Chapter 9 - The Night Luca Told the Truth
Suspicion changed the air inside the villa.
Dario noticed immediately.
“What?”
Luca remained near the window.
“Elena received a call.”
“From?”
“Paolo.”
Dario's face changed.
“He's alive?”
“He was.”
“What does that mean?”
“Santi took the phone.”
Dario swore.
Then he noticed the way Luca was looking at him.
Understanding arrived slowly.
“You think I had something to do with it.”
Luca did not answer.
Dario laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Twenty years.”
Elena stayed silent.
Dario stepped closer to Luca.
“I have stood beside you for twenty years.”
“I know.”
“I was there when your father died.”
“I know.”
“I buried my brother because of this family.”
Luca's expression tightened.
“I know.”
“And you're looking at me like I'm Santi's dog.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I'm looking at everyone.”
Dario stared at him.
Then looked at Elena.
“Was it her?”
Luca immediately said, “Don't.”
Dario's anger shifted.
“She arrived three days ago and now—”
“Dario.”
Elena stepped forward.
“No. Let him speak.”
Luca glanced at her.
She nodded.
Dario looked ashamed.
“I apologize.”
“You don't have to like me.”
“I don't dislike you.”
“That's not convincing.”
Despite everything, Dario almost smiled.
Then his face hardened.
“I am not betraying Luca.”
Elena believed him.
She wasn't sure why.
Maybe because guilty men often defended themselves too quickly.
Dario seemed hurt rather than frightened.
Luca seemed to reach the same conclusion.
“I know.”
Dario's eyebrows lifted.
“You have a strange way of showing it.”
“I need you to check everyone.”
“Including yourself?”
“If necessary.”
Dario nodded.
“Good.”
He left.
Elena looked at Luca.
“You trust him.”
“Yes.”
“Then why do that?”
“Because if I treat him differently, whoever is watching will know.”
Elena blinked.
“You wanted the traitor to believe you suspected Dario.”
“Yes.”
“That is manipulative.”
“Yes.”
“You admit that very easily.”
“I've stopped trying to impress you.”
“Were you trying before?”
“Unsuccessfully.”
She laughed.
The tension eased.
A little.
The flight to Istanbul was delayed.
Luca decided it was safer to wait until morning.
Elena couldn't sleep.
At one thirty she found him outside beside the pool.
No jacket.
White shirt.
Glass of whiskey untouched on the table.
“You don't drink it?”
“Sometimes.”
“You've been staring at it for ten minutes.”
He looked at her.
“You were watching?”
“You're directly outside my window.”
“Fair.”
She sat beside him.
Milan spread below.
“You never answered my question.”
“Which one?”
“What happened to your father.”
“I told you. Heart attack.”
“You don't believe it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Luca looked toward the city.
“My father called me the night before he died.”
“What did he say?”
“That he had finally found what Giovanni hid.”
Elena became still.
“The ledger.”
“I believe so.”
“Did he tell you where?”
“No.”
“He said we would talk the next morning.”
“But he died.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“His office.”
“Who found him?”
“Dario.”
Elena understood why Luca had used Dario as the decoy suspect.
“Did they investigate?”
“A doctor signed the certificate.”
“Did you trust the doctor?”
“At twenty-three, yes.”
“And now?”
“No.”
Luca lifted the whiskey but set it down again.
“My mother died when I was twenty-three. My father died eight months later.”
“Same year?”
“Yes.”
“And Giovanni disappeared years earlier.”
“Yes.”
Elena thought of the tape.
Leyla warning Yusuf.
Giovanni collecting evidence.
Kemal.
Santi.
“You lost everyone who knew the truth.”
Luca looked at her.
“Yes.”
“What happened to you afterward?”
His expression became guarded.
“I took over.”
“At twenty-three?”
“I had help.”
“Kemal.”
“Yes.”
The implication hit Elena.
“The man who may have killed your parents helped you inherit the organization.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I've been asking myself that all day.”
“Maybe he thought he could control you.”
“Probably.”
“Could he?”
A faint smile.
