Page 207 of Merciless Daddy

“Sal.”

“Look at me.”

She did.

Her face had gone pale. Fear sat behind her eyes, but anger was stronger.

“That manager trusted me,” she said.

“I know.”

“My father is using my own company against me.”

“I know.”

“I need to call him.”

“No,” Serafina said sharply.

Yelena looked toward the screen.

“Not yet,” Serafina continued. “He wants you emotional. He wants you to threaten him or plead. We need his statement preserved as evidence of coercion.”

Pietro stepped closer to the screen.

“There is one smaller problem.”

I disliked the way he said smaller.

“A driver assigned to Kiryl missed a scheduled check-in last night,” Pietro said. “He returned forty minutes later with bruised ribs and an explanation I do not believe.”

Yelena’s breath stopped.

“Kiryl?”

“Safe,” Pietro said at once. “He was inside the ranch with Tonio. The driver has been removed from duty. He is isolated.”

“Is he hurt?”

“No.”

“Did anyone get near him?”

“No evidence of that.”

Pietro’s face stayed calm. Too calm.

“There is no proof of betrayal,” he said. “But I do not like the gap. I do not like the story. We are treating it seriously.”

Yelena looked at me.

The old panic began to rise in her. I saw it in the way she pulled her hand from mine. In the way her eyes searched the room for an exit, a phone, a task that could turn fear into something she could control.

“Serafina,” I said. “Lock down every clean company Yelena controls. No transfers without dual authentication.”

“Already in motion.”

“Angela, begin the injunction response. I want every record of Yelena’s independent work. Every authorization. Every decision she made before and after leaving Gianni.”