Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One: Three in the know

Lucien didn’t move at first.

The heat of Emilia’s body was still on him, her breath still warm against his ear, but the words… the words burned through the haze like acid.

I know the mole.

For one suspended heartbeat, he didn’t know whether to freeze or finish. Instinct and weeks of denied hunger won, his body shuddered in release, his grip on her hips almost bruising, but his mind had already shifted into a different, colder place.

When he finally drew back enough to see her face, his voice was low, tight.

“Say it again.”

“I know the mole,” Emilia said, meeting his gaze without flinching.

“Who?”

Her answer was a whisper, but it hit him like a bullet.

“Matteo.”

For a second, the name didn’t fit in his head. Matteo, one of his top men, the one just beneath Julio in rank, the one who’d been in the room for some of the most sensitive decisions they’d made.

Not the same trust as Julio, never that deep, but enough that Lucien had let him close. He even had him protecting Emilia.

His expr