Chapter 9 - The Traitor Upstairs
Dante stared at the gun.
I stared at Titan.
He did not react as if Nonna had been there recently.
That mattered.
Someone wanted us to believe she had taken Marcus.
Victor checked the weapon.
Registered to Nonna.
One round fired.
Blood marked the barrel.
Dante called her phone.
It rang inside the room.
“Setup,” I said.
Dante nodded.
We searched.
Behind the wardrobe was another service passage.
The mansion was full of them.
Old houses had secrets built into architecture.
This one had weaponized them.
Titan led us downward.
We found Nonna in the wine cellar.
Hands tied.
Alive.
She had been struck from behind.
“Marcus?” Dante asked.
She shook her head.
“I heard him shouting.”
“Who took you?”
“I didn’t see.”
“But?”
Nonna hesitated.
“I smelled his cologne.”
Dante went still.
“Whose?”
“Gabriel.”
Gabriel was supposed to be recovering under guard.
His room was empty.
IV line cut.
Window open.
Victor cursed.
I remembered Titan’s first reaction to Gabriel.
Fear.
Recognition.
Then later, no aggression.
Could Gabriel have trained Titan?
Could he have been both investigator and traitor?
We found his medical bed soaked with fake blood.
The bullet wound had been real.
But not life-threatening.
A performance.
Dante pulled up Northstar transactions again.
Payments to Gabriel had started years before Victor’s investigation.
Too early.
“He lied,” Dante said.
Victor looked sick.
“So did I.”
Everyone turned.
Victor admitted Gabriel had recruited him.
Not Dante.
Gabriel told Victor he was investigating Northstar on Dante’s behalf.
Dante had never authorized it.
Gabriel had controlled both sides.
He was the traitor upstairs.
But Stefano?
“Partners,” Claudia said.
Gabriel ran operations inside the estate.
Stefano controlled Northstar outside.
Then we found the final proof.
Video from the night Victor supposedly died.
Restored from a hidden backup.
Victor entered Titan’s kennel.
Gabriel followed.
A third man attacked Victor.
Titan attacked the third man.
Gabriel stabbed Victor.
Titan turned on Gabriel.
Gabriel escaped.
The dog had saved Victor.
Not killed him.
Titan had spent months being feared for a murder he had tried to prevent.
I knelt beside him.
“You were a good boy.”
His tail moved once.
Dante crouched beside us.
Something in his face broke.
“I almost had him killed.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I thought he murdered Victor.”
“You still didn’t.”
Titan licked Dante’s hand.
Forgiveness could be embarrassingly simple for dogs.
Humans made it harder.
Gabriel called.
Video.
Marcus sat tied to a chair.
Alive.
Behind him stood Gabriel.
“Bring Rosie and Titan.”
Dante’s voice became ice.
“No.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Then your brother learns what happened to Alessandro.”
Marcus looked up.
Gabriel held a syringe.
I stepped closer to the camera.
“I’ll come.”
Dante turned.
“No.”
“I’m the person they need.”
“That’s why you’re not going.”
“Marcus is my brother too.”
“And mine.”
We stared at each other.
There was no winning that argument.
So we stopped trying.
We made a plan.
Claudia would access Northstar’s backup accounts.
Victor would contact the federal investigator Alessandro had secretly trusted.
Nonna would stay protected.
Dante and I would go to the location.
Titan would come because Gabriel demanded him.
But Titan would not be a weapon.
He would be our tracker.
Before leaving, Dante stopped me in the laundry room.
“If we survive this—”
“When.”
His eyes softened.
“When we survive this, I owe you an apology.”
“For kidnapping me?”
“I prefer aggressively requesting your presence.”
“You locked the gates.”
“Details.”
Despite everything, I smiled.
Then he became serious.
“For saying you were mine.”
I looked at him.
“What should you have said?”
“That I wanted you to stay.”
My heart stumbled.
“Better.”
He touched my cheek.
He waited.
I closed the distance.
The kiss was brief.
Quiet.
Nothing like the violent world around us.
When we separated, Titan sneezed loudly.
I laughed.
Dante rested his forehead against mine.
Then my phone buzzed.
New video.
Marcus’s chair was empty.
Gabriel stood alone.
He looked directly into the camera.
“You’re too late.”
Behind him, a steel door slowly opened.
Someone stepped through.
Dante saw the face first.
May you like
His hand dropped from mine.
Because the man entering the room was Alessandro Castellano...
