The night was quiet. Too quiet.
The kind of quiet that didn’t bring peace, only suspicion.
I stood on the balcony of our bedroom, watching the moonlight drape itself across the courtyard. The guards moved in patterns below, black silhouettes against the pale marble. Every twenty seconds, soone switched position. It was routine, calculated. Yet sothing about it felt... off.
I’d built this house to be impenetrable, but lately, it didn’t feel like mine anymore. Every shadow looked like betrayal waiting to happen. Every whisper sounded like a warning.
Mira was asleep, her soft breathing barely audible behind . I’d tried to join her earlier, but my mind wouldn’t rest. Not tonight. Not when I could feel the storm closing in.
My phone buzzed once on the railing. I didn’t need to check the screen to know it was Tomas.
"Talk," I said quietly, gripping the phone.
"Boss," his tone was low and clipped, "we’ve got a situation."
I exhaled sharply through my nose. "Define ’situation.’"
"One of the newer guards tried to make a private call during duty. I had it traced. The line was encrypted — bounced through three locations before dying out."
"Who was he calling?"
"We’re still checking, but the pattern looks familiar. It matches a contact from Massimo’s network."
My grip tightened on the phone. "You’re sure?"
"Almost."
"Almost doesn’t cut it, Tomas."
"I know. But whoever it is, he’s smart. This wasn’t an ordinary call. It was coded. A sequence of numbers, like coordinates."
"Coordinates to what?"
"That’s what we’re trying to find out."
I went silent, thinking fast. My pulse throbbed in my temples.
There was only one thing worth tracing coordinates for — the vault.
"Has anyone been near the east wing?" I asked.
"I doubled security there like you ordered. But boss..." He hesitated.
"Spit it out." I was impatient.
"One of the n guarding that section went missing this evening. No one saw him leave, but his radio was found in the garden."
I swore under my breath. "You think Massimo’s people got to him?"
"Either that or soone inside let him out."
My mind flashed to what Donna said earlier to Mira earlier - Be careful who you trust. I overheard their conversation. Maybe she was talking to after all.
I ran my hand over my jaw and stared out into the darkness. "Lock down the entire estate. I want every exit sealed. If anyone tries to leave, you shoot first and ask later."
"Yes, boss."
"And Tomas..."
"Yes?"
"Co to the house. Now."
I hung up before he could respond.
Behind , I heard the soft rustle of sheets. Mira’s voice ca out sleepily. "Jace?"
I turned, forcing my tone into sothing gentle. "Go back to sleep, princess. It’s late."
She sat up, rubbing her eyes. "You’re pacing again."
"I just have a lot on my mind."
Her eyes studied , half-awake but sharp. "You don’t have to protect from everything, you know."
"I’m not," I lied smoothly.
She didn’t believe . I could see it in the way her shoulders tensed before she nodded. She was getting better at reading — maybe too good.
When she finally laid back down, I stayed where I was, staring at her. My wife. My constant reminder that there was still sothing pure left in my rotten world.
If anything happened to her because of this war, I’d burn everything down myself.
A knock sounded at the door twenty minutes later. Three slow raps. It was Tomas’s signal.
I slipped out quietly, making sure not to wake Mira.
He was waiting in the hallway, coat still on, eyes alert. "Boss," he greeted.
"Tell everything."
He handed a small device. It was a flash drive. "This was recovered from the missing guard’s locker."
I took it, slipping it into my laptop once we got to the study. Lines of code filled the screen — coordinates, encrypted data, and a single word written in Italian.
"Lastra." I read aloud.
Tomas frowned. "aning?"
"Slab. Stone." I looked up at him. "It’s not just a vault, Tomas. It’s a burial."
He blinked. "You an—"
"The docunt isn’t just paper. It’s a binding contract, yes, but also a record of blood. Every deal made, every secret alliance from my father’s ti — including the ones that never should’ve existed. If it gets out, the whole Italian network collapses."
"So that’s why Massimo’s desperate. He doesn’t want power. He wants leverage."
"Exactly. He wants to erase everything that ties his family to ours, to rewrite history like he was never my father’s puppet."
"And if he gets the docunt?"
"He’ll expose every na in there. Every family head. It won’t just ruin us, Tomas, it’ll start a war."
Tomas went quiet for a mont, processing the gravity of it all.
"Where is it now?" he finally asked.
I hesitated. "With soone I trust more than anyone in this world."
He arched a brow. "Mira?"
A smirk tugged at my lips, humorless. "She’s the one person I’d die before letting near that kind of danger."
He exhaled. "Then who?"
"You don’t need to know." My tone left no room for argunt.
He nodded once. "Alright."
We both turned at the faint sound of footsteps in the corridor. Too light to be a guard. Too cautious to be random.
I reached for my gun instinctively and gestured for Tomas to check the door.
He opened it slowly. Nothing. Just the faint sway of the curtains at the far end of the hallway.
"Probably the wind," he muttered.
But I wasn’t convinced. Not anymore.
We stayed up most of the night, reviewing security footage and tracing the encrypted ssage. Around 3AM, we finally hit sothing. The coordinates led to an abandoned port on the outskirts of Sicily. It was one of Massimo’s old smuggling routes.
He was moving. Gathering. Preparing.
I leaned back in my chair, running a hand through my hair. "He’s getting desperate."
Tomas nodded grimly. "And dangerous."
The thought of Mira sleeping upstairs made sothing primal stir in . The idea of her being anywhere near this chaos made my blood boil.
"Double the guards around her quarters," I ordered. "If anyone so much as breathes near that door without my approval, they’re gone."
"Got it."
When he left, I poured myself a drink and stood by the window, watching the first hints of dawn creep through the horizon.
Every ti I thought I was one step ahead, Massimo found a way to catch up. But not this ti. Not with the docunt still hidden where no one could touch it.
Still, the whisper in my head wouldn’t shut up — soone inside the circle has cracked.
I took a long sip and stared out at the fading night.
Let him co for . Let him bring his armies and his poison.
I’d burn every bridge, every man, every piece of this empire to ash before I let him take what’s mine.
And if it ca down to it, I’d start with the traitor hiding under my own roof.
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