Mag-log inDavid’s Pov
She was not afraid of me. She had looked at me standing over three men and said, “ You came like it was the only relevant fact, everything else was supporting detail. I drove with one hand on the wheel. Lenny sat in the passenger seat with her bag in her lap and her bruised wrist held carefully against her chest. She looked out the window. She was quiet in the way she was quiet when she was processing something thorouLenny's POVThe new arrival raised immediate suspicion in me right away. He stood in the doorway with Bressi and looked nervous, like he did not want to be there at all. I felt the paranoia affecting everyone in the safe house now. Every new person made me wonder if they were the mole working against us. I watched him closely while he talked to Giovanni on the phone and reported in about the Commission plans.Francesca came early the next morning like always. "We are doing knife work today," she said. "You need to learn quick escapes too in case things go bad at the meeting or after."I trained harder with her in the back room of the safe house. She handed me the knife and showed me how to hold it right in my hand. "Slice up, not down," she said. "And always go for the weak spots on the body."I practiced the moves over and over again. "Like this," I asked and did the motion she showed me with the knife.
Vincenzo's POVI felt the walls closing in more every day. The Commission meeting was getting closer, and I knew I had to be ready no matter what. Giovanni came to the safe house in person that afternoon. He walked into the room and sat down in the chair by the bed. Bressi stayed outside the door and kept watch."Some commissioners are pushing for additional loyalty tests," Giovanni said right away. "Your bloodline is still an issue for the purists on the commission. They want to make sure you are not hiding anything from them at all."I sat up straighter in the bed and looked at him straight. "I will do whatever tests they want," I said. "I have nothing to hide from them. Dante is dead, and I took him out because he betrayed the family and tried to take everything down with him."Giovanni nodded, but his face stayed serious the whole time. "Good. Now rehearse your testimony with me. Start from the beginning and show no weaknes
Lenny's POVThe basement air clung to my skin like a second layer of dread, cold, damp, and suffocating. I stood just outside the harsh circle of light, arms wrapped tightly around myself, heart hammering as I watched Vincenzo and Luca press the guard for more answers. Every broken word the man choked out sent fresh chills racing down my spine, raising goosebumps along my arms.“More names… they wanted routes, schedules, anyone vulnerable in the Commission,” he gasped, tears mixing with the blood on his swollen, bruised face. “Blackmail, threats against my family. I swear that’s all I know. Please, I’m begging you…”Vincenzo’s presence filled the entire room even when he remained mostly silent. It was controlled, dangerous, lethal. I saw the enforcer side of him tonight, the one he usually tried to shield me from. It terrified me on a deep, primal level, but it also made something fierce tighten in my chest with twisted respec
Vincenzo POV I stood in the dim room with Luca beside me and the captured guard tied to the chair in front of us. The man looked scared, but he still tried to act tough at first. I looked him in the eyes and said Tell us what you know about the blackmail. He stayed quiet for a minute, so Luca stepped forward and asked again. The guard finally broke after we kept pushing. He said someone paid him to leak information, and it was blackmail, but he did not know the full chain behind it. He kept saying he only took the money and passed messages, but he never met the top person. I asked him who gave him the orders, and he gave us a name, but it was just a middle guy. Luca pressed him harder, and the guard repeated the same story over and over. Luca looked at me and said he was telling the truth, boss. I nodded and said we would keep him here for now until we check his story. I turned to
Lenny's POV The words wouldn't leave my head. Someone claiming to speak for Giovanni. I sat on the edge of the bed while Vincenzo paced slowly across the room, favoring his side with every step he took. "How do we know who's really on our side?" I asked. "If someone can use Giovanni's name and get a guard to plant a device right under our noses, how do we know anyone around us is actually loyal at all?" "We don't," Vincenzo said, plain and blunt. "Not completely." "That's not comforting," I said. "It's not meant to be comforting," he said, sitting down across from me slowly. "Paranoia keeps you alive in this world, Lenny. The day you trust everyone around you without question is the day you end up dead as Dante did." "So what, we just suspect everyone forever now?" "We suspect everyone until they prove otherwise through their actions," he said. "That includes people close
Vincenzo's POV The news of the listening device hit me like a physical blow straight to the chest, worse than anything the doctor had warned me about with my own body. I pushed the pain in my side aside and went straight into enforcer mode, my mind already running through every angle of what this meant for us. "Full sweep," I told Bressi, my voice sharp. "Every room, every device, top to bottom, no corner skipped. And isolate anyone who's had access to this house in the last month, guards included." "On it," Bressi said, already moving toward the door. I got Luca on the secure line within minutes, not wasting a second more than I had to. "This is getting too close," I said, my voice low and dangerous. "I want everyone who had access to this house questioned. Every single one of them, no exceptions made for rank or loyalty claimed." "On it," Luca said. "I'll start with the rotation schedu
Lenny’s POVGradually, the darkness that had swallowed me finally began to spit me out, taking off its tendrils as I heard sounds muddled in my ear. Soon, the fluorescent lights above me flooded my vision. After taking a minute to adjust, I swept my head from one side to another."You're alive," a
Vincenzo’s POV"I swear I'll get you the money! I wasn't running... I wouldn't dare...!"Behind the pathetic pleading filling my ears, my 8 o’clock class loomed in my mind...I have an essay I've been putting aside. The professor was a pain, but he had a backbone unlike the others in my department,
Lenny's POV"Explain?!" I spat out, throwing my plastic bag at him. "How the heck are you going to explain this?"He dodged—he always had surprisingly fast reflexes—and groaned, pulling up his pants and buckling swiftly."Sofia is a friend,""I'm sure she is," I seethed as he approached me. He had
Lenny's pov"I’d better not see you around here again," the warden scoffed, handing me a plastic bag containing my mortal belongings. "Won't you miss me?" I teased lightlyWrinkles lined her face, "I mean it, Willow. Keep your head down and stay away from the reason you got sent to this hole in the







