Page 117
I imagine what I would do if I were him—if she were my sister, and she told me she was safe, that she'd been hurt, that she'd been taken and abused, and that she's safe now but wouldn’t tell me where she is. I can feel his frustration from here.
She hangs up the phone, turns to me, and she's crying. “He's innocent. I don't care what Declan says. I don't care what anybody says. There's no way that man—”
“No.” I shake my head. “He definitely had nothing to do with it. Even the best actor couldn't pull that off. He loves you. He's innocent, and all the evidence points to that.” I wrap my hand around the back of her neck. “I wish I could say the same for Giuseppe and your father.”
My phone buzzes with a text from Declan.
Declan
We’re in.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
VALENTINA
It feels like the strangest of homecomings. I'm back on American soil, but this time, I'm not going home. No.
This time, I'm hunting monsters.
They haven't even changed the location of the auction. The same gleaming hotel towers over the harbor, all polished marble and expensive glass. Couples in designer clothes stroll through the revolving doors, carrying shopping bags and coffee cups, oblivious to the horror that lives beneath their feet.
I stare at the entrance for one second longer. Weeks ago, I walked through those doors drugged, starving, beaten down, and convinced I was about to die. Today, I walk in as a new woman, confident and ready to wield devastation.
Torin and I sit close, quietly holding a tablet between us. Blueprints fill the screen.
”Look, baby.” He zooms in on the ballroom level. “I need your expertise.”
I smile despite myself. “Oh?”
”You remember things other people don't. I need every detail, Valentina. Faces, voices, routes, anything that didn't fit.”
I nod. “I've been going over this. It's what I thought about the whole flight over.”
”I know.” His thumb brushes mine for half a second. “Trust yourself.”
A sharp knock bangs against the suite door.
”It's time,” Torin says in my ear.
Twenty minutes later, I'm standing in front of another mirror, only this time I'm choosing the dress, the makeup, the heels, and the woman looking back at me isn't hollow-cheeked anymore. I've gained weight, and my hair shines again. The bruises are gone, and in their place is my mother’s olive skin. The fear is gone too, though not completely.
A little bit of fear is useful, but it doesn't own me anymore.
”You ready?” Torin asks.
”No.”
He smiles. “Good answer, love.”
The ballroom looks exactly the same: the chandeliers, the string quartet, the champagne, and the monsters. If anything, there are more people tonight, more money, more security. No one knows we have the FBI, Interpol, the Irish authorities, and two mafia families closing in on them.
I adjust the tiny microphone hidden beneath my necklace. “You hearing me?” I whisper.
”Loud and clear,” Declan answers. My pulse steadies.
I drift through the crowd just like we rehearsed. I don't stare or rush. One waiter, two exits, three cameras. Security just changed shifts. Good.
Then I freeze.
