Chapter 4
When she believed nobody was watching, she occasionally leaned against a wall and closed her eyes, breathing shallowly and quickly before forcing herself upright and attacking the dirt again. Zo tested her. He needed to know whether his paranoia was justified. On a Tuesday afternoon, he deliberately left $10,000 in banded hundred-dollar bills on the entryway console table. A careless mistake for a careless man. Zo Rossi was not a careless man. He sat in the adjoining room with a newspaper raised and watched her through the reflection of a gilded mirror. Tessa dusted the table. She picked up the stack of cash. She wiped the polished wood underneath it. Then she placed the money exactly where it had been. She did not pause. Her breathing remained steady. She did not even look at the money with longing. To her, it might as well have been a paperweight.
The following day, Zo left a secure USB drive beside his laptop. It looked important because it was important. Tessa dusted around it. She did not touch it. That evening, Gabe entered Zo’s study while Zo poured 2 drinks. Gabe took a glass and lowered his massive frame into an armchair. “Boss. Docks are quiet. The shipment from Palermo cleared customs.” “Good.” Zo took a slow drink. “The maid on the third-floor rotation.” “Tessa?” Gabe paused with his glass halfway to his mouth. The sudden transition from international smuggling to domestic staffing clearly caught him off guard. “The skinny one? Agency hire. We vetted her a month ago. She’s clean. Boring, even. Doesn’t talk to the guys. Doesn’t gossip in the kitchen. Why? Did she break something? I’ll have her replaced tomorrow.” “No.” Zo’s voice was flat. “Don’t replace her. Don’t say anything to her.” Gabe studied him. “You think she’s a problem?” “I think she leaves at 7:00 every night.” Zo looked toward the security monitor. “She doesn’t eat.”
