Giana's instincts, honed by years under surveillance and sharpened by recent terror, screamed in warning. Her hand froze over the trackpad. The digital portrait of Rodrigo stared back at her from the screen.
She zoomed in frantically on the tiny feed window, replaying the last few seconds. The shadow didn't reappear. The service entrance area looked deserted under the weak glow of a security light.
One man is a coincidence. Rodrigo's rule echoed in her mind, cold and clear.
Two men are a pattern.
Three men are a plan.
Her gaze darted to the other feeds. The grand salon: Altun laughing now, Julian smiling indulgently, Silas, Iz, and Dante chatting.
The dining room: Leo still focused on his screens. The front entrance hall: empty. The corridors: quiet. No other anomalies. Just that single, fleeting shadow at the service entrance.
Coincidence? Paranoia gnawing at the edges of her exhaustion? Or the first whisper of the plan Vincenzo Falcone was undoubtedly hatching?
Giana stared at the screen, at the digital ghost that might be nothing or might be everything.
She didn't hesitate. She typed a message through the internal system to Leo about what she had seen and the camera it had been on. She sent it and looked at the camera in the dining room.
She watched Leo stop what he was doing and, a second later, got his response:Good catch. Someone is trying to leave the grounds undetected. Go to sleep,sorella. We will keep you safe. I will look into the person leaving and wake you if there is anything to report.
Sorella.Leo had called her sister. Giana rubbed at her temples. Her ex-fiancé was calling hersister.
"What the fuck is happening?" she muttered.
Seconds later, he was talking to Iz, and some of the tension disappeared from Giana's shoulders. They would find who had caused the shadow and see if they were a threat to her safety or not.
We will keep you safe.
Despite the promise, Giana still curled up on the couch, her eyes watching the feeds until the adrenaline fueling her all evening wore off. Darkness finally dragged her under, and she fell asleep cradling Rodrigo's pillow under her head.
21
Rodrigo stood in the cool, dim quiet of the hallway outside of the sitting area, the echoes of laughter and clinking glasses replaced by the low thrum of the villa's security systems and the frantic drumbeat of his own pulse.
Giana's perfume clung to him, tangled with the sensation of her mouth, and the desperate clutch of her fingers in his shirt. The whole night had left him raw and exposed.
The thought of facing her alone felt like walking into an ambush.
He had to remember that, onherpart, it was all a performance until she told him otherwise. He couldn't afford to forget the real reason they were playing this dangerous game. They needed to catch the bastards who were after her.
Someone had been caught trying to sneak off the Colleoni property, and he needed to know who. If he couldn't make Giana safe in his home, what chance did he have anywhere else?
Rodrigo found Leo exactly where he had left him, hunched over his laptop at the dining table.
Dante sat next to him, his arm draped over the back of Leo's chair. Iz was on a nearby sofa with Silas, turning ancient-lookingtarot cards and shooting him occasional looks of sympathy and amusement. He didn't dare ask.
"Anything?" Rodrigo asked, pulling out the chair opposite Leo.
Leo didn't look up immediately, still typing. "Still tracing the anomaly that Giana found. Service entrance, East Wing camera. Brief shadow."
"Giana's instincts are sharp," Rodrigo stated. "She wouldn't have flagged it had been a trick of the light."
"No," Leo agreed, his gaze returning to the screens. "She wouldn't."
He tapped a key, isolating a segment of the feed. The grainy image flickered, and the shadow was cleared to a humanoid shape, low and fast, moving from the villa toward the perimeter wall.
"Definitely someone trying to leave, not enter. Slipped through a gap in the patrol rotation, so he knew the timing."
