Chapter 4 - The First BetrayalThe house went into lockdown.
Doors sealed.
Guards stationed at every corridor.
Phones confiscated.
Nobody entered or left.
Ivy sat in the dining room while Carmine questioned every soldier personally.
Then he came to her.
“You’re safe here.”
She laughed bitterly.
“I’m not sure what safe means anymore.”
Carmine sat opposite her.
“You’re afraid of me.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I understand.”
“You killed Rocco.”
“No.”
Ivy looked up.
“No?”
“I didn’t.”
The relief she felt was instantly replaced by dread.
“Then who did?”
“That is what I need to know.”
He placed the photograph of the dead man on the table.
Rocco had been shot once.
Professionally.
No struggle.
No witnesses.
“No one heard a gunshot,” Ivy whispered.
“Silencer.”
“Then whoever did it knew where the cameras were.”
Carmine’s eyes met hers.
“Exactly.”
Ivy realized something.
“The killer lives here.”
“Yes.”
The word was almost inaudible.
A staff member entered.
“Boss, Gideon wants you in the office.”
Carmine stood.
“Stay here.”
“I will.”
He walked away.
Five minutes later, the lights went out.
Ivy froze.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Then she heard a scream.
She ran toward the sound.
Two guards were lying unconscious outside the accounting office.
The door was open.
Gideon was gone.
Carmine appeared at the opposite end of the hallway.
His gun was drawn.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
He looked around.
Then saw something on the floor.
A red folder.
The same folder Ivy had seen in the crate.
Carmine picked it up.
His expression changed.
“You saw this before.”
“Yes.”
He opened it.
Inside were dozens of photographs.
Business deals.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
And one photograph of Ivy.
She stopped breathing.
The picture showed her outside her old apartment.
Taken weeks before she started working for Carmine.
Carmine looked at her.
“Did you know you were being watched?”
Ivy shook her head.
“No.”
He turned the photograph over.
There was a date.
Three years ago.
Carmine went silent.
“What?”
He handed it to her.
Ivy stared at the date.
Three years ago.
Her mother had been diagnosed.
Three years ago.
Her debts began.
Three years ago.
She had unknowingly started being watched.
“Why me?” she whispered.
Carmine did not answer.
Because he had already found the answer.
The next page of the folder contained a medical record.
Her mother’s name.
Her diagnosis.
Her hospital.
And beneath it, a handwritten note.
KEEP IVY CLOSE TO CARMINE. SHE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT SHE HAS.
Ivy looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Carmine’s face had gone pale.
Before he could answer, his phone rang.
He listened.
May you like
Then slowly lowered it.
“Your mother is missing.”
