Chapter 3 - The Ghost in the Machine"Clear the perimeter! Lock down sector four!" Marcus’s voice bellowed through the estate's comms, tearing through the mansion like shrapnel.
I rushed to the bed, dropping to my knees. Lily didn't scream anymore; she was catatonic, her big blue eyes locked on the bloody token. I pulled her into my arms, wrapping her small, shivering frame against me just like I had in the alley.
"I'm here, little bird," I whispered, the words slipping out naturally, echoing Dominic's exact pet name for her. "You're safe."
Dominic burst into the room a second later, a 9mm pistol drawn and ready to kill. His eyes swept the room, darting from the open balcony to the bloody bracelet on the bed. When he saw me holding his daughter, his chest heaving with controlled fury, the gun slowly lowered. But the look in his eyes was terrifying.
"How?" Dominic's voice was a lethal whisper. "How did they get past the biometric grid?"
"They didn't," I said, my voice shaking as I stroked Lily's tangled blonde hair. "The system wasn't hacked from the outside, Dominic. The window was unlocked from the inside."
Dominic froze. He stepped slowly to the balcony, examining the latch. It wasn't forced; it had been slid open smoothly, bypassing the magnetic alarms. Only three people in this entire estate had the master override codes to disarm the balcony sensors: Dominic, Marcus, and Elena, the head housekeeper who had served the Rosetti family for thirty years.
"Bring Elena to the study. Now," Dominic commanded into his lapel mic.
Five minutes later, Elena stood before us. She didn't look like a traitor. She looked like a grieving grandmother. But as her eyes flicked from Dominic’s frozen face to the bloody bracelet, and finally to me, a cold, mocking smile touched the corner of her lips.
"You think you won by saving her tonight, Dominic?" Elena laughed softly, a chilling sound in the opulent room. "The wolf is already inside the fold."
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Before Dominic could pull the trigger, Elena bit down hard on her back molar. A dark, foaming liquid spilled from her lips, and she collapsed to the floor, seizing violently before going completely still.
Cyanide capsule. True Rosetti syndicate style.
