The room was cold. Not from the air, but from the silence.

I hadn’t spoken to Luca in two days.

He’d tried.

He brought me roses. My favorite dessert. He dismissed half the guards so I could breathe.

But I didn’t want any of it.

I wanted the truth. And nothing he said could change that he gave the order that killed my mother.

So I did the one thing he’d never expect.

I made a deal with his enemy.

“Elio,” I whispered, when he answered the burner phone.

“Took you long enough,” he said.

“I want to meet. Alone.”

“Are you ready to burn this place down?”

“No. I...