Chapter 3
The line went dead with a hollow click.
Alessandro set the receiver back in its cradle. He turned to Emily. "Lock this door from the inside. Do not open it for anyone unless you hear three taps, a pause, and two taps. Do you understand?"
Emily nodded frantically, pulling Zoe closer to her chest. "Mr. Romano... please be careful."
Alessandro didn't answer. He slipped out of the room, pulling the door shut until the deadbolt engaged.
He didn't take the main staircase. He used the narrow maintenance corridor built behind the mahogany paneling—a feature known only to the Romano bloodline. Within two minutes, he was inside his private study on the second floor.
The room smelled faintly of rain and expensive tobacco.
The heavy drapes were untouched. Alessandro approached his mahogany desk. Behind the oil painting of Lake Como, the biometric wall safe remained flush against the plaster.
He swung the painting aside. The keypad was dark, but the mechanical release lever had been tripped.
The safe wasn't cracked. It had been unlocked cleanly.
Inside, the stacks of emergency cash and bearer bonds were completely untouched. The emerald necklace that belonged to his late mother was still in its velvet case.
Only one item was missing: the leather-bound ledger containing the private off-grid addresses belonging to his missing brother, Julian.
Alessandro’s jaw tightened. If Vance had the cipher, why steal Julian's old addresses? Julian had been declared legally dead after his car plunged off the Skyway bridge three years ago. There was nothing left in those houses except dust.
A faint scuff of leather against parquet made Alessandro turn.
He drew his firearm in a single fluid motion, leveling it toward the study's french doors leading out to the balcony.
No one was there. But lying on the wet Persian rug just inside the doorframe was a burner phone, its screen lighting up with an incoming text.
Alessandro crouched, keeping his back to the wall, and picked up the phone using his silk handkerchief.
The message on the screen read:
*The girl is on the third floor. Take her out through the kitchen before he finds the ledger.*
Alessandro’s blood turned to ice.
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They weren't here for the Romano money. They weren't even here for him.
They were here for Zoe.
