Chapter 2 - THE HOUSE OF KNIVES
Dominic reached the east staircase with Mateo two steps behind him and Norah refusing to remain
in the drawing room despite every order thrown over his shoulder. Emergency lights glowed red
along the baseboards, staining the marble like a warning. The child’s scream had stopped, which
was somehow worse. In the darkness, every open doorway became a mouth and every second became
proof that the enemy had planned for the exact shape of Dominic’s fear.
“Lily!” he shouted. No answer came from the safe wing. Mateo spoke rapidly into his radio, but
only static answered. The internal communication network had been severed at three junctions at
the same time, something no outsider could have managed without blueprints and access codes.
Dominic knew those codes changed every forty-eight hours. Only six people had clearance to view
the current sequence.
One of them was Vittorio. Another was Dominic himself. The others were Mateo, the chief
engineer, the head of residential security, and Elena’s former bodyguard, Carlo, who had stayed
with the family after her death.
Dominic stopped at the secure door. Its keypad was dark. Mateo removed the mechanical override
key from a chain under his shirt. “This should open it.” “It should,” Dominic said.
The key turned, but the lock did not release. Mateo stared at it. “Someone dropped the internal
deadbolt.” “From inside?” “Yes.” Norah reached them breathless, one hand braced against the
wall. Dominic rounded on her, furious and terrified. “I told you to stay downstairs.”
“And I heard Lily scream.” “She is my daughter.” “And she is carrying my baby’s sister in every
dream she talks about,” Norah snapped. “So stop wasting time being angry at me and open the
door.”
The words cut through him. Dominic turned back to Mateo. Together they forced the emergency
panel from the wall and exposed the wiring. Mateo bypassed the electronic lock while Dominic
listened for any movement beyond the steel door. Nothing. No crying, no footsteps, no whisper.
Then the deadbolt clicked. Dominic shoved the door inward. The safe wing had been designed as a
fortress disguised as a child’s suite. Soft cream walls, framed drawings, bookshelves, and a
row of windows that were actually layered ballistic glass concealed a reinforced structure
capable of surviving a siege. Tonight, a lamp lay broken on the floor. One of Lily’s stuffed
rabbits had been torn open, its white filling scattered across the rug. A security guard was
unconscious beside the bedroom door, breathing but bleeding from a cut at his temple.
“Lily!” Dominic called again. A shape moved behind the curtains. Dominic raised his weapon,
then froze when a small hand appeared. Lily stepped out. Her face was white with terror, but
she was alive.
Dominic crossed the room so fast that he nearly fell to his knees. Lily ran into him, and he
lifted her against his chest, burying his face in her hair. For one unguarded second, the man
who terrified boardrooms and rivals disappeared entirely. There was only a father holding a
trembling seven-year-old and counting each breath she took.
“I did what you told me,” Lily whispered. Dominic pulled back enough to see her face. “What did
I tell you?” “If the lights go out, don’t hide where they expect.”
He remembered teaching her that after Elena died, hating himself for making a child learn rules
built for war. Now those rules had saved her. “Who screamed?” Lily pointed toward the hallway.
“The speaker.”
Mateo found a small wireless device wedged behind a decorative vent. It had played a recording
of a frightened child. Norah closed her eyes. “They wanted Dominic to run here.”
Mateo’s expression changed. “Which means the safe wing wasn’t the target.” They all understood
at once. Thomas. Dominic handed Lily to Norah. “Stay here. Lock the door after us.” Norah
tightened her arms around the child. “Dominic—”
“I know.” He and Mateo ran back through the mansion. When they reached the guarded room where
Thomas had been placed, the two men outside were missing. The door stood open.
Inside, a chair had been overturned. A drinking glass shattered across the floor. Thomas was
gone. On the bed lay a single brass cuff link stamped with a small lion.
Dominic recognized it immediately. Carlo had worn a matching pair for more than twenty years.
Mateo picked it up with a handkerchief. “Could be planted.” “Could be.” “Carlo is at the south
security station.”
“Bring him in. Quietly.” They found Carlo before he could leave the property. He was fifty-six,
broad shouldered, gray at the temples, and had once taken a bullet meant for Elena. When two
guards escorted him into the library, indignation burned across his face.
“What is this?” he demanded. “The estate is under attack and you pull me from my post?” Dominic
placed the cuff link on the desk. Carlo stared at it. Then he looked down at his own sleeve.
One cuff was empty. The silence became unbearable. “Where is Thomas Hayes?” Dominic asked.
Carlo’s eyes rose slowly. “Who?” Dominic crossed the distance between them. “Do not insult me.”
“I don’t know any Thomas Hayes.”
“Your cuff link was in his room.” “That proves nothing.” “Then explain why your access card
opened the service corridor six minutes before the cameras failed.” Carlo’s face changed. Not
guilt. Calculation.
Norah entered the room holding Lily’s hand. She had insisted the child not be left with anyone
whose loyalty had not been verified. Vittorio followed several steps behind under guard,
looking grim rather than surprised.
Carlo saw Vittorio and something flickered in his eyes. Dominic saw it too. “Say it,” Dominic
ordered. Carlo looked at Vittorio. “You told me this would never happen.” Every weapon in the
room shifted toward the older man.
Vittorio remained still. “I have told you many things in your life. Be specific.” Carlo laughed
once, bitterly. “You said Dominic would step aside before children got involved.” Dominic’s
voice dropped. “What did you do?”
Carlo turned toward him, and grief suddenly cracked through the hardness in his face. “I
protected Elena.” Dominic went still. “No,” Carlo continued. “You think I betrayed her. I
protected her from what your life was becoming. She knew Vittorio was moving money through the
legitimate companies. She found records. She wanted to take Lily and leave.”
Dominic looked at Vittorio. Vittorio said nothing. Carlo’s breathing grew uneven. “I was
supposed to move Thomas tonight. That was all. Get him out before he filled your head with
half-truths. I never touched Lily.”
“Where is Thomas?” “I don’t know. The extraction team intercepted him in the service tunnel. I
lost contact.” Mateo checked his tablet. “There’s a maintenance exit beyond the west
greenhouse.”
Dominic turned toward the door. Carlo shouted after him. “Dominic, wait. There’s something
else.” Dominic stopped. Carlo’s face had gone pale. “The team wasn’t taking Thomas to
Vittorio.” Vittorio’s head snapped toward him.
“Then where?” Mateo asked. Carlo looked directly at Dominic. “To the old Mercy Hospital.”
Norah’s breath caught. That was where Daniel Hayes had died. Carlo continued, barely above a
whisper. “And the order didn’t come from Vittorio.”
For the first time that night, Vittorio looked genuinely shaken. Dominic saw it, and a darker
possibility opened beneath everything they thought they knew. “If not him,” Dominic said, “who
gave the order?”
Carlo swallowed. “A woman named Sofia Russo.” Vittorio’s face drained of color. Norah looked
between them. “Who is Sofia?” Vittorio answered before anyone else could. “My daughter.”
Dominic stared at the man who had raised him. “You never had a daughter.” Vittorio’s eyes
remained fixed on the cuff link lying between them. “That,” he said, “is what I needed everyone
May you like
to believe.”
===============================================================================================
