Adrian's gaze remained on the photograph.
Mara tightened her fingers around it.
"What does this mean?"
Adrian stepped into the room.
"Nicholas won't appreciate you going through his possessions."
"He won't appreciate you standing over him while he sleeps either."
Adrian's smile thinned.
"You're becoming comfortable here."
"Not really."
"Good."
That single word chilled her.
Nicholas stirred.
Adrian immediately changed expression.
"Uncle?"
Nicholas's voice was rough.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking on you."
Nicholas saw the photograph in Mara's hand.
His eyes sharpened.
"Give us the room, Adrian."
Adrian did not move.
"She found something that doesn't concern her."
"It concerns her father."
"Which makes her emotional."
Mara stepped toward him.
"I'm standing right here."
Adrian ignored her.
Nicholas pushed himself upright.
"Leave."
Something passed between uncle and nephew.
A threat without words.
Finally Adrian nodded.
"Of course."
He left.
Nicholas waited until the door closed.
Then he held out his hand.
Mara gave him the photograph.
"Explain."
Nicholas studied the message on the back.
"I've never seen this writing."
"That's your photograph."
"Yes."
"Then who wrote it?"
"I don't know."
Mara crossed her arms.
"Convenient."
Nicholas looked irritated.
"Do you think I'm protecting Adrian?"
"I don't know who you're protecting."
Nicholas swung his left leg off the bed.
"I'm trying to protect you."
"Stop saying that when what you're actually doing is hiding things."
His expression hardened.
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
"Your father discovered money disappearing from several Valenti companies."
Mara stared.
"How much?"
"Millions."
"Adrian?"
"We suspected him."
"Suspected?"
"Nothing was ever proven."
"Because my father died."
Nicholas said nothing.
Mara's chest tightened.
Nicholas continued.
"Carlo brought the information to my father. Before we could investigate, your father was killed."
"And your father?"
"Died nine months later."
"Natural causes?"
Nicholas looked at her.
"No."
Mara felt the air leave her lungs.
"What happened?"
"Officially, heart failure."
"And unofficially?"
"Poison."
The Valenti mansion suddenly felt different.
Every hallway.
Every closed door.
Every servant.
Every shadow.
Danger had always lived here.
Mara had simply not recognized it.
Nicholas continued.
"After my father's death, Adrian became temporary head of the organization. I took control eighteen months later."
"And he hated that."
"He believed the position belonged to him."
"Then six months ago your car exploded."
"Yes."
Mara sat down slowly.
"You think Adrian did that too."
"I think someone did."
"Why haven't you gone to the police?"
Nicholas laughed bitterly.
"Tell them what? That my uncle may have murdered my father while stealing money from businesses they already think are criminal?"
"You could give them evidence."
"If I had evidence, Adrian wouldn't still be drinking my whiskey."
Mara looked at the photograph.
"My father had evidence."
"Possibly."
"Where?"
Nicholas shook his head.
"We searched after he died."
"Maybe you searched where a Valenti would hide something."
Nicholas looked at her.
"My father wasn't a Valenti."
Mara stood.
"Exactly."
The next morning she called Luca.
Her brother lived at a rehabilitation center two hours away.
She did not tell him about Adrian.
She simply asked, "Do you remember Dad keeping anything strange?"
Luca laughed.
"Besides six thousand rusted tools?"
"Documents. Boxes. Keys."
There was silence.
Then Luca said, "There was the radio."
"What radio?"
"Old blue one in the garage. Dad wouldn't throw it away."
Mara remembered.
A battered portable radio that barely worked.
"What happened to it?"
"Storage unit, probably."
Mara's pulse quickened.
Their family still had one small storage unit filled with belongings they couldn't afford to move.
That afternoon Mara told Mrs. Russo she needed three hours away.
Nicholas heard.
"Where are you going?"
"Errand."
"I'll send a driver."
"No."
His expression hardened.
