When Prey Becomes Predator

The torrential rain slammed against the floor-to-ceiling windows, sounding like countless shards of glass shattering.

Leo had been gone for 47 minutes.

On the table before me sat a glass of warm water and the blue pill I had to take every night. The blue pill gleamed strangely under the light, like the eye of some deep-sea creature.

Leo said it was a neuro-repair medicine to help restore my memory. He told me that my brain had been severely damaged in a car accident, and it would take time and patience for me to heal.

He was my best husband and my most considerate doctor.

Some time after I took the pill, I sat up from the bed.

The villa was terrifyingly quiet. Even the sound of rain seemed sealed off outside. I stepped barefoot onto the floor, feeling a little more awake at the cold touch.

Light leaked through the half-closed door as I passed the study.

Had Leo come back?

Just as I was about to open the door, I heard a hushed voice from inside. "The will has already been changed, and I've taken care of the lawyer. The trust fund, real estate, and overseas funds… All the assets under her name will be automatically transferred into my account."

My breathing hitched.

"Don't worry. She's very pliant—even more so after taking the pills." There was a hint of mockery in Leo's voice when he continued, "Next week, she'll sign the final property transfer agreement and transfer the remaining shares to me. Once the documents take effect, we'll stage an accident."

The person on the other end of the line said something, and Leo chuckled. The sound sent a chill down my spine.

He continued, "After all, her identity as the Donna is too troublesome. It's easier if she's dead. Oh, and keep a close watch on Nuwork. If those old bastards start to suspect—"

Donna.

A violent pain exploded deep inside my skull. For a moment, it was as if I could see the blood running down from the wound on Leo's forehead, staining his lashes red.

"Vittoria," he rasped, voice rough, "you'll regret this."

My voice was flat, almost bored. "I'll give you two choices. Leave Nuwork on your own, or I'll have someone toss you into Hatterson River to feed the fish."

That was Leo.

Five years ago, I personally threw him out of his penthouse in Mannaton after he embezzled funds from the famiglia and secretly dealt with a rival syndicate.

Five years later, he had a new name, identity, and a past erased clean. He became my attending physician, my savior, and eventually became my husband.

My name was Vittoria Costa. It was a name everyone in Nuwork's underworld knew.

I was the youngest Donna in the history of the Costa famiglia. I took over the famiglia business at 23 years old and tripled the famiglia's reach within five years.

And Leo… No, his real name was Leonardo Rossi.

He used to be my most capable underboss, my sharpest blade, and the man I trusted more than anyone.

Until the day Leonardo tried to stab me in the back.

My nails dug deep into my palm as I steadied myself against the wall.

The rain grew louder, nearly drowning out the frantic pounding of my heart, but it also masked other sounds.

"Anna?" Leonardo's voice was cold and suspicious.

I opened the door and threw myself into his arms.

"I had a nightmare…" I clutched his shirt and sobbed, "Someone was trying to kill me—"

Leonardo's arms stiffened momentarily, then wrapped around me gently. "It's just a dream."

"Where's the cake?" I looked up at him, teary-eyed.

"The shop was closed." Leonardo smiled as he combed through my hair with his fingers. "I'll double it up when I make it up to you tomorrow, okay?"

That was a lie.

The phone in his pocket still carried the chill of the night air, and in the corner of its screen clung a smear of gray dust that didn't belong to any cake shop.

That was the industrial powder one would only find in the abandoned factories on the west side of the city.

I buried my face back into Leonardo's chest, hiding the icy intent in my eyes.

…

That night, Leonardo was unusually gentle. He fed me a double dose of the blue pills, and I swallowed them in front of him. When he turned away to pour water, I pressed the tablets beneath my tongue.

I went into the study after he fell asleep.

The password for the computer was my birthday—or more precisely, Anna's birthday.

I scoffed. What ironic arrogance.

Share transfer agreements, property notarizations, and insurance policies… I copied each and every assurance of "future" Leonardo had prepared for me and uploaded them to three different cloud accounts.

Finally, I planted a tiny monitoring program deep inside his system to record every keystroke he made.

At the very bottom of the drawer was a metal box, cold to the touch. When I opened it, my Beretta M9 lay on black velvet. My initials were engraved on the grip in an elegant script.

Leonardo had actually kept it, like a hunter preserving the teeth of its prey.

I took the gun and ammunition and placed the empty box back.

I slipped back into the bed beside Leonardo at 3:00 am. Half-asleep, he draped an arm over my waist, his steady breath warm against the back of my neck.

I opened my eyes in the darkness.

"Good night, tesoro," I whispered in a voice only I could hear. "After the papers are signed next week, you'll receive the first anniversary gift from the Donna."

Outside the window, the rain gradually stopped.

The hunter had already closed the net, leaving the prey still sleeping peacefully in the gentle trap, unaware.