Page 8 of Crimson Reign

“How did he know I take it this way?”

Isabella smiles. “Lucky guess?”

“I have a son,” she says, playfully poking Fiona’s cheeks. “He’s with my sister today. Having children in this world… I understand your fear, Elena. The constant worry that they might become targets.”

“You chose this life,” I say before I can stop myself.

She doesn’t flinch. “Yes, and no. I was born into the Bellanti family. The business side was my choice. The rest…” She shrugs. “We do what we must with the cards we’re dealt.”

The door opens as Matteo and Nico return. Their expressions are grim.

“We need to see what’s on the drive,” Matteo says.

I take Fiona back from Isabella. “I need your word first. Your explicit promise that you’ll protect my daughter, no matter what happens to me.”

Matteo’s eyes lock with mine. “You have my word. I will protect Fiona and you with my life.”

I retrieve the USB drive from Fiona’s diaper bag and hand it to Matteo. He sets up a laptop.

"May I?" Nico asks, holding out his hands for Fiona.

I raise my brows, surprise coursing through my veins.

I guess having a kid has made him soft.

After a moment’s hesitation, I hand her over. She settles against him easily.

Then I insert the USB into the laptop and open the first video file. The room falls silent. Girls being loaded into shipping containers. Massimo Caruso inspecting the “merchandise.”

"Human trafficking," I explain. "Financial trails, client lists, routes."

The second folder makes even Nico look away. Ritualistic murder scenes.

“They’re part of a Sicilian cult,” I explain, fighting nausea. “Mark found documentation linking them to at least thirty missing women.”

The final folder makes Matteo and Nico tense. A video of an elderly man. Moments later, Massimo enters—and the man is dead.

“That’s Don Vittorio Calabrese,” Nico breathes. “Head of the Sicilian Commission.”

“Yes,” I confirm. “Mark found proof the Caruso murdered him and blamed it on heart failure.”

Silence hangs in the air.

“This isn’t just about crimes,” Matteo says. “This information would make them targets of every mafia family.”

I meet his gaze. “Mark died for this. Now it’s all I have to bargain with.”

Matteo closes the laptop. When he looks at me, something like understanding flickers in his eyes.

“You were right to tell me,” he says. “This changes everything.”

“What happens now?”

Matteo glances at Nico, his eyes filled with something I can't decipher.

“Now,” Matteo says, “we go to war.”

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