“Two million.” He doesn’t phrase it as a question.
Elena shrinks under his attention. “I didn’t know who it was. I swear.”
“But you took the money anyway.”
She has no answer for that.
“Lorenzo,” Dante calls, voice carrying.
Lorenzo appears from wherever he was waiting. Always close when Dante needs him.
“Put her in one of the guest suites. Guards on the door. She doesn’t leave the compound.”
“I’m not a prisoner,” Elena protests, voice thin.
“You’re not a guest either.” Dante’s voice is cold. “You’re a liability and a loose end. Someone wanted chaos within my family enough to pay two million dollars for it. Until I know who and why, you stay where I can see you.”
His hand falls from my back as he steps toward the door. The absence of his warmth leaves a cold spot between my shoulder blades.
He pauses at the threshold. His eyes hold mine. Whatever is behind them, he doesn’t share.
Then he’s gone, calling for Renzo, already in motion.
Giada finds me in the hallway ten minutes later.
I’m leaning against the wall, eyes shut, trying to breathe through everything that just landed on me. Elena. The money. The conspiracy I can feel taking shape just beyond my reach.
“Hey.”
I open my eyes. Giada is standing in front of me, medical bag over her shoulder.
“You handled that well.” She squeezes my arm. Brief. Warm.
My jaw aches. I’ve been clenching it since Elena walked in.
“You’re white-knuckling that wall, you know.” She tilts her head toward my hands, pressed flat against the plaster behind me. Fingers splayed like I’m holding the house up.
I look down at them. She’s right.
“You don’t have to.”
She squeezes my arm once more. Then she’s walking back toward Elena’s room, and I’m alone in the hallway with my hands still pressed to the wall.
The guest room is cold. Impersonal. The sheets smell like nothing, like no one.
I sit on the edge of the bed.
His arm across my waist when he forgets to keep his distance.
That’s what I’m trying not to think about.
Someone paid two million dollars to sabotage his wedding. Someone is now trying to kill witnesses. And I walked in uninvited, unplanned, the accident that disrupted whatever they were trying to accomplish.
The questions circle as I lie in the dark, alone, listening for footsteps that don’t come.
Somewhere in this compound, there’s a traitor with two million dollars worth of motive.
And I’m going to find them.
