Chapter 6 - The Man at Lucian’s Table
Adrian smiled.
He was sixty, silver-haired, immaculate, and looked more like a senator than a man accused of maintaining a criminal financial network.
Lucian stepped between him and Camille.
“How did you get that key?”
Adrian looked at it.
“This?”
He placed it on the table.
“Your security team found it in the driveway.”
Enzo immediately said, “No, we didn’t.”
Adrian’s smile faded.
Lucian’s voice became quiet.
“Explain.”
“I just did.”
“You lied.”
“Be careful, Lucian.”
Camille almost laughed.
Lucian heard it.
So did Adrian.
“What is amusing?” Adrian asked.
Camille answered.
“You told him to be careful.”
“Yes.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because frightened people often disguise warnings as advice.”
Adrian looked at her for the first time with genuine interest.
“So this is the etiquette coach.”
“This is Camille,” Lucian said.
The correction mattered.
Camille noticed.
Adrian did too.
“I see.”
Lucian moved closer.
“Why were you in her apartment?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Then why do you have her key?”
“I told you.”
“Enzo says you lied.”
Adrian looked at Enzo.
“Perhaps Enzo is mistaken.”
“I’m not,” Enzo said.
The room tightened.
Isabella closed the ledger.
Adrian’s eyes moved toward it.
There.
Camille saw it.
A flicker.
Recognition.
“You know that book,” she said.
Adrian smiled.
“I know many books.”
“Not like that.”
Lucian glanced at Camille.
She continued.
“You looked at it before you looked at Isabella.”
Adrian’s smile disappeared.
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
Camille had spent her career studying tiny social mistakes.
A guest reaching for the wrong glass.
A diplomat forgetting a name.
A liar checking the reaction of the person who knew the truth.
Adrian had walked into a room containing a woman missing for fourteen years.
Yet the ledger had frightened him more.
“Daniel taught you well,” Isabella said.
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“He taught all of you badly.”
Lucian moved.
Enzo moved faster, positioning himself between them.
“No,” Camille said.
Lucian looked at her.
“Don’t give him what he wants.”
“What does he want?”
“You angry.”
Adrian smiled again.
Camille knew she was right.
“If Lucian threatens him,” she said, “then suddenly this becomes a dispute between dangerous men instead of a question about evidence.”
Lucian’s hands relaxed.
Adrian’s smile vanished.
Camille turned toward him.
“Please sit.”
He blinked.
Matteo actually laughed.
“Here we go.”
Adrian remained standing.
Camille pulled out a chair.
“Please.”
“I don’t take instructions from you.”
“No. But refusing a chair because I offered it makes you look nervous.”
Adrian sat.
Matteo whispered, “She’s terrifying.”
Lucian almost smiled.
Isabella opened the ledger.
“Daniel found transfers from Moretti Holdings into shell companies controlled by Adrian.”
“That proves nothing.”
“We also have Elaine’s records.”
“Old records.”
“And Daniel’s.”
“A dead man cannot testify.”
Camille watched him.
There it was again.
Too quick.
Too comfortable.
“How did you know Daniel was dead before the crash was reported?” she asked.
Adrian stared at her.
Lucian turned.
“What?”
Camille pointed to the ledger.
“You just called him a dead man in relation to his evidence. That’s normal now.”
She looked at Isabella.
“But you said Daniel had been investigating Adrian before the crash. Did Adrian know?”
“I believe so.”
Camille looked back at Adrian.
“If he knew Daniel had evidence, he had motive.”
Adrian stood.
“This is absurd.”
Lucian did not stop him.
Adrian straightened his jacket.
“You are letting a woman you met yesterday dismantle decades of loyalty.”
“No,” Lucian said.
“I’m letting her ask questions you expected me never to ask.”
Adrian’s face changed.
Only for a second.
But the mask slipped.
“You ungrateful boy.”
Lucian became completely still.
Camille understood.
Adrian had spoken to him exactly as Vittorio once had.
Lucian understood too.
“You should leave.”
“This is my company too.”
“No.”
Lucian’s voice remained calm.
“You work for it.”
Adrian laughed.
“You think you can dismiss me?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know where the bodies are buried.”
Matteo stopped smiling.
Isabella whispered, “Adrian.”
He realized too late what he had said.
Lucian stared.
