“That’s a lie,” I said. “I had an inspection last month. We passed with a perfect score.”

“Standards change,” Julian said smoothly. “City inspectors can be very thorough when they want to be.”

“In fact, I believe an emergency closure order was just posted on your front door ten minutes ago.”

My breath hitched in my throat.

“You can’t do that,” I whispered.

“I don’t do anything, Madeline,” Julian said. “The city does.”

“But I can make it all go away.”

“Tell Clara to meet me at the estate tomorrow morning,” he said. “Otherwise, your livelihood is gone.”

The line went dead.

I sat in the dark car, the phone pressed to my ear, listening to the dial tone.

“What did he do?” Nora asked, watching my face.

“He shut down the bakery,” I said. “He had corrupt city inspectors issue an emergency closure.”

Nora swore under her breath, hitting the steering wheel with her palm.

“He’s leveraging everything we have to force Clara back to him,” I said.

“We need to get to a safe place,” Nora said, turning the key in the ignition.