overcoat and wiped a small smear of grease from his cuff.
She walked over to him, her yellow boots squeaking on the pavement. She looked at the shattered Mercedes hood ornament, then looked up at his face.
"You looked at your watch before you hit him," Sophia said, her voice small but perfectly level.
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Dominic looked down at her, his breathing steady, his heart rate completely under control. "Rule number two, Sophia," he said, his voice dropping into that quiet, absolute gravity. "When someone tries to take your suitcase, you don't let them have the handle."
Sophia didn't answer. Instead, she reached out, her small, cold hand sliding into his large palm, her fingers wrapping around his thumb with a grip that was surprisingly strong for a five-year-old child. "Mama was wrong," she whispered as they walked into the school lobby. "You aren't scared. You're just loud."
