Chapter 2

The next morning at breakfast, Lucas pushed a restored travel pass across the table to me.

The obsidian ring sat beside it.

"Security had no authority to restrict your movements. The order has been rescinded.

"No one gets to restrict Mrs. Visconti's movements."

I didn't touch the ring.

"And that's supposed to erase the fact that you let someone take my place last night?"

"Evelyn."

It was the first time he'd ever said my name.

I took the travel pass.

"Thank you, Mr. Visconti."

His fingers tightened, but he couldn't order me to put the ring back on.

After breakfast, he took me through an underground passage connecting the armory, the garage, and the private dock.

"This corridor was renovated for you three months ago.

"You don't like strangers getting close."

Three months earlier, men had come to collect a blood debt from my father, Daniel Carter.

Lucas arranged my father's surgery first. Then he presented the marriage contract.

He said I could refuse, but after I signed, he made every decision about where I lived, my security detail, and my schedule.

My father had told me then about a clinic in the neutral zone that answered to no family.

Years earlier, he'd helped the clinic purchase equipment and paid for Dr. Elena Brooks's medical training.

Lucas didn't know about that connection.

I stopped outside the armory.

"You said the contract wouldn't restrict my freedom. Why did you give my seat to Sophia?"

"Her brother saved my life.

"The hawks are targeting her. If the talks fail, she'll lose everything."

"So you publicly sacrificed my position?"

Lucas produced the truce agreement.

"After the signing, I'll make the marriage public."

"And before that?"

He didn't answer.

Sophia's encrypted call came through at that exact moment.

She claimed the hawks had detained her in the old city.

Adrian warned that the distress call hadn't gone through official Vitali channels and was very likely a trap.

Lucas had already opened the draft marriage announcement.

When the location came through, he closed the draft and left with his men anyway.

"Wait for me."

Just hours earlier, he had admitted he shouldn't have sacrificed my position.

One phone call from Sophia, and he left me behind again.

Before dawn, the convoy returned to the estate.

Sophia's gown was immaculate. Not a scratch on her.

The so-called kidnapping had only been the hawks stopping her car.

An hour later, she walked into my study carrying documents.

The west wing was off-limits to guests.

She'd used Marcello's legacy credential to forge emergency authorization from the boss and bypass the estate manager's two-person verification.

She hadn't cracked the lock.

The people who trusted the forged paperwork had opened the door for her.

Sophia placed a debt investigation request on the desk.

The request was dated seven days before the marriage contract. Its stated objective was a single line:

Determine how to secure the cooperation of Evelyn Carter, the ledger decryption specialist.

"Lucas didn't marry you just to repay a blood debt.

"He needed to keep you close so you could uncover the transaction records for him."

I held the document down.

"And that's your reason for breaking into the west wing?"

She paused at the doorway and looked back at me.

"The next time I call for help, are you still willing to bet on who Lucas will choose?"

After the door closed, I pulled up the visitor log.

It was the second time someone had used the legacy credential to manufacture the appearance of lawful authority.

Sophia had brought the request on purpose. She wanted to scare me into fleeing to the docks ahead of schedule.

If the hawks abducted me there, the Viscontis would be blamed for failing to protect one of their own, and the truce would collapse.

I canceled the original booking and switched to a different route.

Since she expected me to walk into her trap, I would change the timing first.