“I just translated some banking documents.”
“You identified the money trails that led us to their safe houses. Without that, those girls would still be trapped.”
The praise warms me more than the morning sun streaming through the kitchen windows.
For the first time in my life, I’m using my skills for something meaningful, something that actually helps people instead of just generating profit.
We finish breakfast discussing cribs and nursery colors, ordinary concerns of ordinary parents preparing for their first child. The normalcy feels precious, worth protecting at any cost.
After breakfast, we move to Alaric’s study to review the week’s business. I settle into the chair across from his desk, spreading contract files between us while he makes phone calls to various operations.
“The Portland situation is resolved,” he tells me after ending a call with Benedetto. “Three more trafficking operations obliterated.”
“Any word on Marco?”
“Nothing. It’s like he vanished completely.”
I frown. “That’s not like him.”
“No. It’s not.”
Marco’s disappearance weighs heavily on both of us. Three weeks without contact from someone who used to check in daily when he was out of the country. The silence feels ominous.
“Maybe he’s lying low until the Dante situation resolves,” I suggest.
“Maybe.”
But I can see the worry in Alaric’s expression. Family loyalty runs deep in this world, and Marco’s sudden absence raises questions neither of us wants to voice.
A knock on the study door interrupts our afternoon work session. Benedetto enters without waiting for permission, his expression grim and a tablet clutched in his hands.
“We have a problem,” he announces.
Alaric looks up from the shipping contracts we’ve been reviewing. “What kind of problem?”
“Security issue. I’ve been analyzing surveillance data from the past three weeks, and we have a pattern that’s…concerning.”
He sets his tablet on the desk between us, the screen showing a grid of camera feeds and incident logs.
“Camera malfunctions in sectors seven, twelve, and fifteen,” Benedetto begins, scrolling through the data. “All lasting exactly two hours, all during different shift changes.”
“Technical glitches?” I suggest, though something cold is already forming in my stomach.
“That’s what we thought initially. But look at the timing.” He points to time stamps on the screen. “Every incident occurs precisely when our patrol schedules rotate. Someone knows our security protocols intimately.”
Alaric leans forward, studying the information with sharp focus. “How long has this been happening?”
“Three weeks. Started right after we returned from Vegas.”
“And you’re just reporting this now?”
“I wanted to confirm the pattern before raising alarms. Could have been equipment failure, but…” Benedetto swipes to another screen. “There’s more.”
“What else?”
“Motion sensors triggered in areas where cameras went dark. Perimeter alarms disabled for exactly the same two-hour windows. And my security teams have reported seeing figures near the tree line—always just beyond clear identification range.”
The chill in my stomach spreads through my entire body. Someone has been watching us, learning our routines, testing our defenses while we believed we were safe.
