ent went out

him at her shoulder, his hand at the small of her back because Fausto had said it needed to look real

omposed in t

inutes in front of a m

d one, the one she should have turned off, the one she had kept on because D

me was on

answ

ipping hello entirely,

orning,

he same Lorenzo De Luca who we have spent

our voi

nt." She could hear him moving, pacing, the specific

appening? A

e force you

e forc

oking at a photograph of you standing next to the man and you look... you loo

ers to her eyes. "I

mpletely. I do

nte

." His voice drop

disappear for five years. I know what you were doing. I'm not stupid, Val. I knew about the training. I knew about the planning. I said nothing beca

ightened. "I

"That's the part th

of the east wing. The ga

n you give me three weeks without a

le

?" he said ag

es

mise

omise

onger. She could h

finally. "Then I want

" she said.

hun

and thought about how much she had just promise

alled a

on the old phone. She looked at it for one ring. Two

t she could feel the stillness of him... that particular quality he

" he said

on speake

oncerned. Textbook. "My love, I've b

orry, it's bee

l careful pause. "I saw th

med you

in the world who truly had your interests at heart. "Is this your choice? Genuinely your choice? Because if some

ightened. Not dramatically

he knew how to carry a lie when it was necessary. "I know how it looks. I understand the shock. But I've been investiga

e on t

y of his silence. A calcu

u find?" he

tain. Like a woman still processing. "I want to talk to you about it. When I'm

rmth was still there but something undern

ourse, my love. Whenever yo

she said.

ded th

was comple

d the uncertainty. He thinks y

e phone on the desk.

ur. Cross-checking. Looking for anything that contradicts what you just told him." He

r d

man she had married on paper forty-eight hour

ove faster than fo

lieutenants. The six men who run every operation under this family." He paused. "Th

ll they

cts a difficult truth. "Some of them will think I've lost my mind.

ha

arefully, "might already

ared a

walk into a room where one o

y," he sa

on't know

t y

his man who kept handing her g

ly, "a normal person would

them all see you. We watch who reports back to

d that. She was the variable he w

as... this time

ow and she was going to watch every face in it and

r father's

at finding thing

he said.

crypted phone to go.

ren

ooke

ld his gaze. "I want to know everything about him. Where

dy in

co makes one move toward my family before we

oss the room with th

n't,"

le

men waiting for tomorrow. One of them a traitor. All of them dange

felt sorr

mo