"Yes, Rodrigo, be a good boy and don't argue," Giana said, fluttering her eyelashes and patting his cheek with her good hand.
Rodrigo caught it in his, his fingers locking on hers. The teasing light in her eyes vanished, turning into something he couldn't read. He rubbed his lips over the top of her knuckles before kissing her soft palm. "As my fiancée wishes."
9
"Let's get you access straight away, Giana. The more proactive we are, the better," Leo said, turning back to his laptop.
Her hand still burned with the imprint of Rodrigo's lips. She shouldn't have touched him. Now she knew what his face felt like, knew the way his eyes had widened in surprise before filling with a heat she hadn't expected.
"If it's okay with you, Giana, I would like to do a quick check to make sure there was no magical influence placed on you," Kon said, appearing beside her.
"You think that's a possibility?" she asked.
"With what I have seen in the past few months, trust me, you don't want magical crabs," Dante chimed in from his place beside Leo.
Giana's eyes widened, and she laughed despite herself. "No one needs crabs of any kind. Go ahead, Kon."
Kon's warm, calloused fingers pressed against Giana's temples. Light flickered in his eyes, there and gone in a flash. "No marks. No traces. Good. The men who took you used ordinary methods."
Kon looked at Rodrigo and gave him a small nod. "She's okay, I swear."
"Thank you," Rodrigo replied, his shoulders softening.
Giana was going to ask what that was all about when Leo cleared his throat.
"You're in, Giana. All Colleoni network drives, encrypted comms channels, all the internal and external surveillance feeds, and the shared operational folder for this clusterfuck. Welcome to the madhouse,signorina." He shot her a wry look. "Try not to break anything vital while you're in our system, or if you do, make it look like Dario did it."
Dario scowled. "Really mature, Leo. I'm notthatbad with computers."
"You don't even run a VPN for your Pornhub account,idiota. I had to fix it before some scammer hacked us."
Giana ignored them, her focus already narrowing on the screen that Leo pivoted toward her. The sheer volume of data was staggering. There were financial dossiers, intercepts, satellite imagery, personnel files, and threat assessments.
She made a 'get up' gesture to Dario, who gave her his chair beside Rodrigo and passed her Leo's laptop. She flexed the fingers of her good hand, the pain in her left a constant reminder of the cost of ignorance.Never again.
"First move," she announced, her gaze scanning the files. "The engagement announcement. We need it out there before Vincenzo or whoever else gets wind of our suspicions through their own channels."
"How?" Rodrigo asked, his eyes never leaving her face. "You want us to do an announcement in the newspaper with little doves and roses?"
Giana rolled her eyes at him. "Don't be naive. We need the underworld to know instantly, and we need it to look official. Like a declaration of war wrapped in wedding bells." She tappeda finger on the table, her mind racing. "The Old Bazaar's dark web forum. It's the digital town square for our kind of people. Announcements like this? They're practically a tradition."
Kon raised an eyebrow. "You know the access protocols for the digital Old Bazaar? It's not exactly user-friendly, and you aren't in the magical relics scene."
Giana tsked. "Kon, please. The Old Bazaar is used for more than trading relics and books. It's about information, and if the families are worth their salt, they have people who know about it. Besides, I built a ghost virus that siphoned millions from Gabriella's offshore accounts while she was still breathing down my neck. I can handle an announcement on the Old Bazaar." She turned to Leo. "Do we have a secure terminal that's untraceable? Not this one."
"We have a spare in the server room next door," Leo said, already pushing his chair back. "Clean slate, isolated network. Dante, you mind?"
Dante, who had been watching the exchange with a quiet smile, shook his head. "Lead the way, love."
Giana pushed herself up from the table, a wave of dizziness washing over her. She gritted her teeth, refusing to show weakness.
Before she could take a step, Rodrigo was beside her, his hand hovering near her elbow, not quite touching.
"You should rest," he murmured.
"Later," she said, stepping away from his offered support. "Partners don't get carried to the server room, Rodrigo."
He held her gaze for a beat, then gave a curt nod before stepping back.
