Page 156 of Double Trouble for the Mafia Prince
I flip to the third page and stop.
The name there belongs to the old Rossi butler.
I know because I’ve seen his face and heard him be calledRenatoa few too many times to be wrong.
Full name.
Date of last contact.
And in a different hand, the word "active".
The book slides from my hand and hits the floor with a sound too loud for paper.
I am already moving.
Outside, the car is still running.
I pull the door shut and slam my hand against the dash as Tomas climbs in beside me.
"Renato," I say.
"Who is he?"
"He was the Rossi butler before her father died. Oversaw secure logistics. Had access to the old record rooms. The men who wrote the Umber files answered to him long after they stopped answering to anyone else. If Rafa is staging a full consolidation, it’s not just new men he’s using. He’s reactivating the ones buried with her father."
Tomas swears under his breath and grips the dash as I swing the car back onto the main road, tires screeching as we cut through the western district toward the estate.
The ache building in the center of my chest is not fear.
It’s something sharper.
I should have made the connection sooner.
The way the doors opened too easily.
The access string that matched the old Rossi protocols.
The fact that someone managed to slip poison into my own dining hall.
The gatehouse at the estate is at high alert when I arrive.
I do not wait for clearance.
The moment the car jerks to a stop, I am already out, storming past the posted guards and up the main path.
Marco meets me halfway down the stairs.
"She’s not here," he says, and the words strike like a bullet behind the ribs.
"What?"
"She left the south wing twenty minutes ago. Told the guards she was walking in the garden. No one questioned it. She wasn’t alone."
My hands grip the edge of the banister.
"Who was with her?"
There is a silence before he answers.
