Page 99 of Luciano

Ten minutes later, while I was in the shower, I heard her voice.

I stepped quietly to the cracked bathroom door.

Just in time to catch the end of her sentence.

“…Yeah. I’m sure. Just be ready when I call, okay?”

A pause.

“No. It's not that crucial.”

Then there was silence.

I heard the bedroom door close.

I left the bathroom, naked and wet. I watched from the upstairs window as she climbed into an SUV. Aria was already inside, her son strapped in beside her. Two guards followed close behind, just like Saint promised when I’d called him.

Must have been Aria she was talking to.

I didn’t like the thought of them as friends.

Aria would be a bad influence.

I wanted to see what they were up to.

I tracked them to a coffee shop.

After getting drinks, they went to two shops. A boutique on Howard. A baby store near Westshore.

They laughed. They shopped.

Their outing looked harmless.

So I left.

But even as I drove back, a strange pressure sat in my chest. Not panic. Not paranoia. Something else.

A whisper in the gut.

I didn’t believe in gut instinct.

I dismissed it.

I ignored the warning in my blood.

Chapter 45

Luciano

Today the facility smelled of sweat, metal, and the faint copper tang of the dummy’s fake blood. Ava’s hands were stained red, her breathing steady despite the brutal drills I’d walked her through.

She was good.

Most people hesitated before driving a blade into flesh—even synthetic flesh. They flinched at the crack of bone or the spill of fluid, even when they knew it wasn’t real.

Not Ava.

Her strikes were clean. Purposeful. Cold.

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