Page 182 of Mine Again
Something sharp flickers in his eyes.
“Funny enough…youhelped.”
Chapter Sixty-Six
Luca
Isa shifts beside me, her body turning toward mine.
Her brows lift, eyes narrowing with confusion.
“Me?” she asks, curious. “I helped you discover who the Jackal was?”
“Yes, Hale got cocky when he sent Moretti to seduce you. At that restaurant on your birthday, I didn’t like how conveniently he showed up, and I needed to know who the hell he was and why he was orbiting you.
“I ran facial recognition. Nothing came up. That’s always a red flag.”
“Why? He might have been someone careful not to leave a digital footprint,” she says, frowning.
“Not in this day and age. Even a careful person has a driver’s license photo, a tagged picture, surveillance footage from a traffic camera… something. When there’s nothing, it usually means someone has gone out of their way to wipe it. And only people with money, power, or something to hide do that. That made me even more curious.”
I pause for a beat.
“When I couldn’t find anything on the man who couldn’t take hiseyes off you, I looked into the other people he was with that night. They weren’t protected. Through them, I found out who he was.”
I let out a frustrated sigh.
“When I dug into Sebastian Moretti’s family, I found the connection to Carter Hale. They were distant cousins, something neither of them advertised. Their mothers had a falling-out, and the families don’t talk anymore.”
Isa sits down, her eyes connecting with mine.
“And that was enough to make you suspicious?”
“Suspicious, yes. But it wasn’t confirmation. That came later.”
She doesn’t speak, just waits for me to continue.
“Once I saw Hale’s name, I couldn’t let it go. I’d heard of him, of course. Silicon Valley’s darling billionaire. Flashy interviews. Smug smile. So I watched one of his old talks. Tech conference bullshit… digital ethics and innovation.”
I look at the ceiling, recalling the video. “When he spoke… something was nagging me.”
“What?” Isa asks gently.
“The cadence. His phrasing. The way he built his arguments. It reminded me of a worm I’d seen on a job a year ago, fast, brutal, surgically precise. It was a vicious, brilliant code. The kind you never forget because only one man could have written it.”
I glance over at her. “The Jackal.”
There’s a beat of silence.
“You recognized his… code, from how hespoke?”
“I recognized his mind,” I say, my voice like flint. “Same pattern. Same arrogance. Same belief he’s smarter than everyone else.”
I stare at her now.
“Sending Moretti after you was Hale’s mistake. That’s what pulled the thread.
“I dug deeper into your suitor’s finances. He had a secret offshore account. Five million dollars were deposited on your birthday. Coincidence? I didn’t think so.
