THE KEY TO THE SYNDICATE

Betrayal has a specific smell. Right then, it smelled like ozone and copper.

“One of your men?” I asked, my voice cracking. “One of your men threatened my daughter?”

Vincent’s jaw was a granite block. He didn't shout. He didn't throw things. That made him far more terrifying. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, clicking an override code to bypass the jammers.

“Lock down the perimeter. No one leaves the estate,” Vincent ordered the phone. He hung up and looked at his lead bodyguard, a massive man named Carlo. “Who had the St. Matthew's detail six months ago?”

Carlo swallowed hard. “Donovan, Boss.”

“Where is Donovan?”

“He was assigned to perimeter defense tonight.”

Vincent’s eyes darkened. “Find him. Alive.”

I pulled Lily tighter against me. The heavy wool coat smelled like Vincent, offering a strange, terrifying comfort. My father was a forger. My daughter had been hunted. The man I was restoring paintings for was the head of a criminal empire.

Nothing in my life was real.

“We need to leave,” I said, standing up on shaking legs. “I don't care about the paintings. I don't care about the money. Just unlock the doors and let us go.”

“I can't do that,” Vincent said softly.

“You can't keep us hostage!”

“You aren't hostages,” he stepped closer, his voice urgent but controlled. “If you walk out those doors right now, you’re dead. The Maronis know you have the key. If Celeste knew, her family knows. And if one of my own men is working with them, this house is the only place I can guarantee your safety.”

“You can't even guarantee your own house!” I fired back.

Before Vincent could answer, a gunshot rang out.

It wasn't outside. It was inside the house.

The sound echoed from the East Wing. The wing where Celeste had been taken.

Vincent drew a gun from his shoulder holster so fast I didn't even see him move. “Carlo. Protect them. Shoot anyone who comes through that corridor.”

Vincent sprinted toward the East Wing.

I crouched behind the velvet sofa, pressing Lily to the floor. Carlo stood over us, his weapon raised, his eyes scanning the shadows.

Minutes stretched into agonizing hours. Every shadow looked like a man with a gun. Every creak of the house sounded like footsteps.

Then, footsteps actually came. Slow. Deliberate.

From the darkness of the corridor, a figure emerged.

It was Celeste.

But she wasn't a prisoner. She was holding a gun, and one of Vincent’s guards was dead at her feet. Behind her stood a man with a silver scar on his jaw.

Donovan. The inside man.

“Tell the boss to drop the gun, Carlo,” Donovan said, aiming his weapon right at Carlo’s head.

Celeste stepped forward. Her expensive dress was stained with blood, and she looked wild, unhinged. She wasn't just a spoiled fiancée. She was a Maroni. A killer.

“Give me the key,” Celeste demanded, aiming her weapon at my chest.

Lily screamed.

Without thinking, I reached into my pocket, my fingers brushing against the cold brass of the key. But my hand also hit something else. Something in the pocket of the coat Vincent had given me.

A heavy, iron bracelet.

I didn't pull out the key. I pulled out the bracelet and threw it as hard as I could at Celeste’s face.

The heavy iron struck her squarely in the cheekbone. She shrieked, stumbling backward, her gun firing into the ceiling.

In that split second of distraction, Carlo fired.

He didn't hit Celeste. He hit Donovan in the shoulder. Donovan spun, returning fire, and a bullet shattered the marble pillar inches from my head.

Suddenly, a shadow dropped from the balcony above.

Vincent.

He landed directly on Donovan, driving the traitor into the marble floor with a sickening crunch. Vincent didn't hesitate. He disarmed Donovan in a blur of violence and pointed his weapon at Celeste.

“Drop it, Celeste,” Vincent roared.

Celeste was bleeding from her cheek where the bracelet hit her, but she smiled a horrific, bloody smile.

“You’re too late, Vincent,” she whispered. “Look at the key. Look at the thread.”

I looked down at the floor where the key had fallen from Lily’s hand during the chaos.