No one calls back and there’re no footsteps falling anywhere. With the quiet of the afternoon, and all the hard wood floors in this place, if anyone were walking around somewhere, I should be able to hear it.
“Nico?” I wince, unsure if I got his name right. He was always hanging around the house when I visited, but it could have been Nick not Nico.
Either way, only silence answers me. I relax my stance.
Tony’s office is at the back of the house, looking out at the in-ground pool in the backyard. The room is kept up as the rest of the house, no dust or papers strewn about.
After searching the desk drawers and finding nothing, I set my sights on the safe in the wall behind the books of the only bookcase in the room. Quickly, I stack the books on the floor and scour my memory for the code to the safe.
First I try the passkey that opened the front door. Two short beeps tell me I’m wrong. Next, I try his birthday—he loved his birthday. Every year he threw himself a huge party so everyone could pay him the attention and respect he told himself he deserved.
Two more beeps.
I try our father’s birthday, then our mother’s. Nothing.
Maybe he was dumb enough to write the code down somewhere. There’s nothing in the top desk drawer, under the desk blotter, or in any of the notebooks he stashed in the desk.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and realizing it’s been close to an hour since I’ve been here, I grab it. Kara’s probably halfway to JFK by now to get on a plane.
“Sienna.” Uncle Vicente’s way of snapping my name, startles me.
“Uncle Vicente.” I spin around toward the door, afraid he’s actually here with me in the room.
The doorway is empty.
“What do you think you’re doing, playing these games with the boy?”
“You shouldn’t have sent Dante here. You should have kept to the agreement you made with the Volkovs.”
“Are you telling me how to run this family?” I don’t need to be in the room with him, to see the snarl fixed on his paper-thin lips. It’s etched into my memory.
“I’m telling you to leave my nephew alone. Leave him out of all this. He’s only six years old.”
“He’s not your concern. Your brother didn’t want you involved in his upbringing. But, if you do what you’re told I’ll let you be a part of his life. How much is up to you.”
My eyes fall to the stack of books on the floor. Titles Tony never would have read but kept because he thought it made him look smart.
“You’re going to get that husband of yours to back off our business plans. You’re going to put that boy back at his own house with his caretakers. No more meddling. And you’re going to report back to me every week with any information you get on what your husbands plans are.”
He continues on, listing things that I would never do for him. All of them reek of betrayal to Kaz.
My gaze falls to the first book on the floor. It’s the thinnest book. A hardcover book with the title Moby Dick itched into the spine with golf foiling.
I don’t know a lot about the classics. In fact, I haven’t even read Moby Dick, but I don’t think the book was short. Even with the smaller print used in the past editions, this book is unrealistically thin.
“Are you listening to me!” If I were standing in front of my uncle, I suspect a bit of his spit would be on my cheek right now. The man is working himself into a rage.
“I hear you.” I kick the books away and pick up the suspicious volume. Flipping over the front cover, my heart sings.
It’s a ledger.
I don’t understand any of it, but I do understand the note stuck to the first page. A six-digit number is scribbled across the yellow scrap of paper.
“I have to go.” I click off the call and shove the phone into my pocket.
Wiggling my fingers, I stare at the buttons on the keypad. This has to work. It just has to.
I punch in the code.