“For a while.”
“And then?”
“I became inconvenient.”
Elena looked at his tattoo.
It disappeared beneath his collar.
“Were you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“Terrifying.”
He laughed quietly.
“No.”
“What were you like?”
“Worse.”
“I don't believe that.”
“You should.”
“Were you reckless?”
“Yes.”
“Arrogant?”
“Yes.”
“Stubborn?”
“Still am.”
“I noticed.”
He looked at her.
The warmth between them returned.
Elena grew serious.
“Did you kill people?”
Luca's expression changed.
The question hung between them.
“Yes.”
She had expected the answer.
Hearing it was different.
“Do you regret it?”
“Some.”
“Some?”
“There are men I stopped who would have hurt others.”
“That doesn't make you judge and jury.”
“No.”
“You say that as if you've thought about it.”
“Every day.”
Elena looked toward the pool.
“I don't want to become someone who excuses everything because she loves—”
She stopped.
Luca turned.
Neither breathed.
Elena's cheeks warmed.
“I didn't mean—”
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“Be quiet.”
For once, Luca obeyed.
She covered her face.
“This is humiliating.”
His voice softened.
“I won't use it against you.”
She looked through her fingers.
“How generous.”
Luca moved closer.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“I am not asking you to excuse anything.”
She lowered her hands.
“I've done things I cannot erase.”
“Then why tell me?”
“Because if this becomes something between us, you deserve the truth.”
Her chest tightened.
“This?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Say it.”
His eyes held hers.
“I want you.”
Elena swallowed.
“That sounds dangerously like ownership.”
Luca shook his head.
“No.”
He leaned closer.
“I want your trust. Your time. Your anger when I deserve it. Your ridiculous arguments about olives.”
She smiled despite herself.
“And if I say no?”
“I accept it.”
“And if I leave?”
“I make sure you're safe enough to leave.”
“And then?”
“I let you.”
She searched his face.
That was the answer she had needed.
She kissed him first.
Luca's surprise lasted half a second.
Then his hand touched the back of her neck.
The kiss deepened but remained slow.
When Elena pulled away, Luca did not chase her.
“Better?” he asked.
“Much.”
They sat together beneath the night sky.
No bodyguards.
No ballroom.
No audience.
For several minutes they were simply two damaged people trying to understand each other.
Then Luca's phone buzzed.
Dario.
He answered.
“Yes?”
Silence.
Luca's expression sharpened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“We're coming.”
He ended the call.
“What?”
“The traitor accessed the Istanbul flight plan.”
Elena stood.
“Who?”
Luca looked genuinely disturbed.
“My uncle's secretary.”
“Kemal's?”
“No.”
“Whose uncle?”
“My mother's brother.”
Elena frowned.
“I thought Kemal was your uncle.”
“On my father's side.”
“So this is another uncle?”
“Adrian Cem.”
“Why would he have access to your flight plan?”
“He sits on the board of Demir Holdings.”
“Could he be working with Santi?”
Luca stared into the distance.
“I don't know.”
Dario called again.
This time Luca put it on speaker.
“We checked the access log,” Dario said. “Adrian's account was used, but not from his office.”
“Where?”
“Your villa.”
Luca froze.
Elena looked around them.
The pool.
The windows.
The dark garden.
“Someone here used his credentials?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Eleven minutes ago.”
Luca stood.
“Elena, inside.”
She didn't argue.
They reached the door.
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the villa.
A second later, every security alarm began screaming.
Dario shouted from somewhere inside.
Then a man's voice came over the house speakers.
Vittorio Santi.
“Good evening, Luca.”
Elena's blood turned cold.
Santi laughed.
“Did you really think I needed someone inside your organization?”
A pause.
“I only needed someone inside your house.”
Luca reached for Elena's hand.
Santi continued.
“And Elena?”
She stared into the darkness.
“I think it's time you learned who has been paying your father's debt all these years.”
The emergency lights turned red.
A figure stepped from the hallway.
Elena recognized him immediately.
Marco.
May you like
And he was holding Luca's security access card.
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