Page 91 of Little Dove

The wall gives nothing away so I pull the fire extinguisher off and start moving my hand over the shelf. The top is smooth,not a single blemish or mark on it, but the minute I move my hand underneath, I feel it. A slant, and then a small hole, barely big enough for a finger, but that’s all it takes. I press my finger inside, and I feel a tiny little lever. I freeze and look up at Massimo. He narrows his eyes, but gives me a nod to go ahead.

I take a shallow breath, and I pull.

At first, nothing happens, but then a soft click sounds, followed by shocked gasps. Massimo and I whirl around and watch in awe as my cabinet moves just ever so much. The girls jump back, while Massimo moves quickly, shoving the cabinet away. It’s not bolted to the wall so he moves it with only a little bit of difficulty, and then he looks at the crack in the wall. One that would have been a bit more obvious if the shelf wasn’t in the way. “Stay here,” he orders, pulling his gun. I move to stand with the other women as he carefully opens the door, gun raised as he steps inside.

We wait, gripped by tension, until finally he comes back out, his expression unreadable. “I need to get the others. All of you stay here and stay out of there,” he orders.

“Is it dangerous?” Gia asks, sounding frightened.

“No, it’s not dangerous, but this is something that the others need to see.” Then he hurries out, barking orders at the guards.

“He’s crazy if he thinks we’re not going in there.” Sofia scoffs. “Come on.” We all approach the door, our curiosity too high to just stay out here.

Sofia eases in first, and I follow her, anxious to see what’s inside. The room is lit by a simple lamp on the desk, and the shadows have me swallowing hard. I really wish we had a better light, but I’ll be fine. The room isn’t large, about a quarter of the size of the salon, but enough that a desk sits in here, covered in papers and what looks like maps and journals.

It smells musty, and there’s a stale scent of perfume. Something trapped in here for a very long time. Sofia and Roripull out their phones and shine lights around the shadowy parts of the room, showing small trunks and even one old suitcase. On the opposite side is a larger chair and what looks like an end table with an old lamp. And on the wall, a huge mural of the city with lines drawn all across it. I stare at them, trying to understand what they mean.

“Woah,” Sienna gasps.

Gia peers around slowly. “Everything is covered in dust, so no one has been in here in a long time.”

“Years, for sure,” Sofia agrees as she walks toward the desk. “But the dust isn’t enough for me to think that it’s been as long as decades.” She peers down at the table and then stills. “Shit,” she whispers.

“What is it?” I ask.

Sofia lifts her eyes and looks at us with a grim set to her face. “This room used to belong to Nico’s mother.”

“Was this some kind of hideout for her, maybe?” Gia suggests.

“No,” Sofia says with a shake of her head. Rori moves to stand next to her, frowning as she picks up one of the papers. “We need to wait for Nico and the others,” she says firmly. She and Rori share a look, and whatever they say to each other wordlessly, the two of them don’t appear to be happy about the secret.

Whatever they’ve found, it’s something bad. Now to see how Nico and the others are going to react. Thankfully we don’t have long to wait before Lazaro and the others burst into the room.

30

LAZARO

The minuteI enter the hidden office space, I immediately look for Amara. I see her standing near the desk, looking at the wall in front of her with a puzzled expression. I move to her quickly, side-stepping Sofia and Rori, and pull her up into my arms. “Are you alright,colombina?” I ask, looking down at her.

She nods and looks up at me. “I’m fine. A little surprised to find all this, and the girls probably think I’m crazy but?—”

“I think you’re a genius,” Rori corrects firmly. “Not one of us noticed what you did.”

“Did you know this was here?” Pietro asks Nico, who moves close to the desk and looks over it, a grim expression on his face, and a hardness in his eyes.

“No,” Nico bites out, rifling through the papers. “My mother had her secrets, and I always wondered how she managed to hide what she did so well, but now we know. I had the house completely searched after her and my father’s death, but nothing was found.” He looks over at me and then at Amara, who’s stillsuspended in my arms. “Put her down,” he demands. I open my mouth to blast him for thinking he can order me to do anything, but Pietro gives me a hard look, so I comply, though I don’t let her go. I keep her back against me, my arm around her shoulder protectively. “How did you find this place?” Nico asks Amara bluntly.

I feel Amara tremble, and I hold her a little tighter. I shoot Nico a warning look, but he completely ignores me. “I-I was by the cabinet, and at my angle, I could see the wall wasn’t straight,” Amara tells him nervously.

Nico narrows his eyes. “You figured out this was here because of a warped wall?” he asks doubtfully. “I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Nico,” I warn him in a low tone. One that makes it clear if he doesn’t show her some respect, we’re going to have a problem.

“I-I just, it bothered me that every other surface in this house is so perfectly straight and immaculate and this room wasn’t,” Amara whispers, easing back against me like she wants to be away from Nico. My anger builds, but I manage to keep myself in check. “It just seemed wrong. And then Massimo saw it too and when I stood by the door, I realized that the wall was angled some instead of straight like at the back. I saw the shelf near the door and it reminded me of one that was in the bunker that we hid out in. I found the lever under it and the wall behind the shelf opened. Massimo is the one who got it open and went in first.”

“You did amazingly,colombina,” I assure her.

Nico stares at Amara for another long minute, almost like he’s not sure if he should believe her, but before I can snarl at him, he nods and turns back to the papers on the desk. “Dante, collect everything and bring it back to my office.” Then he strides out of the room. Gia rushes after him, and everyone watches him go before turning to Dante.

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