Chapter 3 - THE HOUSE WITH LOCKED DOORS
At eight the next morning, a black sedan waited outside Sophia’s building.
She almost didn’t get in.
Then she looked at the threatening message again.
Ten minutes later, she was headed toward Brooklyn Heights.
The Moretti house wasn’t a house.
It was a fortress pretending to be a mansion.
Stone walls.
Iron gates.
Security cameras tucked beneath old-fashioned lamps.
Men with jackets too heavy for the weather.
Enzo, Dante’s security chief, met her at the door.
He was broad, forty-something, and looked permanently disappointed in humanity.
“Phone.”
Sophia held it tighter.
“No.”
“It gets scanned.”
“Why?”
“Because people occasionally try to kill my boss.”
Sophia stared.
“That happens enough that you have a procedure?”
Enzo’s face didn’t move.
“Phone.”
She handed it over.
Elena Moretti was waiting in the kitchen.
She had refused breakfast.
She had refused coffee.
She had apparently threatened to throw a nutritionist down the stairs.
The moment Sophia walked in, Elena said, “Finally.”
Sophia checked the clock.
“I’m seven minutes early.”
“Exactly. Finally.”
Sophia smiled despite herself.
By lunchtime, Elena was eating.
By afternoon, she was telling Sophia stories about Sicily.
By evening, she had decided Sophia’s hair was too dark to wear tied back.
“You look severe.”
“I’m working.”
“You look like a prison librarian.”
“Those exist?”
“They should.”
Dante entered the kitchen.
His tie was loosened.
There was dried blood on his cuff.
Sophia saw it immediately.
“What happened?”
Dante glanced down.
“Nothing.”
“That doesn’t look like nothing.”
Elena didn’t turn around.
“If he says nothing, someone got punched.”
“Mama.”
“If he says business, someone got threatened.”
“Elena.”
“If he says misunderstanding, call a lawyer.”
Sophia looked at Dante.
He sighed.
“Someone tried to break into one of our warehouses.”
“And?”
“It was handled.”
She hated that phrase.
It was handled.
Men like Dante used words like that when the real answer had too much blood in it.
Later that night, Sophia found him alone in the library.
He was wrapping his right hand.
“You’re terrible at that.”
He looked up.
“So I’ve been told.”
She took the bandage.
“You punch people often?”
“Less than people assume.”
“That is not reassuring.”
She wrapped his knuckles.
There was a cut beneath his thumb.
Dante watched her hands.
“Why did you sell your grandmother’s bracelet?”
Sophia stopped.
“You really did investigate everything.”
“I told you.”
“That bracelet was none of your business.”
“No.”
“Stop agreeing when I’m angry. It’s annoying.”
“All right.”
She tightened the bandage deliberately.
He didn’t flinch.
“My dad needed money,” she said.
“Your father always needs money.”
Sophia’s eyes hardened.
“Careful.”
Dante nodded.
That was the first time she saw it.
Restraint.
He could have mocked Anthony.
Could have reminded her what her father had done.
Instead he said, “I’m sorry.”
Sophia finished the bandage.
As she stepped away, the lights went out.
The entire mansion dropped into darkness.
Then the security alarm screamed.
Enzo’s voice exploded from the hallway.
“DOWN!”
Dante grabbed Sophia and pulled her behind the heavy desk.
A second later, glass shattered upstairs.
Sophia’s heart slammed against her ribs.
“What was that?”
Dante reached beneath the desk and pulled out a handgun.
Sophia stared.
He looked toward the door.
“Stay behind me.”
Footsteps thundered upstairs.
Then Enzo shouted from the hallway.
“Dante!”
“What?”
“We’ve got a breach.”
A pause.
May you like
Then Enzo said the words that changed the night.
“Someone opened the gate from inside the house.”
