Chapter 2 - Five Languages and One LieNobody moved.
Dante’s command had been quiet, but Felix reacted as if someone had struck him.
Lucy stared at the recorder.
Dante leaned back.
“Explain.”
Lucy swallowed.
“Levanov never said he was attacking tonight.”
Felix laughed nervously. “She cleans tables.”
“And you translate them,” Dante said. “Apparently one of you is bad at your job.”
The laughter died.
Lucy stepped toward the recorder.
“May I?”
Dante nodded.
She rewound the tape and played the final section.
Russian poured through the room.
Lucy listened once.
Then translated.
“He says, ‘If Moretti sends armed men to the eastern docks tonight, I will consider it proof that he has chosen war.’”
Enzo’s expression changed.
Lucy continued.
“He isn’t threatening an attack. He’s warning you not to make one.”
Dante looked at Felix.
Felix went pale.
“You translated the opposite.”
“It’s slang,” Felix protested. “Regional—”
“No.”
Lucy surprised herself with the firmness of the word.
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed toward the recorder.
“He uses a conditional construction. If you attack, then he retaliates. There’s no ambiguity.”
Dante’s gaze sharpened.
“Play the rest.”
Lucy obeyed.
Another sentence.
She translated it.
“He says somebody inside your organization has been telling him you intend to break the agreement.”
Silence.
Dante’s eyes moved toward the men around the table.
Suddenly everyone looked uncomfortable.
“Anything else?”
Lucy hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“He gives you a phrase to use if you want another meeting. Felix skipped it.”
Dante’s attention snapped back to Felix.
“Why?”
“I thought it was irrelevant.”
Lucy repeated the Russian phrase.
Dante gestured toward the telephone.
“Call Levanov.”
Felix reached for it.
“No,” Dante said.
His eyes remained on Lucy.
“She calls.”
Lucy almost laughed.
Then she realized he was serious.
“I’m a maid.”
“Tonight you’re a translator.”
“I don’t know anything about your business.”
“That may be the first qualification anyone in this room has demonstrated.”
Enzo hid what looked suspiciously like a smile.
Lucy approached the telephone.
Dante gave her the number.
The line connected.
A Russian-speaking man answered.
Lucy introduced herself carefully.
Thirty seconds later, Micaia Levanov came onto the line.
His first question made Lucy glance at Dante.
“What?”
“He wants to know who I am.”
“Tell him.”
Lucy did.
Levanov laughed.
Then he spoke rapidly.
Lucy listened.
“He says your Russian has improved dramatically.”
For the first time, something almost resembling amusement touched Dante’s face.
“Tell him I hired a better teacher.”
The conversation lasted 11 minutes.
When it ended, there would be no attack.
There would be a meeting instead.
Tomorrow.
Neutral territory.
Dante stared at Felix.
“Search him.”
Enzo moved immediately.
Felix backed away.
“This is insane.”
Enzo found a second phone inside Felix’s jacket.
The room changed.
Dante held out his hand.
Felix began sweating.
“It’s personal.”
Dante examined the device.
One unread message glowed across the screen.
DOES HE BELIEVE THE DOCK STORY?
Dante raised his eyes.
Felix ran.
He made it 3 steps.
Enzo caught him and slammed him against the table.
Lucy flinched.
“Take him downstairs,” Dante said.
Felix twisted toward Lucy.
“You stupid little bitch! You have no idea what you just did!”
Lucy froze.
Felix smiled despite Enzo’s grip.
“Ask her who her father worked for.”
The blood drained from Lucy’s face.
Dante noticed.
Of course he noticed.
“Take him,” he repeated.
The doors closed behind Felix and Enzo.
Now only Lucy and Dante remained.
Rain rolled down the windows.
Dante stood.
He was taller than she had realized.
Lucy stepped backward instinctively.
He noticed that too.
“Who was your father?”
“A professor.”
“That wasn’t Felix’s question.”
“He taught linguistics.”
“For whom?”
“Universities.”
“Lucy.”
Hearing her first name in his voice unsettled her more than the threat had.
She looked at him.
“My father translated privately sometimes.”
“For criminals?”
“For anyone who paid.”
Dante studied her.
“And did he work for my family?”
“I don’t know.”
That was almost true.
Dante approached.
Lucy refused to retreat again.
“You speak Russian.”
“Yes.”
“French?”
“Yes.”
“Spanish?”
“Yes.”
“Italian?”
She answered him in flawless Italian.
Dante’s eyebrows rose.
“And the fifth?”
“German.”
He switched languages without warning.
Lucy answered.
French next.
Then Spanish.
Then Russian.
She matched him every time.
By the end, Dante was staring at her as though the gray maid’s uniform had become a disguise.
“How long have you worked in my house?”
“Eight months.”
“And nobody knew?”
“Nobody asked.”
Something in his expression shifted.
Not attraction.
Not yet.
Recognition.
Dante understood invisible people.
They heard everything because powerful men assumed they heard nothing.
“From now on, you attend every international meeting.”
Lucy stared.
“No.”
Dante actually blinked.
Nobody said no to Dante Moretti.
“I’m sorry?”
“I said no.”
“I heard you.”
“Then why ask?”
His mouth almost curved.
“You’re either very brave or completely unaware of who I am.”
“I know exactly who you are.”
“That should make this conversation easier.”
“It doesn’t.”
Lucy reached behind herself and untied her apron.
She folded it carefully.
“I corrected Felix because people could have died over a mistranslation. That doesn’t mean I want his job.”
Dante looked at the apron.
“What do you want?”
“To pay my debt and disappear.”
“How much?”
Lucy hesitated.
“Fifty thousand.”
“To whom?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Everything happening inside my house is my business.”
She said nothing.
Dante moved closer.
“Who owns the debt?”
Lucy’s throat tightened.
“Victor Sanz.”
For the first time that evening, Dante’s control cracked.
Only slightly.
But Lucy saw it.
“Say that again.”
“Victor Sanz.”
Dante turned toward the window.
Sanz was not merely a loan shark.
He was the financier behind one of the factions trying to dismantle the Moretti organization.
“How did your father owe Sanz money?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante turned back.
“That answer is becoming inconvenient.”
“It’s still the truth.”
His telephone vibrated.
Dante checked the message.
His face became stone.
Lucy watched him read it twice.
“What happened?”
He lifted his eyes.
“Felix is dead.”
Lucy’s stomach dropped.
“Enzo?”
“No. Felix bit into something hidden inside a dental crown.”
Poison.
Lucy gripped the chair beside her.
Dante crossed to Felix’s abandoned briefcase.
Inside were documents, a wallet, and a thin black notebook.
He opened it.
Several pages were filled with coded entries.
Then Dante stopped.
Lucy saw something she had never expected to see on his face.
Shock.
“What?”
Dante turned the notebook around.
Written across the page was a list of names.
At the top:
PROFESSOR WARREN — TRANSLATION ARCHIVE.
Below it:
LUCY WARREN — LOCATED.
Lucy stopped breathing.
The next line was worse.
MORETTI ESTATE. EIGHT MONTHS.
Dante looked up.
“You weren’t hiding in my house.”
Lucy stared at the page.
“No.”
May you like
His voice dropped.
“Someone put you here.”
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