“Which bodies?”
Adrian reached for the door.
Enzo blocked it.
Camille spoke.
“Let him leave.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Why?” Lucian asked.
“Because if you detain him, he’ll claim coercion.”
Adrian smiled.
Camille continued.
“And because the police already have my computer.”
His smile disappeared.
“You called the police?”
“I did.”
Lucian watched Adrian carefully.
“And I didn’t stop her.”
That frightened Adrian more than any threat had.
Camille saw it.
His entire strategy depended on Lucian behaving predictably.
Angry.
Controlling.
Secretive.
But Camille had changed the rules.
Or perhaps Lucian had.
Adrian left.
Enzo followed discreetly.
Isabella exhaled.
“He’ll destroy evidence.”
“Probably,” Camille said.
Matteo frowned.
“And we let him?”
“No.”
Camille looked at Lucian.
“We let him show us where it is.”
Lucian smiled slowly.
“That isn’t etiquette.”
“You’d be surprised what they teach in advanced courses.”
For the first time in years, Lucian Moretti let someone else design the plan.
Enzo tracked Adrian through legal security systems connected to company vehicles.
Adrian drove downtown.
He entered Moretti Holdings.
Then he went to a restricted records floor.
Lucian called the company’s independent compliance counsel.
Not one of his private men.
Not a fixer.
A lawyer.
Camille noticed.
“You’re doing it legally.”
“I’m learning.”
“You hate it.”
“Deeply.”
She smiled.
Hours passed.
Police obtained warrants based on evidence from Camille’s office intrusion and the financial documents.
By evening, investigators entered Moretti Holdings.
Adrian disappeared before they reached his office.
But he left something behind.
A safe.
Inside were copies of Daniel’s files.
Photographs of Elaine.
Photographs of Isabella.
Photographs of Camille.
One showed Camille entering her office only three weeks earlier.
Someone had been watching her.
Another showed Lucian leaving Daniel’s funeral.
On the back:
HE WILL NEVER CHANGE.
Camille handed it to Lucian.
“Adrian believed that.”
“Maybe he was right.”
“No.”
Lucian looked at her.
“You changed the moment you let Matteo be angry with you.”
“That’s a low standard.”
“It’s a beginning.”
Later, Camille stood alone on the mansion terrace.
Lucian joined her.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I don’t.”
“I noticed.”
He leaned against the railing.
“Adrian escaped.”
“For tonight.”
“You could leave.”
“Yes.”
“I can arrange protection anywhere.”
“I know.”
“But you’re staying.”
Camille looked at him.
“I haven’t finished your lessons.”
He laughed.
A real laugh this time.
Low and surprised.
She had never heard it before.
“I thought I fired you.”
“You did.”
“And?”
“You were rude about it, so I ignored you.”
He turned toward her.
“Camille.”
The humor disappeared.
“What?”
“I don’t want you staying because you think you owe Daniel something.”
“I don’t.”
“Or your mother.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why?”
She stepped closer.
“Because someone spent years teaching you that control was the only way to keep people from leaving.”
Lucian looked away.
“And?”
“I’d like to see what happens when you stop.”
His eyes returned to hers.
“Dangerous experiment.”
“Probably.”
He touched her cheek again.
This time he didn’t need to ask verbally.
He paused.
Waited.
Camille closed the distance.
Their kiss was brief.
Gentle.
Nothing like the man’s reputation.
When they separated, Lucian rested his forehead against hers.
“I suppose Matteo will be unbearable.”
“Absolutely.”
A phone rang inside.
Lucian sighed.
“Don’t answer it.”
“That doesn’t sound responsible.”
“I’m trying spontaneity.”
The phone continued.
Then Matteo appeared at the terrace door.
His face was pale.
“Lucian.”
Something in his voice changed everything.
“What?”
“Adrian called me.”
Lucian straightened.
“What did he say?”
Matteo held up his phone.
“He said Daniel’s crash wasn’t meant to kill Daniel.”
Camille felt cold.
Lucian took the phone.
A text message had arrived.
THE BRAKES WERE MEANT FOR SOMEONE ELSE.
Another message appeared.
Lucian read it.
His face drained of color.
Camille stepped closer.
“Who?”
He turned the screen toward her.
May you like
The message contained only two words.
CAMILLE BROOKS.
