Page 209 of Mine Again
I force my eyelids open when we roll through the gates of a stone estate, lights sweeping across manicured hedges and ironwork. The guards at the entrance straighten as we pass, eyes tracking the SUV.
The vehicle crunches to a stop on the gravel drive. One of the guards steps out, pulls open my door, and motions me forward. I let him fall in beside me as we climb the stairs.
My eyes take in everything. It’s become a habit, ensuring my survival. Cameras tucked in the eaves. Men at the corners, rifles in hand. The security is tight, but not suffocating. Classic old school. Efficient, not flashy.
I’m led through a quiet hall lined with oil paintings and into a study paneled in mahogany. Aldo sits behind his desk, silver-gray hair neat, his dark suit immaculate. His eyes are sharp, calculating, the way only a consigliere’s can be.
“Luca Caruso,” he says, his tone even. “This is unexpected.”
His tone gives no hint whether I’ll be shown to a guest room or a dungeon.
Then movement in the corner makes me turn, and I watch as Isa’s mother rises from an armchair.
My chest tightens.
She’s moving toward me, her hand covering her mouth, eyes shining. For a moment, she looks young again, so much like Isa it nearly knocks the air from my lungs.
It’s the same warm smile she used to greet me with when Isa and I were teenagers slipping through her halls, stealing time that wasn’t ours. That softness digs into me like a blade.
“Luca,” she breathes. “Madonna mia, it’s really you.”
Her voice trembles. She steps closer, reaching as if to touch my face but stopping short, like I might disappear if she does.
For a moment, the rage burning in me since Tangier flickers. The heat falls away, replaced by something heavier. Guilt.
“When I heard… about the marriage… I was glad. Glad, even if you kept it a secret. Though it hurt that Isa had to sneak out of the house and the country like that. Why didn’t either of you tell me you were coming back?”
She looks past me, as if Isa is just out of sight. Hope lights her features for an instant before it crumbles.
“Where is Isa? And what’s with that hacker name being splashed all over the news? I recognized you straight away from the published footage. Please tell me that cyberattack wasn’t you.”
“It wasn’t me,” I reassure her. “Carter Hale is behind it.”
“The billionaire?” she asks, confused.
I nod and look her dead in the eye. “And he’s kidnapped Isa.”
Her gasp tears the air. Her hands twist together, trembling. Guilt digs in deep. Isa is in Hale’s hands because of me.
“No…Dio mio, no. What does he want with her? And if he’s behind that dreadful attack, why is he blaming you?”
Her worried eyes turn to Aldo, who rises from his seat, stepping up beside her and winding his arm around her shoulders.
“Let’s sit down. You’ll start from the beginning,” he says. There’s no give in his tone.
I tell him what he needs to know, no more. How Hale has been circling me for years under the name The Jackal. How he’s used Isa as bait to force my hand. And how Delaware wasn’t my breach but his.
Every word is clipped, stripped of anything extra. They don’t need to know the depth of what Isa and I have been through. Only that Hale is behind it and that he has her now.
“I can’t get Isa back on my own. I need manpower,” I finish, staring at him. “Digging into Hale’s network, anticipating his moves, that’s the easy part. But I can’t take his fortress down on my own. I want to make a deal with Don Marcos.”
Aldo doesn’t move. His gaze pins me, weighing every syllable.
“Your presence here is dangerous,” he says finally. “You walked into Chicago with Interpol at your back. If it becomes known you’re here, it isn’t only you who burns. It will bring the weight of Homeland Security and every agency in this country crashing down on us. That’s what you’re asking me to risk.”
Catarina wrings her hands harder, turning to her suitor with wide, desperate eyes.
“Aldo, this is my daughter we’re talking about. Call Maximo. Isa is out there with a maniac. God knows what he’ll do to her. Every moment we waste, she’s in more danger.”
