But her cats are still here. Rose would never leave her cats behind.
My phone is already in my hand when Ottavio’s name lights the screen.
“Boss,” he calls, and his tone is off. Tight. “We’ve got a problem.”
I don’t bother pretending otherwise. “Talk.”
“One of the perimeter cameras caught a vehicle leaving five minutes ago. Didn’t trigger the alarms. Slipped clean through.”
My jaw locks. “That’s not possible.”
“It shouldn’t be,” he agrees. “But it happened.”
I’m already on the move before he finishes the sentence, heading for the security room. Screens bloom to life as I step in,feeds lining the walls. Ottavio is already there, rewinding footage with quick, efficient movements.
“Show me.”
The video plays.
A dark sedan rolls through the outer gate like it belongs there.
But I know it doesn’t.
“Zoom,” I snap.
Ottavio does.
The image sharpens just enough for the face in the passenger seat to resolve. Pale. Familiar. Smiling like he’s enjoying himself.
The room goes very still.
“Son of a bitch,” Ottavio mutters.
One of the Pavlov brothers.
“Merda!”I roar.
Of all the ways this could have gone wrong.
Heat floods my chest, fast and violent. My hands curl into fists, nails biting into skin. “How long?”
“Less than three minutes on the grounds,” Ottavio says. “In and out. Whoever did this knew the schedule.”
This is on me. I left her alone. I was cruel to her, and sent her to pack without so much as a single guard.
I turn away from the screens and start pacing, back and forth across the security room, my steps sharp against the floor. Anger wants somewhere to go, but it keeps collapsing in on itself, turning sour.
I hear my own voice in my head.Wait outside.Cold. Final. Like a door slammed without warning. I see her face again when I said it—how she nodded, how she didn’t fight me, how she left like she was used to being sent away.
I drag a hand through my hair and curse under my breath.
It’s up to me to fix it.
“Boss,” Ottavio says, and there’s a hesitation in his voice I don’t like. “There’s something else. I ran a background on her.”
“You did what?”
“On my own initiative,” he adds quickly. “After the first incident. I wanted to know if there was anything we missed.”
