Chapter 17 - Leo
We never learned the name that night.
Because Enzo’s phone rang.
He listened.
Then went pale.
“Sir.”
Alessandro turned.
“What?”
“The estate has been breached.”
My stomach dropped.
“Leo?”
Enzo did not answer quickly enough.
Alessandro grabbed him.
“Where is my son?”
“Gone.”
Everything inside Alessandro changed.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Something more primal.
The man who had controlled every room I had ever seen him enter disappeared.
A father stood there.
A father whose worst nightmare had finally happened.
We drove back at terrifying speed.
The estate looked untouched.
That made it worse.
No broken gates.
No shattered windows.
Whoever took Leo had been allowed inside.
Rosa stood in the foyer crying.
“They had authorization.”
“What authorization?” Alessandro demanded.
“Your voice.”
Enzo’s team had received a recorded command from Alessandro ordering Leo transferred to another property.
Artificial voice.
Perfectly replicated.
Carlo had not been involved.
He was still locked down.
The vehicle used belonged to Alessandro.
The driver had served the family for seventeen years.
He was found unconscious ten miles away.
Leo was gone.
A package waited in the study.
Inside was Rex.
The dinosaur.
I picked it up.
Something rattled.
I turned it over.
A tiny folded paper had been pushed into a crack beneath its plastic foot.
Leo’s handwriting.
MARA.
RED DOOR.
SMART boy.
Brave boy.
He had left us a clue.
Alessandro pressed the note to his lips for one second.
Then he became the crime lord again.
“Find every property Vittorio or Bellandi ever owned with a red door.”
Enzo moved.
Sofia entered behind us.
“There is one.”
We all turned.
“Bellandi Lodge.”
“Lake property.”
“Closed for years.”
“Front door is red.”
Alessandro grabbed his coat.
I followed.
“No.”
He blocked me.
“This time you stay.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“He left the clue for me.”
“He trusted me to understand.”
“I am not leaving him.”
“You are not trained for this.”
“I was not trained for falling glass either.”
His jaw clenched.
“I cannot protect Leo and you.”
“Then don’t protect me.”
He stared at me.
I moved closer.
“You asked why invisible people notice things.”
“Because nobody expects us to matter.”
“Let them keep believing that.”
His eyes held mine.
Then he touched my face.
So gently it hurt.
“If anything happens to you—”
“Get Leo.”
That was the only answer that mattered.
We left for Bellandi Lodge.
May you like
None of us noticed the tracker hidden inside Rex.
And somewhere on the other side of the city, Adrian Bellandi watched our vehicle begin to move.
