THE MAN LISTENING

The silence in the bedroom was suffocating.

I stared at Luca, my mind violently rejecting what he’d just said.

“A tracking beacon?” I whispered. “That’s impossible. My mother has had that bracelet for thirty years. It’s an antique.”

“The silver is antique,” Luca said grimly, walking to the window and peering out into the darkened courtyard. “The clasp is not. I had my security team modify three family heirlooms last year when the threats against my family escalated. Vanessa was given one. My sister was given one before she died. And the third was kept in my private vault.”

He turned to face me.

“Until last week, when it went missing.”

I couldn't breathe.

“Vanessa planted it on me?”

“She planted it on you, knowing you would take it home to your mother’s apartment,” Luca explained. “It gave Rossi a false location for my inner circle. And it gave Vanessa the perfect scapegoat. If the tracker was found, you would be accused of stealing from the vault.”

My knees felt weak.

I reached for the edge of the dresser to steady myself, the sharp pain in my back momentarily forgotten.

Vanessa had orchestrated this perfectly.

She had framed me, monitored my mother, and brought Victor Rossi—a man who had tried to kill Luca twice before—straight into the heart of the Moretti family.

“Why didn't you stop the dinner?” I asked, my voice shaking. “If Rossi is in the house, why aren't your men searching every room?”

“Because I don't know who Rossi has bought off,” Luca replied. “My head of security, Daniel, is the only man I trust implicitly. If I sound the alarm, Rossi will panic. And when Rossi panics, people die.”

Luca looked down at Leo’s crayon drawing again.

“Leo saw him in Vanessa’s room. That means Rossi isn't here to kill me tonight.”

“How do you know?”

“Because if he wanted me dead, he would have waited in my study, not Vanessa’s bedroom.” Luca’s eyes hardened. “He’s here for something else. Something Vanessa has to give him.”

Suddenly, the doorknob rattled.

Both of us froze.

A tiny knock echoed from the base of the door.

Luca quickly crossed the room and opened it.

Leo stood there, clutching his stuffed bear. He looked up at his uncle with wide, frightened eyes.

“Uncle Luca,” the boy whispered. “The scary man left his coat.”

Luca knelt down to his nephew’s eye level.

“Where, Leo?”

“In the mudroom. By the kitchen.”

Luca looked up at me.

“Stay here. Lock the door.”

“No,” I said immediately.

Luca frowned. “Claire—”

“Vanessa already caught me alone once,” I said, forcing myself to stand up straight despite the agony in my spine. “If someone is coming for me, I want to be where you can see it.”

For a second, I thought the mafia boss would argue.

Instead, he nodded once.

He picked Leo up with one arm, resting the boy against his chest, and gestured for me to follow.

We moved silently down the back staircase.

The engagement party was still going in the main hall. We could hear the faint sound of a string quartet playing classical music, oblivious to the deadly game happening just rooms away.

We reached the mudroom.

It was dark, smelling of rain and leather.

Hanging on the last hook in the shadows was a massive, heavy winter coat with a thick fur collar.

Exactly like the one in Leo's drawing.

Luca set Leo down behind me. “Stay with Claire.”

He approached the coat slowly.

He didn't touch the outside. Instead, he reached into the inner breast pocket.

His hand emerged holding a small, silver rosary.

It was heavy, tarnished, and deeply familiar to Luca.

But it was what was tangled in the silver chain that made Luca go completely still.

It was a pair of train tickets.

I stepped closer, squinting in the dim light.