Chapter 1
The Second Animal
Vanessa's champagne glass trembled so violently that a drop spilled over the rim.
No one moved.
Twenty-six guests stood frozen around the dining room while the rain beat against the tall windows.
Luca looked at his fiancée.
“What second animal?”
Vanessa swallowed.
The security guard shifted his weight.
“Sir, the driver said Mrs. Bellini gave him photographs of both.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
“Both what?”
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“The dog... and Miss Sullivan.”
Every sound in the room disappeared.
I honestly thought I'd heard him wrong.
“Me?”
Vanessa's face went white.
Luca didn't look at me.
He kept staring at her.
“Explain.”
“Luca, this is insane.”
“Then it should be easy to explain.”
Vanessa put down her glass.
“I didn't tell anyone to hurt her.”
The fact that she'd chosen those exact words made my stomach drop.
Luca noticed too.
“I didn't ask whether you told anyone to hurt her.”
Vanessa's lips parted.
Nothing came out.
One of the guests quietly reached for his wife's hand.
Another looked toward the doors.
Everyone in that room knew Luca Moretti's reputation.
Nobody wanted to be present when he lost his temper.
But Luca didn't shout.
That was somehow worse.
He looked at his security man.
“Bring the driver inside.”
“Luca—”
“Not another word, Vanessa.”
She actually flinched.
The guard left.
Bruno leaned heavily against Luca's leg.
The old dog was exhausted.
I knelt beside him.
“Sir, he needs the veterinarian.”
Luca's attention instantly shifted.
He touched Bruno's head.
“You're right.”
Then he looked at another guard.
“Call Dr. Harris. Tell him to come here. Now.”
“Yes, sir.”
Vanessa laughed nervously.
“You're calling a veterinarian in the middle of our engagement dinner?”
Luca slowly looked at her.
“My dog was locked in a garage without water.”
He paused.
“My employee was apparently scheduled to disappear.”
“I said I didn't want her hurt!”
I stared at Vanessa.
“So you did arrange for someone to take me?”
Her face changed.
She realized she'd just admitted it.
Luca took one step toward her.
“Why?”
Vanessa backed away.
“Because she was threatening me.”
“I never threatened you.”
“You refused to follow my instructions!”
“You told me to abandon a sick dog.”
“You had no right to interfere!”
“He lives here.”
“So do I!”
“Not anymore.”
Luca said it quietly.
Vanessa stopped breathing.
Around us, several people looked away.
She stared at him.
“What did you say?”
Luca reached into his jacket.
He removed a small velvet box.
The engagement ring box.
Then he placed it on the dining table.
“You don't live here anymore.”
Vanessa's expression twisted.
“You're ending our engagement over a dog?”
“No.”
His eyes became cold.
“I'm ending it because you lied to me, imprisoned something I love, and hired a stranger to remove a woman from my home.”
“I was trying to protect us!”
“From a housekeeper?”
Vanessa looked at me.
There was real hatred in her face now.
“You don't know what she heard.”
I felt a chill.
Luca heard it too.
“What did she hear?”
Vanessa went still.
I frowned.
“I didn't hear anything.”
“Think carefully,” Luca said.
I tried.
Laundry.
The scratching.
The garage.
Vanessa's money.
The driver.
Nothing else.
Then I remembered.
Yesterday afternoon.
I'd been cleaning the upstairs library.
Vanessa had been in Luca's office with someone.
The door was closed, but voices carried through the old heating vent.
I hadn't listened deliberately.
I'd only heard one sentence.
Vanessa's voice.
“Once Luca signs after the wedding, Antonio gets control of the voting shares.”
At the time, I'd assumed they were discussing some legal family arrangement.
I looked at Luca.
“Sir...”
Vanessa's eyes widened.
I knew immediately.
That was it.
Luca noticed.
“What did you hear, Emma?”
Vanessa moved toward me.
“Don't.”
Luca stepped between us.
I told him.
Every word.
His face revealed nothing.
But one of the older men seated near the end of the table slowly put down his wine.
Antonio Moretti.
Luca's uncle.
I'd met him perhaps six times.
He was sixty-two, silver-haired, elegant, and always treated the staff kindly.
He was also Luca's late father's younger brother.
Antonio smiled.
“This is ridiculous.”
Luca turned.
“Is it?”
“Of course it is. Vanessa and I have discussed corporate restructuring. So have you.”
“Not my voting shares.”
“Perhaps the girl misunderstood.”
The girl.
Eight months working in the house, and Antonio had never once forgotten my name before tonight.
Bruno suddenly growled.
Every person in the room looked down.
I'd never heard that sound from him.
Not once.
His gray muzzle pulled back.
His eyes were fixed on Antonio.
Antonio's smile disappeared.
Luca looked from the dog to his uncle.
“Interesting.”
“Oh, don't be absurd,” Antonio said. “He's sick.”
Bruno growled again.
This time louder.
Antonio stepped back.
Luca's face hardened.
“Bruno loved you when my father was alive.”
Antonio said nothing.
The service doors opened.
Two guards entered with a man in a soaked gray jacket.
The driver.
He looked around the room and immediately seemed to understand that his evening had gone terribly wrong.
“I didn't do anything,” he blurted.
Luca approached him.
“Who hired you?”
The man pointed at Vanessa.
“She did.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“What were you hired to do?”
“Pick up the dog tonight.”
“And Emma Sullivan?”
The man looked at me.
“I was supposed to pick her up tomorrow.”
