Page 72 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

"You want confidence, Salvatore, stop letting your men take meetings with Bellini's runners in back alleys." I lean in close, lowering my volume. "Or explain to me why your captain was seen sharing espresso with Lorenzo Bellini on Monday."

That lands. Barone's face goes a shade darker, and for a second I think he's going to stand up and make this physical, which would be a mistake he'd regret for the rest of his significantly shortened life. Instead he sits back down, slow, deliberate, like he's reminding himself of the weight in the room.

Costa clears his throat. "The audit. I'll agree to it for my routes. Full access."

Fabbri nods a second later. "Mine too. We're not the ones who need to hide anything."

All eyes swing back to Barone. He looks around the table, sees the everyone isn't in his favor, and finally exhales through his teeth.

"Fine. Full audit. But if this turns out to be a witch hunt aimed at old families instead of finding your actual leak, I'll remember it."

"Noted." I stand up, buttoning my suit jacket with deliberate care. "Try not to be the leak, Salvatore, and it won't be an issue."

He doesn't dignify that with a response.

The meeting winds down after that, men filing out in twos and threes, murmuring to each other in the hallway in tones too low for me to catch. Barone leaves without looking back, slamming the heavy door hard enough to rattle the frame.

Matteo falls into step beside me as we leave, almonds still in hand, mercifully uneaten.

Matteo nudges my shoulder with his elbow as we hit the empty marble corridor. "So. That went great. Really brought the family together."

"It went exactly as well as I expected."

"Barone is going to be a problem."

"Barone is always a problem. It's practically his entire brand." I check my phone, scanning through security alerts.

Matteo pops an almond into his mouth, crunching softly. "Do you think he actually took a meeting with Bellini?"

"I know he did. He just doesn't know my men were sitting three tables away."

Matteo swallows hard, tossing the empty bag into a brass urn. "Do you believe Costa? About the six people?"

"I think it's whoever those six people talked to afterward, which could be half the staff in this building." I quicken my pace toward the exit.

"Nora would have had that whole room confessing in twelve minutes," Matteo muses with a dry grin. "And she would have billed Barone for the therapy session."

"Don't encourage her," I warn, though the thought alone pulls at the tension behind my ribs.

"Comforting."

"It wasn't meant to be."

We step out into the long corridor, heading straight toward the elevators. I don't look back. There's a brutal war coming from outside these walls that I understand completely, and something colder starting to rot inside them, and I have no intention of letting either side tear down what belongs to me.

Chapter 28

NORA

I push open the heavy oak door of Luca's bedroom, my bare feet sinking into the thick carpet. The hallway behind me is quiet, but the silence inside his quarters carries its own weight. Under the amber glow of the bedside lamp, a thick, unmarked folder sits squarely on his nightstand, catching my eye the second I step inside.

Water hisses through the pipes, sending white vapor rolling under the bathroom door. I step across the rug, reach out, and pull the front cover open.

The first page is a wire transfer receipt from a London account I don't recognize into Blake Crisis Management's emergency reserve. Dated the morning after they grabbed me. The amount makes my teeth hurt.

Second page: daily field logs and round-the-clock security rosters for my parent's house. My jaw drops. It isn't just surveillance; Luca had his men pose as discreet private contractors from an Italian investment group doing business in town. There are typed notes detailing how Dad invited the lead guard in for tea and biscuits, convinced the burly man was just an exhausted businessman with a bad back, while Mom badgered another about character alibis for her latest chapter.

Third page is Amelia's encrypted email chain with someone signed only as "A.R." She had been panicking about missing client meetings and payroll, threatening to go to Scotland Yard, but the replies kept her completely grounded. Luca covered every single invoice, cleared rent on the London office, and sent flowers to my mother pretending they were from me on a secret retreat. He kept my firm running and my family totally safe from the very first day I landed in Italy.