Chapter 9 - THE HOUSE WITH TWO TRAITORS
They searched Rafael’s security office.
Behind a false panel in the wall was a steel case.
Inside were three passports.
Two guns.
A stack of cash.
The real Bellandi necklace.
And photographs.
Dozens of them.
Nico’s father leaving his doctor.
Lucia dropping Tomas at preschool.
Nico eating dinner beside a window.
Teresa attending church.
The family had not merely been infiltrated.
They had been studied.
One person at a time.
Each photograph had a date.
Some had handwritten notes.
Routine.
Medication.
Driver.
Entrance.
Weak point.
Then we found mine.
A picture of me leaving my mother’s house.
My blood went cold.
On the back:
D. ELLISON’S DAUGHTER. USE IF NECESSARY.
My father’s survival had made me part of the plan.
They had not hired me intentionally.
But when Rafael discovered who I was, he kept me close.
A ready-made scapegoat.
If anything went wrong, the poor maid with a missing father and a mother who repaired jewelry would become the thief.
That was why he had the rosary.
That was why the watch ended up in my pocket.
Nico stared at the photograph.
“You were never random.”
“No.”
My voice sounded far away.
Serafina stood several feet behind us.
She looked sick.
“You knew?”
I asked her.
“No.”
“Did you know who my father was?”
She shook her head.
“Rafael kept his own files.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps their own secrets in this house.”
No one disagreed.
Inside the steel case was also a small notebook.
Not Rinaldi codes.
Rafael’s.
He had planned to take the Bellandi vault for himself.
The Rinaldis would believe Nico stole it.
The Bellandis would believe the Rinaldis had it.
The two families would go to war.
While Rafael disappeared with enough money to live under any name he wanted.
Nico looked toward Serafina.
“Your father sent a man into my house who planned to rob both families.”
Serafina’s voice was quiet.
“My father always believed fear created loyalty.”
“Apparently not.”
Then an alarm sounded.
The locked room.
Rafael.
By the time we reached it, one guard was unconscious.
The window was open.
Rafael was gone.
And Tomas was missing.
Serafina went white.
“No.”
Nico became something I had not yet seen.
Not a mafia boss.
Not an angry brother.
A man whose entire family had been reduced to one terrified six-year-old boy.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Rafael’s voice came through the speaker.
“Bring me the necklace.”
Nico’s hand tightened.
“If you hurt him—”
“I don’t want the boy.”
A pause.
“I want the vault.”
Serafina stepped closer.
“Rafael.”
Silence.
Then he laughed.
“Serafina.”
“You leave Tomas alone.”
“You’re still doing that?”
“Where is he?”
“Bring the necklace to the old Bellandi warehouse.”
He ended the call.
Nico looked toward his men.
Serafina said,
“It’s a trap.”
He looked at her with pure contempt.
“You would know.”
She accepted that.
Then she said,
“I know the warehouse.”
Nico stopped.
“Rafael used it for Rinaldi meetings years ago. There is a rear service tunnel from the river side.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I met him there.”
Nico said nothing.
Serafina’s eyes filled.
“I can get you inside.”
He looked at the woman who had been sent to kill him.
The woman who had helped murder his family.
The woman who had also shot her own partner rather than let him kill Tomas.
Trust was impossible.
May you like
But time was worse.
“Show me.”