My hands went cold.
“Pick me up for what?”
He rubbed his face.
“She said you were stealing from the house. Said you needed to be taken somewhere until Mr. Moretti got back from a business meeting.”
“I'd be here,” Luca said.
The driver frowned.
“What?”
“You were told I'd be gone.”
“Yeah. Airport. Tomorrow morning.”
Luca's eyes returned to Vanessa.
She looked terrified now.
Not angry.
Terrified.
“Where were you taking Emma?” Luca asked.
“An abandoned property near Joliet,” the driver said.
I felt sick.
“And then?”
“I swear, man, nobody told me to kill anybody.”
That was not comforting.
“What were you supposed to do?”
“Leave her there.”
“For how long?”
He hesitated.
“Three days.”
My knees almost gave out.
Luca caught my elbow.
His hand was warm and steady.
“Sit down.”
“I’m fine.”
“You're not.”
Neither was he.
I could see it now.
The terrible calm was cracking.
Not outwardly.
But his grip on my arm had tightened.
Vanessa suddenly shouted.
“This is her fault!”
Everyone turned.
She pointed at me.
“She wasn't supposed to find Bruno!”
Luca stared at her.
“And why was Bruno in that garage?”
“Because he wouldn't stop going into your father's study!”
Silence.
Luca's face changed.
“What?”
Vanessa's breathing became shallow.
Antonio stepped toward her.
“Vanessa.”
She looked at him.
It was only a glance.
But it told me everything.
They were afraid of the same thing.
Luca saw it too.
“What was Bruno doing in my father's study?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Nothing.”
Antonio interrupted.
“Luca, this evening has clearly become emotional. We should send the guests home and discuss this privately.”
“I agree.”
Antonio looked relieved.
Luca turned to his security chief.
“Michael, nobody leaves.”
Antonio froze.
Neither did Vanessa.
Luca crouched beside Bruno.
The old shepherd's breathing sounded rough.
“What did you find, boy?”
Bruno slowly raised his head.
Then he turned toward the hallway.
Toward the west side of the mansion.
Toward the study nobody used anymore.
Luca's father's study.
Bruno tried to stand.
His legs shook.
I reached for him.
“Easy.”
But Bruno pulled away.
He took one step.
Then another.
Luca looked at me.
“Can he walk?”
“Barely.”
Bruno kept going.
So Luca did something I don't think anyone in that room expected.
He bent down and lifted the seventy-pound dog into his arms.
“Then I'll carry him.”
We followed him.
Every guest remained in the dining room with guards at the exits.
Vanessa and Antonio were escorted behind us.
The old study was at the end of a dark corridor.
Luca hadn't entered it often.
Everybody on staff knew that.
His father had died five years earlier, and most of the room had remained exactly as he'd left it.
Luca opened the door.
Bruno became restless.
He whined.
“What is it?” Luca whispered.
The dog struggled until Luca set him down.
Bruno dragged himself across the Persian rug.
Past the desk.
Past the fireplace.
To an enormous walnut bookcase.
Then he scratched the floor.
Once.
Twice.
I stared.
There was a thin line in the wood.
A seam.
Luca crouched.
He pressed against the bottom panel.
Nothing happened.
Then Bruno shoved his nose toward the pocket where Luca had placed the leather collar.
Luca pulled it out.
The missing brass tag.
He looked at the empty ring.
Then at the bookcase.
Antonio said, “Luca, this is pointless.”
Luca ignored him.
He examined the wooden molding.
There was a tiny brass slot near the floor.
Not shaped like a normal key.
Shaped like a narrow oval.
Like the back of an identification tag.
Luca slowly stood.
“The tag wasn't identification.”
Antonio's face lost all color.
“It was a key.”
Vanessa ran.
She made it three steps.
Michael caught her before she reached the door.
“Let go of me!”
Luca turned.
“Where is the tag?”
“I don't know.”
“Where is it?”
Vanessa screamed, “I threw it away!”
Bruno barked.
It was weak.
But sharp.
Then something fell from Vanessa's dress.
A small brass object hit the hardwood floor.
Everyone stared at it.
I bent down.
Before I could touch it, Luca said, “Don't.”
He picked it up himself.
It was Bruno's missing tag.
Except it wasn't a tag at all.
One side carried Bruno's name.
The other had a strange pattern of tiny grooves.
Luca inserted it into the slot.
For three seconds, nothing happened.
Then there was a metallic click.
The entire lower section of the bookcase shifted forward.
Behind it was a narrow safe.
Antonio whispered something under his breath.
Luca heard him.
“So you knew.”
Antonio stared at the safe.
“No.”
“You knew this existed.”
“I knew my brother had secrets.”
Luca looked at him.
“What kind?”
Antonio said nothing.
Luca turned the brass key.
The safe opened.
Inside was no money.
No gun.
No jewelry.
There was only a sealed envelope.
And an old black flash drive.
The envelope had Luca's name written across the front.
In his father's handwriting.
Luca opened it.
I watched his eyes move across the first line.
Then he stopped.
His face went completely still.
“What does it say?” I asked quietly.
He looked at Antonio.
When he spoke, his voice sounded different.
“He wrote this three days before he died.”
Antonio backed toward the door.
Michael blocked him.
Luca continued reading.
Then he looked at me.
And for the first time since I'd met him, Luca Moretti looked afraid.
“My father says he wasn't dying.”
He turned the page.
May you like
“He says somebody was poisoning him.”
Then Bruno collapsed.
