Chapter 7 Pet

(Third-Person POV)

Mateusz entered Sterling's room. Sterling struggled to sit up, his face pale. "Mateusz... before I blacked out, I saw the shooter's face. He had a deep burn scar on his left cheek."

A servant carrying medicine entered. Mateusz placed a hand on Sterling's shoulder and forced him to lie down, then handed him the painkiller. "Don't speak yet. Just rest. I'll find the killer."

After finishing, Mateusz stepped out of the room and looked at Rocco. "How are the arrangements for Marco's funeral going?"

"Everything's settled. The compensation has been sent to his mother's account." Rocco looked down, hesitating slightly, and added, "Mateusz, my girlfriend has been asking me about my injuries and where all that cash came from. I've been lying to her for too long. Can I tell her the truth?"

Mateusz stopped mid-step, his eyes cold. "Give her a wedding ring first. Then tell her the truth. Family secrets require lifelong loyalty. If she can't give it, you know what to do."

As they spoke, a guard in the hall reported via intercom that an officer had just arrived at the door.

Mateusz descended the stairs and found Officer Miller standing in the living room, holding a notebook.

"Mateusz," Miller said provocatively, "we found a body in a nearby park. He was shot in the head, and the blood evidence shows he was killed at Tuscany Bistro and moved afterward. One of your men was there at noon."

Mateusz sat on the sofa, his long legs crossed, and lit a cigar. "Officer, my men eat every day. If someone died at a restaurant, you should first question the chef or manager. If you think this is serious, I don't mind if you hand it over to DIA directly."

"Don't push me," Miller said through clenched teeth. "If I find evidence, DIA will wipe out your entire operation."

"Then I'll just sit here and wait for your arrest warrant. Until then, get out of my house." Mateusz exhaled a smoke ring with equal defiance. As the officer stormed out, Mateusz immediately turned to Rocco and ordered, "Check the surveillance along the park's perimeter. Destroy every video that could reveal a license plate."

Meanwhile, in the upstairs bedroom.

Esme stood behind the locked door, carefully examining the window. She walked to the edge and pushed open the window. From there, the ground was about twenty feet below. A direct jump would almost certainly break her ankles or shins.

But right now, she had to play the part of a terrified, helpless doctor desperate to escape the mafia's grasp, only to keep Mateusz from suspecting her.

Just as she stepped one leg onto the window ledge, preparing a fake escape, the bedroom door suddenly burst open.

Mateusz appeared in the doorway. He regarded Esme calmly, then walked toward her. "In high school, Rocco jumped from this window to escape his father's belt. He shattered his left tibia and spent three months in bed."

He stepped to the window, single-handedly yanked Esme off the ledge, and effortlessly pulled her into his arms. "Don't take risks. A broken leg is a pet no one wants."

For dinner, Mateusz forced Esme to the main floor dining room. A group of heavily armed mob members sat at the long table. As they entered, all conversation stopped, and everyone's eyes locked onto Esme.

Esme kept her head down, pretending to be afraid, while in the corner of her eye she quickly noted the exits and the guards' shift patterns.

Then, the main door burst open. Jacqueline strode in, wearing a tight leather jacket. She'd just completed a killing mission, her boots still muddy, her finger joints smeared with blood.

She walked straight to Mateusz, pulled out a chair, and sat down without hesitation, her eyes sharp and deadly focused on Esme.

"Mateusz." Jacqueline's voice was hard, her hostility toward Esme undisguised. "Who is this woman? Since when do you bring outsiders into the main compound?"

"That doesn't concern you." Mateusz did not look at Jacqueline. He placed a slice of grilled steak on Esme's plate. "Eat."

Jacqueline's eyes flared with rage, fixed on Esme, but she said nothing.

After dinner, Mateusz took Esme to check on the injured Sterling.

Esme unfastened the gauze from Sterling's abdomen and immediately frowned. The wound was severely swollen, and his temperature was dangerously high.

"The wound is infected," she told Mateusz. "The first sutures were improvised. He needs sterile debridement and intravenous broad-spectrum antibiotics immediately, or he may not survive the night."

"Tell me exactly what you need, equipment and medicine," Mateusz said, pulling out his phone, voice flat.

"A sterile surgical light, a vital-signs monitor, portable blood supplies, and the strongest military-grade antibiotics I can get," Esme said.

Mateusz immediately dialed a number and repeated her list.

Less than an hour later, three unmarked black trucks pulled up outside the compound. Several men in full protective gear swiftly delivered every medical device and drug Esme had listed into the medical room.

Esme stood there, stunned. This family had access to an enormous, hidden private medical network.

During dinner and the wound change, Esme had already mapped out all escape routes on the first floor.

As she followed Mateusz back to the third-floor bedroom, at the corner of the second floor, her eyes sharpened.

She suddenly shoved Mateusz aside and turned, sprinting full force toward the main entrance!

To make the escape look real, she twisted her ankle as she stepped down the stairs, crashing to the ground hard, her lower leg slashed by a sharp railing, bleeding profusely.

Despite the pain, she crawled, her hands nearly touching the front door handle!

"Crack!"

A massive hand seized her ankle and yanked her back like a sack of trash. Mateusz loomed over her, his eyes blazing with rage and cold control.

"Looks like I've been too kind to you, and that's why you thought you could challenge my patience." Mateusz snatched her up and strode back to the bedroom, slamming her onto the bed.

Before Esme could even rise, Mateusz had pulled a black, hard leather collar from a drawer and snapped it onto her slender neck with a sharp click!

The chain tightened, forcing Esme to lift her head and look into his eyes.

Mateusz drew the chain taut, forcing Esme's head up. "Listen carefully. I'm giving you rules. Now be a good puppy and crawl into the cage."