Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN ON HIS BEDElena Russo sat on Luca Valenti’s bed, blood soaking the bottom of her ivory dress.
When Luca walked into the room, she looked at him with terrified eyes.
“Please don’t let them find me.”
Luca froze.
He had seen dead men without blinking.
He had stood over bodies in alleys, watched men beg for their lives, and spent years learning exactly how long a person could survive after being shot.
But Elena was alive.
Bleeding.
And afraid of someone inside his own house.
“Who did this?”
Elena slowly opened her fist.
A silver cufflink rested in her palm.
The Valenti crest was engraved across the front.
Three letters were carved into the back.
A.V.
Adriano Valenti.
Luca’s cousin.
His aunt Isabella stepped into the room behind him.
“That proves nothing.”
Luca turned toward her.
“You’re defending him before I accused anyone.”
Isabella’s expression hardened.
“I’m protecting my son.”
“Then leave.”
The room went silent.
Luca didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
Two guards appeared in the doorway.
“Escort my aunt downstairs.”
Isabella stared at him for several seconds.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Maybe.”
“And when you discover who Elena really is, you’ll regret bringing her into this house.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Out.”
The guards took Isabella away.
When the door closed, Luca turned back toward Elena.
“Tell me everything.”
Her fingers trembled.
“Marco called me yesterday.”
Luca’s expression changed.
His younger cousin Marco Russo had disappeared twelve hours earlier.
“What did he say?”
“He said he had found something about your family.”
“What?”
“Bank records. Property files. Photographs. He said someone had been using old Valenti companies for years.”
“Who?”
“He never told me.”
Elena swallowed.
“He brought me to the library tonight. He said he needed to show me the records.”
“And?”
“Someone came.”
Luca moved closer.
“What did you hear?”
“Arguing.”
“Voices?”
“A man.”
She closed her eyes.
“Then a woman.”
“Did you recognize either one?”
“I heard Adriano.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“I thought the woman was Isabella.”
That landed harder than the cufflink.
Elena continued.
“Marco told me to run.”
“What happened next?”
“When I opened the library door, I saw an older man lying on the floor.”
“Was he alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who came next?”
“Adriano.”
Luca stared at her.
“He grabbed me and told me I hadn’t seen anything.”
“And the cufflink?”
“It caught on my dress when I pulled away.”
Elena reached under the pillow.
Luca’s hand immediately moved toward the pistol inside his jacket.
She pulled out a small brass key.
Stamped into the metal were three numbers.
317.
Luca stopped breathing for a second.
Room 317.
The old Bellini Hotel.
A place his father had owned before Luca was born.
A place that had been closed after a fire decades earlier.
A place almost nobody knew had ever belonged to the Valenti family.
“Where did you get that?”
“Marco gave it to me.”
“Why?”
“He said you would understand the number.”
Luca took the key.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Marco.
Tied to a chair.
His face swollen.
A cut across his forehead.
Alive.
Barely.
Luca stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
BRING THE KEY TO ROOM 317. ALONE.
His fingers tightened around the phone.
A second message appeared.
COME BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
Then a third.
BRING ELENA.
Luca looked up.
The bedroom door was slowly opening.
He raised his gun.
“Carlo?”
No answer.
The door moved another inch.
Then a shadow appeared.
A man stepped inside.
Luca’s finger tightened against the trigger.
The stranger raised both hands.
“It’s me.”
Luca recognized him.
Matteo.
His most trusted lieutenant.
Matteo looked at Elena.
Then at the blood on her dress.
Then at the key.
His face drained of color.
“Where did you get that?”
Luca stared at him.
“You know what it is?”
Matteo didn’t answer.
“Matteo.”
He took one slow breath.
“Your father told me never to speak about Room 317.”
Luca’s eyes sharpened.
“What exactly did my father tell you?”
Matteo stepped closer.
“That room wasn’t used for business.”
“For what, then?”
Matteo looked toward the hallway.
His voice dropped.
“It was where your family buried its secrets.”
Before Luca could answer, every light in the mansion suddenly went out.
The house fell into darkness.
A gunshot exploded downstairs.
Elena screamed.
Luca grabbed her and pushed her behind him.
Another shot.
Then another.
Footsteps rushed through the hallway.
Matteo drew his weapon.
“Boss!”
A voice shouted from below.
“THE WOMAN IS GONE!”
Luca turned.
Elena was no longer behind him.
The bedroom window stood open.
Curtains flapped in the night wind.
Luca ran toward it.
Far below, a car was speeding away from the estate.
Its rear lights vanished into the trees.
Then Luca saw something on the windowsill.
A second silver cufflink.
Same crest.
Same initials.
A.V.
But this time, beneath the letters, someone had scratched a single word.
LIAR.
Luca stared at it.
For the first time that night, he wondered whether Adriano had really been the hunter.
Or whether someone wanted him to believe he was.
And somewhere across the city, inside a dark abandoned hotel, a man tied to a chair slowly lifted his head.
May you like
Marco Russo smiled through bloodied teeth.
Because he knew Luca had just taken the bait.
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