Chapter 3 - The Man Titan Hated
Vincent smiled.
It was the kind of smile Elena had learned to distrust long before entering the Moretti mansion.
Too quick.
Too polished.
Too ready.
“What’s going on?”
Titan moved between Vincent and the bed.
Vincent stopped.
Adrian noticed.
“So did I.”
Vincent’s smile tightened.
“Did I miss something?”
Adrian opened his hand.
The silver pendant rested against his palm.
All color left Vincent’s face.
Only for a second.
But Elena saw it.
So did Dante.
“Where did you get that?” Vincent asked.
Adrian studied him.
“Why?”
“Because it belonged to Isabella.”
“You recognize it.”
“Of course.”
Vincent looked at Elena, then Sophia.
“Why are the maid and her child in here?”
The word maid was delivered with enough contempt to make Elena’s shoulders stiffen.
Adrian’s eyes chilled.
“They have names.”
Vincent gave a short laugh.
“Since when do you care?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
Titan growled again.
Vincent backed into the hall.
“I came to see whether you were alive.”
“Disappointed?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Adrian closed his fist.
“We’ll talk tonight.”
Vincent left.
Titan remained standing until his footsteps disappeared.
Then he lay down.
Dante quietly closed the door.
“Boss.”
“I know.”
“You saw his face.”
“I saw.”
Reynolds returned that evening with blood-test results.
Nothing immediately life-threatening appeared, but one result bothered him enough to order additional toxicology screening.
Adrian disliked the suggestion.
“Poison?”
“I said screening.”
“Same implication.”
“You collapsed without warning. Your blood pressure dropped severely. You’re going to let me investigate.”
Elena listened from the doorway while collecting a breakfast tray that had somehow survived untouched until dinner.
Titan sniffed the water glass on Adrian’s bedside table.
He refused to drink.
Again.
Elena stopped.
“Doctor?”
Reynolds glanced over.
She hesitated.
“What?”
“Titan did that downstairs.”
“Did what?”
“He smelled Mr. Moretti’s broken glass and backed away.”
Dante straightened.
Adrian looked at the fresh water.
Elena stepped closer.
“Don’t drink that.”
Dante immediately took the glass.
He smelled it.
“Nothing.”
“Dogs smell things we don’t.”
Adrian’s gaze went to Titan.
The dog had retreated three feet.
Reynolds put the glass into a sample bag.
The results arrived after midnight.
A sedative was present.
Not enough to kill Adrian.
Enough to incapacitate him.
Dante locked down the mansion.
Nobody left.
Phones were collected from household staff.
Security footage was reviewed.
The water had come from the kitchen.
Four people had handled the tray.
None appeared suspicious.
Then Dante discovered seven minutes missing from a hallway camera.
Adrian watched the blank section twice.
“Who controls the security system?”
“Me.”
“Who else has administrative access?”
Dante hesitated.
“Vincent.”
Silence.
But Vincent was no longer in the mansion.
His car had passed the gate nineteen minutes before the lockdown.
The next morning, Adrian summoned Elena.
She entered expecting questions.
Instead she found Sophia sitting on the rug with Titan, arranging toy animals across his enormous back.
The dog looked humiliated.
Adrian looked entertained.
“Sophia.”
Elena put her hands on her hips.
“What did I say about wandering?”
Sophia pointed toward Adrian.
“He invited me.”
Elena looked at the mafia boss.
He raised one hand.
“Guilty.”
Something about seeing this feared man accepting responsibility to a five-year-old nearly made her laugh.
She resisted.
Barely.
Adrian held out the pendant.
“I need you to show me exactly where Sophia found this.”
They went to the kitchen garden.
Titan led them.
Behind a stone bench stood a narrow bed of overgrown lavender.
Sophia pointed.
“There.”
Dante searched the ground.
Nothing.
Then Titan began digging.
His paws tore through damp earth near the wall.
After less than a minute, his claws struck metal.
Dante crouched.
A rusted tin box had been buried beneath the soil.
Inside was a photograph.
Isabella.
Adrian.
And Vincent.
All three much younger.
Behind it was a small brass key and a folded note sealed inside plastic.
Adrian opened it.
His expression changed as he read.
“What does it say?” Dante asked.
Adrian handed it over.
Dante read aloud.
“If anything happens to me, do not trust the accident report. V knows about the Harbor Ledger.”
Adrian went motionless.
Elena looked at him.
“What’s the Harbor Ledger?”
Dante answered.
“Something that supposedly never existed.”
Adrian took the note.
“My father kept records of payments, judges, politicians, shell companies, every dirty arrangement that built the Moretti organization.”
“Why would Isabella have it?” Elena asked.
“She was an accountant before we married.”
Adrian stared at the handwriting.
“She discovered things.”
His voice roughened.
“Things I told her to leave alone.”
Elena understood what he wasn’t saying.
He had not believed his wife.
Now he was holding proof she had tried to warn him.
Titan suddenly barked.
Once.
Violently.
Dante drew his weapon.
A window shattered.
Elena barely registered the sound before Adrian grabbed Sophia and threw both of them behind the stone bench.
A second shot struck the wall.
Titan launched himself toward the hedge.
“Inside!” Dante shouted.
Adrian covered Sophia with his body.
Elena crawled toward them.
Then Titan emerged from the hedge dragging a man by his jacket.
The shooter screamed.
Dante’s guards surrounded him.
Adrian rose slowly.
Sophia clung to his neck.
He did not put her down.
Dante pulled the shooter’s mask away.
Nobody recognized him.
But inside the man’s pocket was a phone.
One unsent message glowed on its screen.
Dante read it.
Then looked at Adrian.
“What?”
Dante’s voice was grim.
“It says, ‘The child found the box.’”
Adrian’s arms tightened around Sophia.
The warmth disappeared from his face.
May you like
Someone had not fired at him.
Someone had come because of her.
