Framed by My Mafia Family, I Came Back for Blood

I opened my eyes, and my hand instinctively flew to my throat. Only when my fingertips touched bare skin did it finally sink in.

There was no wire. Just skin, whole and unbroken.

I froze for a second. Then I started gulping down air.

My chest heaved as the terror caught up with me.

I wasn't dead. I really wasn't dead.

I slowly pushed myself up and looked around.

According to the calendar on the desk, the cross-border hit was exactly 24 hours away.

I clutched my neck, still trembling, and dragged in another breath.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

Riccardo came in with a mug of hot cocoa.

He set the mug beside my hand and casually rested his hand on my shoulder.

"Elowen, looks like you pulled another all-nighter."

"The route is finalized. Go get some sleep before you run yourself into the ground."

He watched me with a soft, intent gaze.

I'd grown up with this man, clawing our way through the same mud.

Yet in my last life, he'd pressed that gold-plated Browning to my forehead and accused me of selling out our own people.

I didn't lean into him like I normally would. Instead, I picked up the mug and blew on the hot cocoa, shifting just out of his reach.

"Riccardo, the keypad on the safe has been acting up. Do you have your tools on you?"

I gestured casually toward the hidden compartment behind the bookshelf.

Riccardo's smile didn't change.

"Acting up? How? I had a technician service it just last week."

"Stop being so paranoid. Once tonight's op is over, I'll take you back to Sicily for a vacation." As he spoke, his right pinkie tapped three times against the inside of his cuff, out of habit.

He only ever did that when he was extremely excited or extremely nervous.

Ever since we were kids, I'd been the only one who knew.

Every time he lied to my father, his pinkie tapped like that.

My grip tightened on the mug. A suspicion was starting to form.

No one else in the world could crack the combination to my safe.

But what if whoever opened it wasn't an outsider at all?

I told Riccardo I needed to calibrate my sniper rifle at the underground range and sent him to the front hall.

Once his footsteps faded down the hall, I locked the study's security door behind him and pulled up the safe's built-in offline access log.

According to the log, the safe had been opened once, at 2:17 that morning.

That was right around the time Riccardo had brought me a late-night snack while I worked, and I'd stepped into the bathroom to splash cold water on my face.

In those five minutes, he'd opened the safe.

Standing in front of the bookcase, I felt my blood run cold.

So that was how the top-secret route had ended up on the dark web in my last life.

Not a hacker. Not a rival stealing secrets.

It was my fiancé, the man I'd trusted to watch my back without a second thought. He was the one who sent me to my death.

I closed the log. I didn't tip anyone off, not yet.

If I exposed him now, all I could prove was that he'd opened my safe. I'd never flush out his allies.

I had to let him sell the plans first. It was the only way to expose every traitor at once.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

"Elowen, are you in there?" Sophia's voice floated through the door, soft and sugary. "Father and Riccardo have breakfast waiting for you downstairs. They sent me up to get you."

When she reached up to fix her hair, I caught the faint smell of metal cleaner.

It was the same smell that clung to Riccardo.

I went still. Then I linked my arm through hers and gave her an affectionate smile, playing the part of the loving sister.

"Come on. Let's not keep them waiting."