Page 66 of The Assassin's Captive
"Then we have a problem." He taps the photograph. "This was taken three months ago. Before you found her. Before the hospital. Before any of this began."
The implications crash over me. Someone has been watching Serena far longer than we realized. Someone with resources and patience. Someone who knows about her connection to the Costa family and has been waiting for the right moment to act.
"Who else has this information?"
"That's what we need to find out." Emilio stands, moving to the window where Serena is visible on the small terrace outside. She's gripping the railing, her knuckles white against the black iron. "But first, we need to discuss her future."
"She'll never work for you willingly."
"I'm not asking her to work for me willingly." His voice is matter-of-fact, devoid of emotion. "I'm asking her to survive."
"What do you mean?"
He turns from the window, his pale eyes fixing on mine. "Someone wants her dead, Lorenzo. Has wanted her dead for months, possibly longer. The only reason she's still alive is because they need information from her first."
"The same information you want."
"Yes. But I want her alive to provide it. They clearly don't share that preference."
The weight of his words settles over me. Serena isn't a tool in a power struggle—she's a target. And the people hunting her have resources that rival Emilio's own.
"What are you proposing?"
"I'm proposing she becomes an asset to this family. Officially. Publicly. Under our protection." He pauses, letting the words sink in. "The alternative is that she remains a target until someone with fewer scruples than I possess decides she's outlived her usefulness."
"And if she refuses?"
Emilio's expression doesn't change, but coldness enters his eyes. "Then she won't survive the next attempt. And there will be a next attempt, Lorenzo. Probably within the week."
He doesn’t really have to outline how bad this threat is. Emilio isn't offering protection—he's issuing an ultimatum. Join the family or die. The choice is that simple and that brutal.
I look toward the terrace where Serena stands silhouetted against the evening sky. She has no idea that her life has been reduced to a binary decision. No idea that the father she never knew has signed her death warrant if she refuses his offer.
But I know. And now I have to decide whether to protect her from the truth or prepare her for it.
29
SERENA
The terrace feels like a cage. Small, narrow, with iron railings that look decorative but serve as bars. I grip the cold metal until my knuckles turn white, staring down at the cobblestone street below where tourists wander between wine bars, oblivious to the conversation happening twenty feet above their heads.
My chest feels tight. Not from fear—I've moved beyond fear into something more dangerous. Rage burns through my veins, hot and clean. Emilio Costa thinks he can offer me a choice between servitude and death. He thinks my blood makes me his property, his weapon, his tool to legitimize decades of violence and corruption.
He's wrong.
The door behind me opens, but I don't turn around. I know Lorenzo's footsteps by now—always with an underlying tension that never fully disappears.
"Serena."
"Don't." I keep my voice level, but my grip on the railing tightens. "Whatever you're about to say, don't."
"You need to hear this."
"I need to get out of here." I finally turn to face him, and the concern in his hazel eyes almost undoes me. "I need to get as far away from this place, this family, this entire situation as possible."
Lorenzo steps closer, but carefully. He's learned to read my moods, to recognize when I'm close to breaking. "It's not that simple anymore."
"It never was simple. But now it's impossible." I gesture toward the door that leads back to Emilio's private chamber. "He wants me to become everything I've spent my career fighting against. He wants me to use my knowledge of the legal system to help him avoid consequences for his crimes."
