Chapter 2 - The Ghost of the OutfitBy noon, the bell above the jewelry shop door chimed—a sharp, nostalgic jingle that had welcomed customers for thirty years. But nobody came to buy silver earrings or commission a custom setting.
Heavy, hurried footsteps pounded up the narrow wooden staircase leading from the shop to the apartment.
Maso drew his weapon instantly, spinning toward the door as the wood groaned under a heavy kick. The lock shattered, and the door flew wide open.
Standing in the frame was Dante Vance, Alessandro’s chief enforcer and oldest childhood friend. Dante was breathing hard, his tailored suit jacket torn at the shoulder, blood splattered across his white shirt.
“She’s gone,” Dante panted, ignoring Maso’s gun entirely as his desperate eyes locked onto me. “Camila is gone, Adriana. And if you don’t help us find her, Alessandro is going to burn this entire city to the ground.”
I didn’t lower my gun. I kept the barrel steady, aimed right at the center of Dante’s chest.
“You expect me to care about the woman my husband brought to my birthday dinner to mock me?” I asked, my voice dripping with ice. “You stood in that room, Dante. You watched him hand me my executioner’s axe while he smiled. Why should I lift a finger for either of them?”
Dante stepped forward, ignoring the cold steel of my firearm. “Because Camila wasn't his mistress, Adriana.”
The room went dead silent. Even Leah froze, her hand hovering over a roll of medical gauze.
“Explain,” I commanded.
Dante dragged a hand through his sweat-soaked hair, looking around the cluttered apartment as if searching for ghosts. “Six months ago, Viktor Savich—the head of the Bratva in Detroit—forced Camila’s younger brother into a multi-million-dollar drug debt. Savich used Camila as collateral. He planted her inside Alessandro’s house, ordered her to copy our offshore ledger files, and threatened to kill her brother if she failed.”
“And Alessandro?” I asked, my grip tightening on the pistol. “Did he know?”
“He found out three weeks ago,” Dante said grimly. “Instead of killing her, Alessandro protected her. He kept her close, fed false ledger data to the Bratva, and set a trap to catch Savich’s inner circle. Last night at your party, Savich’s hit squad was supposed to make their move. When Camila saw you walk out with such dignity... something inside her snapped. She refused to play Savich’s game anymore. She took the encrypted drive out of the safe, ran down to the study to hide it, and tried to give it to you.”
My stomach dropped. The silver fibrous fragment in the ring’s inscription—it was the casing of Savich’s master drive.
“When Alessandro found her in the study,” Dante continued, his voice cracking with exhaustion, “Savich’s men had already breached the perimeter. They took her, Adriana. They took her across Lake Michigan to an abandoned grain elevator in Gary, Indiana. And they sent a video to Alessandro ten minutes ago. They want a trade.”
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“What trade?” Leah asked quietly.
Dante looked directly at me. “The ledger drive... and Adriana Sterling.”
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