Maya stared at the photograph until the faces blurred.
Her mother, Elena Bennett, had died six years earlier.
Maya remembered hospitals.
Unpaid bills.
Quiet apologies.
She remembered her mother refusing to discuss Naples.
Whenever Maya asked why they had suddenly returned to America, Elena changed the subject.
Maya had assumed the memories were painful because of the man her mother had followed there.
Now she wondered whether something else had driven them home.
Dominic placed the photograph on Henry’s desk.
“You said your mother lived in Naples?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Maya calculated.
“2004 to 2009.”
Dominic looked at the date.
“My father traveled there constantly.”
Maya felt cold.
“No.”
“I’m not suggesting—”
“Good.”
Dominic paused.
“Because I wasn’t.”
Luca entered.
“Henry’s phone is off. Apartment’s empty.”
Maya stared at the photograph.
“What did my mother know?”
Dominic said nothing.
“Dominic.”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
He looked at her.
“I will.”
“No. We will.”
That night, Maya returned to the Russo house.
Sophie was feeling stronger.
Maya showed her the photograph.
Sophie went silent.
“I’ve seen that man.”
She pointed toward Carlo.
Maya’s heart jumped.
“Where?”
“Mom had another picture.”
“What picture?”
“In the blue box.”
Maya remembered.
Their mother had kept an old blue metal box beneath her bed.
After her death, Maya had packed it away without opening everything.
It was still in their apartment.
The apartment that had been attacked.
Dominic refused to let Maya return alone.
This time she did not argue.
They arrived after midnight.
The door was destroyed.
Furniture had been overturned.
Drawers emptied.
Someone had searched the place.
Maya stood in the wreckage of her life.
Dominic watched her.
“I’ll pay for this.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“I don’t want money.”
“What do you want?”
“My life back.”
He had no answer.
She entered her mother’s old bedroom.
The blue box was gone.
Maya sat on the edge of the stripped mattress.
“They took it.”
Dominic crouched before her.
“Then it mattered.”
“That’s supposed to comfort me?”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But it means we’re close.”
Maya looked at him.
He was close enough that she could see the faint scar near his eyebrow.
“Why were you cruel to me that first night?”
The question surprised him.
“Why ask now?”
“Because I’m trying to understand which version of you is real.”
Dominic looked down.
“Both.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“It’s true.”
He sat beside her.
“I grew up believing contempt was armor.”
“Against waitresses?”
“Against everyone.”
“That sounds lonely.”
“It is.”
Maya studied him.
“Then stop.”
He looked at her.
“Stop what?”
“Acting like cruelty makes you powerful.”
Nobody had apparently spoken to Dominic Russo that way.
Maya continued.
“You insulted me because you thought I couldn’t understand you. You reduced me to what I wore and how tired I looked.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get credit for being nicer after discovering I was useful.”
His expression tightened.
“I know that too.”
She expected defensiveness.
Instead, Dominic said, “I was ashamed.”
Maya blinked.
“Of what?”
“Of how easily those words came out.”
Silence.
“I’m sorry.”
Two simple words.
No excuses.
Maya believed him.
Not completely.
But enough.
She stood.
“We still need the box.”
Luca called ten minutes later.
Security footage showed someone leaving Maya’s apartment carrying it.
Henry.
They tracked him to an abandoned warehouse near the river.
Dominic wanted Maya to remain behind.
She refused.
At the warehouse, Henry was already waiting.
Alone.
He looked terrible.
“Maya.”
“You destroyed my apartment?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
Henry looked toward Dominic.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
Henry began crying.
Carlo had controlled him for years.
Debt.
Threats.
Blackmail.
The Obsidian Room had been used as neutral ground for meetings.
Maya’s mother had once worked there too.
Not as a waitress.
As an interpreter.
Maya felt the room tilt.
“She worked for my father?” Dominic asked.
Henry nodded.
“And Carlo.”
“What did she discover?”
Henry looked at Maya.
“Carlo arranged the murder of Dominic’s father.”
Dominic went still.
Maya whispered, “What?”
“Everyone thought Antonio Russo died from a heart attack.”
Henry shook his head.
“He was poisoned.”
Dominic grabbed him.
“Who?”
“Carlo ordered it.”
“Who did it?”
“I don’t know!”
Dominic slammed Henry against the wall.
Maya grabbed his arm.
“Dominic.”
He did not hear her.
“Dominic!”
He looked at her.
“Let him speak.”
Dominic released Henry.
Henry collapsed into a chair.
“Elena translated calls between Carlo and a chemist in Marseille. She realized what they were planning.”
“My mother knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she tell anyone?”
“She tried.”
Henry looked toward Dominic.
“She told your father.”
“What happened?”
“He didn’t believe her.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“Then he died.”
Henry nodded.
“Elena took copies of everything and disappeared with Maya.”
Maya remembered the sudden flight from Naples.
Her mother crying at the airport.
The way she kept checking behind them.
“She was protecting me.”
“Yes.”
Henry opened a bag.
The blue box was inside.
Maya grabbed it.
Letters.
Photographs.
A cassette tape.
An old flash drive.
Dominic stared.
Henry whispered, “Carlo has spent seventeen years looking for that.”
Maya held the flash drive.
“Then this is what he’s afraid of.”
A shot exploded through the warehouse window.
Henry fell.
Maya screamed.
Dominic pulled her down.
More shots.
Luca returned fire.
Dominic covered Maya with his body.
“Stay down.”
Henry was bleeding heavily.
Maya crawled toward him.
“Henry.”
His eyes found hers.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t talk.”
“Your mother…”
“What?”
“She saved something else.”
“Where?”
Henry coughed.
“The restaurant.”
“What did she save?”
Henry’s eyes closed.
Maya shook him.
“Henry!”
Nothing.
Dominic pulled her away as bullets shattered another window.
They escaped through the rear loading dock.
In the SUV, Maya clutched the blue box.
Dominic sat beside her.
Blood covered his sleeve.
“You’re hurt.”
“Glass.”
“Let me see.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Dominic.”
He surrendered his arm.
Maya wrapped it.
Their faces were close.
Too close.
“You protected me,” she whispered.
“You protected me first.”
“That doesn’t make us even.”
“No.”
“What does?”
Dominic looked into her eyes.
“I don’t think we ever will be.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Luca spoke from the front.
“I hate interrupting whatever this is.”
Maya moved away.
“What?”
“We opened the flash drive.”
Dominic looked up.
“And?”
Luca’s face was grim.
“There’s enough evidence to destroy Carlo.”
“Then why do you look worried?”
“Because there’s another file.”
He handed Dominic the phone.
Dominic read it.
Then looked at Maya.
“What?”
He said nothing.
“Dominic.”
He turned the screen toward her.
The document contained Maya’s mother’s name.
Beneath it was another.
SOPHIE BENNETT.
And beside Sophie’s name were the words:
PRIMARY LEVERAGE TARGET.