birthday cards, on school notes, on the little messages Adrian used to leave beside my breakfa

ded like it came from a long w

n't k

lie t

efully. "The original was delivered to my office anon

nd

t says it is consisten

d gone numb.

kno

nd you a letter that

t I am tryin

worked himself half to death to keep me in school. When I was frightened he had stayed awake beside me, and when I cried he had promised n

"My brother would

t me that letter. Someone shut down my security system. Someone put a death co

hat frightened me almost as much as the

our family." His gaze held mine. "And I

ture, the payment, the midnight deadline.

you will have to be cl

ead I nearly smiled, and caught m

arkably difficult

r asked

He leaned forward, hands flat on the desk. "Tell me something. Did your father ever

N

hi

had overheard through a wall between my parents. And then, from underneath all of it, a small silver key. He had put it in my hand on my sixteenth birthday, three months b

Dante was watching

on changed so sharply that I knew I had sa

w. It vanish

else know

uneral, standing at my elbow while I tore throu

ey may open a safe deposit box your father kept under a fals

's in

He turned back. "Your father's solicitor. One of his former

was

recognised him at once. He had stood beside Adrian at my father's funeral and taken my hand in both of his. I co

said. "One of the last men

vibrate across the desk, and Adrian's name glowed on the

ria

"Isabella, do exactly wh

at Dant

e wit

es

hen get away

hy

ed your death. I have the original

ge on the desk. "But I al

has a second instruction on it,

nte had gone co

ruction?"

ly order you killed. He told the killer to ma

hing that would prove my brother wrong. Instead, very slowly, he reached beneath his

her is in

nshot followed it. And from the phone

ELLA,