Chapter 3 - The Second Phone
Nobody spoke for two full seconds.
Then Elena whispered, “Second phone?”
Victor kicked at the device, but Dante picked it up first.
Adrian read the message again.
MOVE THE GIRL BEFORE VALE FINDS THE SECOND PHONE.
The sender was saved only as M.K.
Victor recovered quickly. “Business message. Nothing to do with Elena.”
“Then unlock it,” Adrian said.
“No.”
Adrian nodded once. “Good. I prefer difficult answers.”
He handed the phone to Dante. “Clone it.”
Victor’s face finally cracked. “You touch my property and I’ll—”
“Finish that sentence carefully.”
Elena stepped away from both men. Her breathing had become fast again.
Adrian saw it and stopped pressing Victor.
“Elena,” he said, “do you have another phone?”
She shook her head.
Victor looked at her.
That look lasted half a second.
It was enough.
Adrian saw her fingers tighten around the skirt of her dress.
“Elena,” he repeated more gently.
“No.”
This time the lie sounded different. Protective.
Not for Victor.
For something she was hiding.
Adrian unlocked the bedroom door. “Dante, take Victor downstairs. Separate everyone who came with him. Nobody is threatened. Nobody is touched. Nobody leaves.”
Victor pointed at Elena. “You come with me.”
Elena froze.
Adrian stepped into Victor’s line of sight. “She goes nowhere with you.”
“You don’t know what she is.”
Elena’s face drained.
Adrian’s voice dropped. “Try me.”
Victor smiled with sudden cruelty. “Ask your bride why she has been photographing your warehouses for six weeks.”
The words hit harder than a punch.
Adrian turned.
Elena looked devastated.
Victor laughed as Dante pulled him into the hallway. “You wanted to play hero, Vale? Congratulations. You married the spy.”
The door closed.
Adrian and Elena were alone again.
He did not move toward her.
“Is it true?”
Tears gathered in her eyes. “Partly.”
“What part?”
“I took photographs.”
“Of my property?”
“Yes.”
“For your father?”
“No.”
“Then for who?”
Elena reached beneath the heavy layers of her wedding skirt, fingers trembling, and pulled a tiny black phone from a hidden pocket sewn into the lining.
“I was going to give this to a federal investigator tomorrow morning.”
Adrian stared at the phone.
Elena swallowed.
“But the evidence isn’t against you.”
May you like
She held it out.
“It’s against my father.”
