THE SECOND ANIMAL

The silence in the room was absolute, broken only by the distant, muffled sound of rain lashing against the mansion's massive windows.

“My mother?” I repeated, staring at the parchment in Luca’s hand. “That’s impossible. She’s a housekeeper. She can barely afford rent.”

“She’s a ghost,” Luca murmured, his eyes tracing the elegant, looping signature of his late father at the bottom of the deed. “My father gave her the only clean asset we had. He trusted her more than his own blood.”

It all made terrifying sense. My mother had raised Alessandro and Luca. She had hidden Alessandro’s wife and child for five years. And she was holding the deed to a fifty-million-dollar legitimate estate, keeping it safe until the boys were ready to walk away from the mafia.

Vanessa hadn’t just wanted the bearer bonds in the vault. She wanted the vineyard. She wanted everything.

“Boss,” Marco wheezed from the radiator. “You’re wasting time. Bellini’s men are already downstairs. They’re heavily armed.”

Luca folded the deed and slipped it into his inner pocket. He looked at me, his dark eyes intense, filled with a promise that made my heart ache.

“Get in the panic room, Emma,” Luca ordered softly.

He pulled a hidden lever behind a row of heavy encyclopedias on the bookshelf. The wall hissed, sliding open to reveal a reinforced steel room equipped with monitors, water, and a heavy locking mechanism.

I picked up Leo, who buried his face in my neck, and stepped inside. Bruno followed close behind, his tail tucked slightly.

“I’ll come back for you,” Luca promised.

The steel door slid shut, locking us in silence.

I set Leo down on the small cot and turned to the bank of security monitors on the wall. The screens displayed every hallway, entrance, and room in the mansion.

I watched Luca walk down the grand staircase, a suppressed pistol in his hand. He moved with a terrifying grace, a predator in his own territory.

But as I looked at the bottom row of monitors showing the sub-basement vault, something was wrong.

The hallway outside the vault was empty. There were no catering staff. No armed hitters trying to bypass the biometric scanners. The heavy steel door of the vault was completely undisturbed.

I switched to the camera showing the study, where Vanessa had been locked inside.

The study was empty. The door was blown off its hinges. The two guards Luca had stationed outside were lying motionless on the floor.

My blood ran cold.

“It’s a distraction,” I whispered to the empty room.

Marco had lied. He told Luca the men were hitting the vault to draw him down to the basement, away from the upper floors.

I frantically scanned the monitors, looking for the twelve armed men.

I found them.

They weren’t in the basement. They were on the third floor. Moving silently down the hallway, led by a woman in a torn red silk gown holding a handgun.

Vanessa.

She wasn't after the vault. She knew the bonds were worthless without the legal paperwork.

She was coming to the guest suite. She was coming to finish the job. She was coming for Leo.

“Leo, hide under the cot,” I ordered, my voice trembling but firm.

The little boy didn't argue. He scrambled under the heavy steel bedframe. Bruno lay down right in front of the cot, bearing his teeth in the dark.

I slammed my hand against the intercom button on the wall.

“Luca!” I screamed into the microphone, praying he had an earpiece or was near a speaker. “They aren’t at the vault! They’re on the third floor! It’s a trap!”

On the monitor, I saw Luca freeze in the basement hallway. He looked up at the ceiling security camera, realization dawning on his face. He instantly turned and sprinted toward the stairwell.

But he was five floors down.

On the third-floor monitor, Vanessa and four armed men kicked open the door to the guest suite.

They saw Marco tied to the radiator. Vanessa didn't even blink. She raised her gun and shot Marco twice in the chest.

Then she turned her attention to the bookcase.

She knew about the panic room.

“Blow it open,” Vanessa commanded on the audio feed, stepping back.

One of the men stepped forward, pulling a block of C4 explosive from his tactical vest. He slapped it directly onto the seam of the hidden steel door.

I backed away, grabbing a heavy wool blanket from the cot and throwing it over Leo and Bruno. I curled my body over them, squeezing my eyes shut.