I considered. "Maybe. I don't know yet."
"That's fair." Bianca turned to leave, then stopped. "Paola? Be careful. Whoever the spy is—they're close to Cesare. Close enough to hurt you both."
"I know."
"Watch everyone. Trust no one."
Just before midnight, Giulio called. Urgent but controlled.
Cesare answered on speaker. "What?"
"We have movement. At the safe house location. Vehicle approached, two occupants, professional surveillance sweep."
My breath caught. The safe house was Luca's information.
"Luca?" Cesare asked, voice tight.
"Not confirmed yet. The vehicle was registered to a shell company. We're tracing ownership now. But boss—they knew to check for surveillance. This isn't amateur hour."
"Anyone else make a move? The bank? The document location?"
"Nothing. Just the safe house."
So either Luca was the spy, or someone Luca told, or—
"Could Luca have been compromised without knowing it?" I asked. "Someone monitoring his communications?"
Possible. In this world, anything was possible.
"Keep watching all three locations," Cesare ordered. "And Giulio—I want surveillance on Luca himself. Where he is right now, what he's doing, who he's talking to."
"On it."
Cesare ended the call, gray eyes far away as he calculated the possibilities.
"One test isn't enough," he said. "The safe house got attention, but that doesn't definitively prove Luca is the spy."
I agreed, but before I could respond, Cesare's phone buzzed again.
Another unknown number. Another text.
You're getting warm. Keep looking. But here's a hint: the spy isn't who you think it is. And by the time you figure it out, it'll be too late. Enjoy the weekend. Monday is going to be... eventful.
We stared at the message.
"How do they know?" I asked, a chill running down my spine. "We just set the traps hours ago. We're in a hospital room. How does whoever's sending these know we're investigating?"
Cesare's face went dark. "Either they're watching us directly—"
"Cameras? Bugs in the hospital room?"
"Possible. Or—" His jaw clenched. "—someone in our inner circle is reporting our every move. Someone who knows about the traps we set."
My stomach dropped. "Giulio knows. Rocco knows. The cousins themselves know their own information."
"And whoever the spy is, they're telling Viktor everything. Including that we're trying to flush them out." Cesare looked around the hospital room with new suspicion. "We need to assume every conversation is compromised. Every plan is known."
"Then how do we catch them?"
