THE MAFIA BOSS’S FIANCÉE CALLED A DEAF WAITER A THIEF—THEN A MAID SIGNED ONE QUESTION, AND THE BOSS SAID, “TRANSLATE HIS ANSWER.”

The silver watch felt like ice in the palm of my hand.

My brother, Mark.

He was a good man. He worked hard, paid his taxes, and minded his own business. He didn't belong in the basement of a mafia mansion, and his watch certainly didn't belong in the hands of a traumatized eight-year-old boy.

“Anna?” Luca asked gently.

He had stood up, still carrying Leo in his arms. The boy had his face buried in Luca’s neck, exhausted and terrified.

Luca looked at the watch in my hand. “Whose is that?”

I couldn't breathe. If I told the truth, Luca might think Mark was helping Vanessa. In this world, suspicion was a death sentence.

“I… I don't know,” I lied. My voice cracked.

Luca’s eyes narrowed. He was a man who spent his life reading lies. He stepped closer.

“Let me see it.”

I hesitated, but I had no choice. I handed him the watch.

Luca turned it over. Engraved on the back, faded but legible, were the initials M.R.

Mark Rossi. Our real last name. The name we hadn't used since we moved to Chicago.

Luca froze.

He looked at the initials. Then he looked at me.

“M.R.,” Luca said softly. “Rossi. You told Mrs. Carter your last name was Miller when you applied for this job.”

My stomach plummeted. “It is Miller. Now.”

“Rossi is the name of the family that controls the docks on the South Side,” Luca said, his voice tightening. “The family we’ve been at war with for a decade. Are you a Rossi, Anna?”

“No!” I panicked. “We aren't part of the cartel! My father changed our name to Miller to get us away from them! My brother and I have nothing to do with the mob!”

“Your brother,” Luca repeated. He looked at the watch, then at the boiler tools on the workbench. “The deaf HVAC technician. His name is Mark.”

I nodded, tears spilling down my cheeks.

“Where is he tonight, Anna?”

“He… he finished his shift at five. He was supposed to go home.”

“He didn't go home,” a voice said from the doorway.

We both turned.

Standing at the bottom of the concrete stairs was Daniel, the deaf waiter. He had followed us down.

He raised his hands and signed, his face grave.

I saw him. After my shift started at six.

I translated, my hands shaking so badly I could barely form the words.

He was in the garden, Daniel signed. Two men in suits were holding him. They put him in the trunk of a black car.

“They took him,” I whispered, clutching my apron. “Vanessa’s men took my brother.”

Luca set Leo down gently. “Stay behind me, buddy.”

He looked at Daniel. Then he looked at me.

“Vanessa didn't just lock Leo in the chute,” Luca deduced, his mind working brilliantly, terrifyingly fast. “She needed a scapegoat. Someone to take the blame for kidnapping the heir. A disgruntled contractor working in the basement.”

“She framed Mark,” I sobbed. “Because he’s deaf. Because he wouldn't be able to defend himself against her lies. She was going to kill Leo and blame my brother.”

Luca’s face hardened into a mask of pure, violent rage.

He pulled a phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

“Bring Vanessa down here,” Luca ordered into the phone. “Now.”

Two minutes later, the heavy basement door opened. Two guards dragged Vanessa down the stairs. Her red dress was torn at the hem. She looked wild, desperate.

They threw her onto the concrete floor.

She looked up and saw Leo hiding behind Luca’s leg.

Her face completely crumbled.

“Luca, please,” she begged, crawling toward him. “My father made me do it! The Bellini family is bankrupt! We needed the Moretti empire, but we couldn't take it as long as Leo was alive!”

“Where is the HVAC tech?” Luca demanded.

Vanessa wept, shaking her head. “It’s too late! My father’s men took him to the rail yards. They’re going to plant the ransom money on him and leave his body on the tracks. You can't stop them, Luca!”

I let out a gut-wrenching scream. I lunged at her, but Luca caught my waist, pulling me back.

“You’re going to die for this, Vanessa,” Luca said coldly.

Vanessa laughed—a broken, hysterical sound.

“Maybe,” she smiled through bloody teeth. “But I won't die alone. Look inside the watch, Luca.”

Luca frowned. He popped the latch on Mark’s silver pocket watch.

The face of the watch was missing.

Instead, packed tightly inside the small silver casing, was a tiny, blinking red light. Attached to a heavy lump of gray putty.

C4 explosive.

“My father isn't a fool,” Vanessa whispered. “He knew I might fail. So he gave the deaf boy a rigged watch before he dragged him out.”

The red light began to blink faster.