"Mara."
"Nicholas."
"Someone may have murdered your father."
"And your solution is to send one of your family's men with me?"
"My solution is to stop you from doing something stupid."
"I'm going to a storage unit."
Nicholas froze.
He understood immediately.
"Wait."
"I've waited eight years."
"Mara—"
She left.
The storage facility sat behind a grocery warehouse.
Mara unlocked unit 214.
Dust covered everything.
Boxes.
Furniture.
Luca's old bicycle.
Her mother's dishes.
And on a shelf—
The blue radio.
Mara grabbed it.
Too heavy.
She turned it over.
Four screws held the back panel.
Her hands shook as she removed them with a screwdriver.
Inside was a bundle wrapped in plastic.
Mara stopped breathing.
Documents.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
A flash drive.
And a handwritten letter.
For Mara and Luca.
She opened it.
My beautiful children,
If you are reading this, then I failed to protect you from the truth.
Mara's vision blurred.
She forced herself to continue.
Her father described stolen money.
Shell companies.
Payments made to a man named Adrian Valenti.
He wrote that he had discovered something worse.
Weapons moved through Valenti shipping containers without Nicholas's father's knowledge.
People had died.
Carlo intended to testify.
Mara heard a sound outside.
A car door.
She froze.
Footsteps.
She stuffed the flash drive into her bra and folded the letter beneath her sweater.
The storage door lifted.
Two men stood outside.
Neither smiled.
"Miss Bellini."
Mara backed away.
"Who are you?"
"Mr. Valenti would like his property returned."
"Which Mr. Valenti?"
The taller man smiled.
"You already know."
Mara grabbed the nearest object.
A tire iron.
The men laughed.
Then another voice came from behind them.
"I wouldn't."
Nicholas.
He stood at the end of the aisle with a cane in one hand and a pistol in the other.
Mara had never seen him like this.
No pain.
No hesitation.
Cold authority radiated from him.
The two men turned.
"Nicholas."
"Step away from her."
One reached toward his jacket.
Nicholas fired.
The bullet struck the concrete beside the man's foot.
"Next one isn't a warning."
They stepped back.
Nicholas's driver and two security men appeared behind him.
The strangers fled.
Mara stared.
"What are you doing here?"
Nicholas lowered the gun.
"Preventing something stupid."
"You followed me."
"Yes."
"That's unbelievably arrogant."
"You're welcome."
She wanted to slap him.
Instead she grabbed him.
Her arms wrapped around his shoulders.
Nicholas froze.
Then slowly held her.
Mara didn't realize she was shaking until he whispered, "You're safe."
She pulled away.
"No."
He frowned.
"Adrian knows."
Nicholas looked toward the open storage unit.
"What did you find?"
Mara touched the hidden flash drive beneath her shirt.
"Enough to destroy him."
Back at the mansion, they reviewed the papers inside Nicholas's private office.
The evidence was devastating.
Payments.
Shipping records.
Names.
Dates.
A conspiracy spanning more than a decade.
Then Nicholas opened one photograph.
His expression changed.
Mara looked.
Adrian stood beside three men.
One was Victor Sanz.
Another was Nicholas's former driver.
The driver who supposedly died in the bombing.
Mara stared at Nicholas.
"He's alive?"
Nicholas's face went white.
"Apparently."
Before either could speak, the lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then the mansion's security alarm began screaming.
Nicholas grabbed Mara's wrist.
"Behind me."
Gunshots exploded downstairs.
Men shouted.
Glass shattered.
Nicholas reached for his pistol.
Mara's heart pounded.
"What is happening?"
Nicholas looked at the flash drive in her hand.
"Adrian knows what you found."
Another gunshot.
Closer.
Nicholas locked the office door.
Then footsteps entered the hallway.
Slow.
Heavy.
Approaching.
Mara whispered, "What do we do?"
Nicholas looked toward the balcony doors.
"We stop running."
---