I entered the first set of numbers into the hidden mechanism—nothing. My chest tightened. I tried the second, swallowing hard, each attempt louder in my own head than it really was.
Click.
The sound reverberated through the hollow of the fireplace, so small and yet so enormous it seemed to shake the air around me. My heart stuttered, then raced, the thrill of it coursing through every vein. I’d done it. The code had worked.
I pressed my palm flat against the loosened brick, a tremor of disbelief running through me. After all the obsessive nights, the scratching dates, the endless wondering—it hadn’t been madness. It had led somewhere.
My hand trembled as I pried the brick loose and set it aside. When I pulled it free, I found a stack of papers, bound tightly together with small metal hooks, as if someone had gone to great lengths to keep them orderly—and hidden.
It was too dark to make out the words in the cramped space of the fireplace. I wriggled back out, coughing against the dust as my knees scraped the hearth. Ash streaked my hands, my shirt, even my hair, scattering onto the polished wooden floor like I’d just rolled in it.
“You’re covered in soot,” Felix said, his voice threaded with amusement. His eyes lingered on me like he was enjoying the sight a little too much.
“Don’t care,” I said, holding up the documents. “Look!”
Felix’s smirk faded the moment he saw what I was holding. His eyes darkened as he reached for the papers.
We crouched side by side on the floor, his presence tight and unyielding next to me, and he began flipping through the stack with deliberate precision. Each sheet he examined made his jaw tighten slightly, the amusement completely gone. The weight of his focus pressed against me, and even in the thrill of discovery, I felt the danger he carried radiating through every line of his body.
It was a stack of ledgers, every page filled with numbers, calculations, and annotations that made my head spin. I could barely make sense of a single line, let alone the full scope of what I was looking at.
Felix’s eyes, however, moved over the pages with an ease and precision that made my own confusion sting. He muttered under his breath occasionally, his brows knitting as he traced lines,connected dots, and analyzed figures in a way I couldn’t even begin to follow.
I leaned closer, trying to catch a word, a hint, anything that could anchor me in the overwhelming tangle of numbers. But mostly, I just watched him work, the heat of his focus pressing in alongside the thrill of discovery.
“What does it mean?” I hesitantly asked.
Felix didn’t answer immediately. He flipped through the pages again, eyes dark and unreadable, lips pressed into a thin line. Finally, he looked up at me, the weight of his gaze making my chest tighten.
“It’s just a guess right now,” he said, his lips set in a firm line. “But it seems like a lot of money went missing in our family. My grandmother was keeping track of it. But I don’t know why she wouldn’t just tell someone.”
“Why wouldn’t she tell anyone?” I whispered, more to myself than to him.
Felix’s gaze darkened, unreadable and intense. “Sometimes people keep secrets to protect themselves, or to protect others. Doesn’t make it any less dangerous.”
The mystery wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. But for now, we were headed forward.
Chapter 25
Felix
Even though I had a mystery in the house and missing money to find, there was always other business to attend to. Like today. We found out one of the men who sold our product on the streets tried to work with a rival gang and sell some secrets. And men like that? We had to make an example out of them.
“I don’t know why you came,” I said to Dino as I heated the poker in the fire. “You aren’t cut out for things like this.”
“It’s not that I’m not cut out for things like this,” he said, swiveling in a chair further back. “It’s just that I don’t like to get my clothes dirty.”
That was a lie. Dino had more than enough money to replace his obscenely expensive suits, but I knew it wasn’t the clothes that mattered. It was the control and fear he inspired.
“So what’s on the torture menu today?” Dino asked as he watched the man struggle against his binds.
His name was Alonzo Papini, and he had been a loyal dealer for us. I wasn’t sure what had made him decide to share intel with the Russians, but now, he was paying the price.
“I guess you’ll be in for a surprise,” I said, letting the sarcasm slip through despite the tension in the room.
Dino’s eyes flicked to me for a fraction of a second, sharp and assessing, before returning to Alonzo. I could feel the weight of my presence pressing down, a quiet warning that whatever surprise was coming, I was in charge—and that thought made a thrill run through me.
Alonzo’s hands twitched at his sides, like he wanted to run but couldn’t. Tears welled in his eyes, and I felt a dark thrill tighten in my chest. He had made a mistake—a costly one—and now he was going to understand just how serious crossing me could be.
