Chapter 1 - THE SHADOW IN THE NURSERYThe cold steel of the knife pressed against my pulse point, just deep enough to draw a single, hot bead of blood.
In my arms, little Leo whimpered, his small hand instinctively tangling in the fabric of my sweater. He didn't know the power grid had been hacked. He didn’t know the men outside the nursery door weren't standard estate guards. He only knew it was dark, and I was shaking.
"Don't move," the voice breathed against my ear.
It belonged to Julian Vance—the head of security. The man who had spent the last three weeks scrutinizing my every move, tracking my footsteps through the mansion's corridors, and questioning my credentials.
"Julian," I whispered back, my voice trembling not with fear, but with a cold, rising fury. "If you hurt this child, Matteo will skin you alive."
A dark, humorless chuckle vibrated against my shoulder. "Matteo thinks he owns this empire. He thinks sealing the borders makes him a king. But kings fall when the foundation rots from the inside." Julian’s grip tightened, dragging me backward toward the shadows of the arched doorway. "And you, Elena? You were never supposed to be a nanny. You were the bait."
Bait.
The word echoed in my mind, freezing my blood. Matteo didn't just hire me because I saved his son. He didn't just pay my debts out of some twisted sense of debt. He knew who I was the entire time because he orchestrated the trap. Or worse... someone inside his inner circle did.
Suddenly, a blinding beam of light shattered the darkness.
"Let her go, Julian."
May you like
Matteo stood at the end of the corridor. He wasn't holding a gun this time. He was holding something far worse: a silencer-fitted pistol, his knuckles stark white, his eyes burning with a murderous, terrifying rage. The air in the hallway dropped ten degrees.
Julian didn't flinch. Instead, the edge of his blade pressed a fraction of an inch deeper into my skin. "Drop the weapon, Matteo. Or the nurse joins your dead wife."
