Chapter 9 - The Mole Exposed
Victory was supposed to bring peace, but in Adrian’s world, peace was an illusion that lasted only until the next betrayal.
Two days after Matteo Rossi was dealt with, the safehouse was quiet. Adrian was locked in his study, coordinating the integration of the Santoro shipping fleets, while I sat in the sprawling conservatory on the east wing of the estate, surrounded by blooming white orchids and winter sunlight.
I had my laptop open on a wrought-iron table.
Even though my life had changed irreversibly, my mind couldn't completely abandon its habits. I was reviewing the digital logs from the night of the first attack on the Belladonna estate.
Something had been bothering me for forty-eight hours.
The attack had happened at 6:15 AM. But according to the security manifests I had reviewed for the event, the north gate sensors weren't due for maintenance until 7:00 AM. How had Rossi’s three SUVs bypassed the primary infrared perimeter without triggering the early-warning alarms at the main gate?
Someone on the inside had manually altered the security schedule.
My fingers flew across the keyboard, cross-referencing the master server logs with the private security clearance codes. Only four people had administrative access to override the perimeter: Adrian, Donna Caterina, Marco… and Lorenzo.
I dug deeper, pulling up the communication logs from the private network tower on the estate grounds.
At 5:45 AM that morning—thirty minutes before I woke up in Adrian’s bed—an outgoing encrypted packet had been transmitted from an internal terminal in the west wing guard post.
The terminal assigned to Lorenzo.
A cold bead of sweat trickled down the back of my neck.
*Lorenzo.* The man who had driven our escape SUV. The man who was stationed outside my door at the symphony hall. The man who had supposedly been ‘knocked unconscious’ during the bathroom attack.
It hadn't been an accident that the attacker slipped past him. Lorenzo had let him in.
I closed the laptop with a quiet snap, my heart racing.
I stood up, carefully sliding my phone into my pocket, intending to head straight for Adrian’s study.
“Going somewhere, Miss Brooks?” a voice asked from the conservatory entrance.
I froze.
Lorenzo stepped out from behind a row of towering palms. He wasn't wearing his tactical jacket; he wore a simple dark sweater, his hands resting casually inside his pockets. But his posture was stiff, his eyes cold and alert.
“Lorenzo,” I said, forcing a calm smile onto my face as I picked up my laptop. “I was just going to bring Adrian some coffee. He’s been working all morning.”
“The boss is on a secure call with the Chicago syndicate,” Lorenzo said, slowly closing the distance between us. “He asked not to be disturbed.”
“I see,” I said, taking half a step toward the main corridor. “Then I’ll just head to the kitchen.”
Lorenzo stepped into my path, blocking the arched exit. His gaze dropped to my laptop, then rose back to my face. The false warmth in his expression vanished completely.
“You’re too smart for your own good, Elena,” he said softly, a dark edge creeping into his tone. “I watched you at Terminal 4. You see details normal people ignore. That’s dangerous for an outsider.”
My pulse pounded in my ears, but I didn't back down. I held the laptop tightly against my chest.
“You opened the north gate,” I stated, abandoning the pretense. “You told Rossi that Adrian had rejected the Santoro alliance. And at the symphony hall, you let that assassin into the powder room to kill me.”
Lorenzo didn't deny it. A bitter scowl contorted his face.
“Matteo promised me the southern territories,” Lorenzo snarled under his breath. “I’ve bled for the Moretti family for ten years! Ten years taking orders from Adrian, watching him treat us like disposable pawns while he sits on a throne of gold! And then you show up—a nobody, a party planner—and within three days, he’s ready to make you the Donna of Boston?”
“You betrayed your family for greed, Lorenzo,” I said, slowly sliding my hand down toward the pocket of my cardigan, where my derringer rested. “Adrian trusted you with his life.”
“Adrian is blinded by you,” Lorenzo spat, pulling a suppressed pistol from his waistband with terrifying speed. “And that makes him weak. When you’re dead, the council will see that he can't even protect his own house. They will strip him of his command, and I will take what belongs to me.”
He raised the weapon, pointing it directly between my eyes.
“Drop the laptop,” he ordered.
I didn't drop it.
Instead, with all the strength in my body, I hurled the heavy metal laptop straight at his face.
The corner of the computer struck Lorenzo across the bridge of his nose with a sickening crunch. His gun discharged, the suppressed round whistling past my ear and shattering a glass terrarium behind me in an explosion of soil and white petals.
Lorenzo stumbled backward, cursing, blood streaming down his face.
Before he could recover his aim, the glass doors behind him shattered inward with the force of an artillery strike.
Adrian lunged through the opening like a thunderbolt.
He didn't draw a weapon. He grabbed Lorenzo’s gun arm with both hands, twisting it with bone-shattering force until the pistol clattered to the marble tiles. In the same fluid motion, Adrian drove his knee into Lorenzo’s solar plexus, lifting the two-hundred-pound guard off his feet and slamming him down onto the shattered glass of the conservatory floor.
Adrian pinned him with a knee on his chest, his hands wrapping around Lorenzo’s throat, squeezing until the traitor’s face turned purple.
“Adrian! Stop!” I shouted, rushing forward.
Adrian’s eyes were completely black with rage, his chest heaving, his wolf tattoo flushed dark against his neck. He looked up at me, his fingers tightening further.
“He tried to kill you,” Adrian roared, his voice shaking the glass walls. “He was inside my house, and he raised a hand to you!”
“If you kill him now, we learn nothing!” I insisted, dropping to my knees beside him, placing my hands firmly over his trembling, murderous fists. “Look at me, Adrian! Look at me!”
Adrian froze. His gaze snapped to mine.
Seeing the calm certainty in my eyes seemed to break the blinding trance of his fury. Slowly, reluctantly, he eased the pressure on Lorenzo’s throat, though his knee remained pinned against the man’s sternum.
Marco and three guards burst into the conservatory, weapons drawn, taking in the scene with wide, shocked eyes.
“Boss!” Marco gasped. “What happened?”
“Lorenzo was the mole,” Adrian said, his voice dropping into a chilling, deadly whisper as he looked down at his former friend. “He sold the gates. He sold the gala.”
Marco’s face contorted with utter disgust. He stepped forward, clicking the safety off his weapon. “Let me put him down, Boss.”
“No,” Adrian said, standing up and smoothing down the lapels of his suit jacket. He reached down and took my hand, pulling me gently to my feet, inspecting me from head to toe to ensure I wasn't injured. “Take him to the basement. Keep him alive until he tells us every contact, every off-shore account, and every collaborator he had in the Five Families.”
“With pleasure,” Marco growled, dragging the battered, bloody traitor away.
Adrian wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me tightly against his side, his breath still ragged.
“How did you know?” he asked quietly, brushing a speck of shattered glass from my hair.
“The server logs,” I whispered, resting my head against his chest, finally letting myself tremble as the shock washed over me. “I noticed a discrepancy in the gate schedule. I came looking for you, but he was waiting.”
Adrian closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against mine, his heartbeat pounding against my palms.
“You saved my life again, Elena,” he murmured, his voice thick with raw emotion. “Every time I think I’m protecting you… you end up saving me.”
“That’s what partners do,” I whispered back.
Adrian opened his eyes, and the darkness inside them had completely cleared, replaced by a radiant, unshakable conviction.
May you like
“Not just partners, Elena,” he said, his lips brushing against mine with absolute certainty. “My wife. My queen. Forever.”
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