Chapter 1
“You wanted to teach my son strength,” I said, watching Javier crawl backward through the grass. “Remember who taught you fear.”
He stopped moving.
Around us, nearly forty members of the Romano family had gone silent. Smoke still drifted from the barbecue grills, half-filled glasses sat abandoned on the tables, and somewhere behind me Mia was crying quietly while Leo tried very hard not to.
Javier looked at my children, then at me.
That was the first thing I noticed.
Not shame.
Calculation.
I had just put him face-down in front of the family, yet he was still thinking about Leo.
I turned slightly toward my bodyguards.
“Take the children inside.”
Leo immediately shook his head. “Dad, no.”
I looked at him.
His face was pale, but anger had started replacing fear.
“I need to tell you why he grabbed me.”
Javier’s expression changed.
Small.
Fast.
Enough.
I crouched beside Leo.
“Tell me.”
He looked toward Javier before speaking.
“I found something.”
Clara, Javier’s wife, had been standing near the patio doors. At that sentence, the wineglass in her hand stopped halfway to her mouth.
Two reactions.
One secret.
“What did you find?”
Leo reached into his trouser pocket.
Empty.
His eyes widened.
“I had it.”
Javier laughed from the grass.
“Kids lose things.”
I looked at him.
“You seem very interested in what my son loses.”
He said nothing.
Leo checked his other pocket, then looked toward the place where Javier had pinned him.
“He was searching me.”
The entire yard seemed to tighten.
This had never been discipline.
Never a stupid argument.
Javier had put a knee into my son’s back because he wanted something Leo was carrying.
“What was it?”
Leo swallowed.
“A little black key.”
Clara went white.
Javier stopped pretending to smile.
I stood slowly.
“What does it open?”
Nobody answered.
Then Mia spoke from behind one of my guards.
“I know.”
Every adult turned toward her.
She pointed toward Javier.
“He told Clara it opens Uncle Matteo’s room.”
I felt something cold move through me.
May you like
My uncle Matteo Romano had been dead for nine years.
And apparently Javier had spent a family barbecue attacking my son over a key to a dead man’s room.
