Chapter 4 - The Man Lucian Trusted
Lucian read Thomas Avery’s message three times.
Camille watched his face each time.
Nothing changed.
That frightened her more than anger would have.
“The leak is inside Lucian’s house, closer to him than Adrian ever was.”
Nico stood beside the kitchen island.
“What does closer mean?”
Marco answered.
“It could mean family.”
Silence followed.
Lucian looked at him.
Marco did not look away.
Camille understood something about loyalty in that moment.
Real loyalty was not pretending impossible things were impossible.
It was being willing to say them aloud.
Thomas’s attachment contained dozens of documents.
Transfers.
Emails.
Photographs.
Partial recordings.
Enough evidence to prove Adrian had spent years creating relationships with political consultants, security contractors, reporters, event staff, and financial advisers.
Not enough to identify the Moretti insider.
Until Camille noticed a pattern.
“Stop.”
Marco looked up from his laptop.
“What?”
“These messages.”
She pointed.
Each leak from inside the mansion had been forwarded seventeen minutes after the original event.
The rehearsal joke.
A donor conversation.
Nico’s travel schedule.
An internal security change.
Seventeen minutes.
Every time.
Lucian frowned.
“That means something?”
“Maybe.”
Camille pulled the Moretti weekend schedule toward her.
She began marking times.
3:17.
5:47.
9:17.
11:47.
Always the same minute pattern.
Nico leaned over her shoulder.
“You think our traitor has OCD?”
“No.”
She looked at the staff schedule.
Then stopped.
Household shift reports were transmitted to Lucian’s private operations office every half hour.
At :00 and :30.
Security summaries went at :15 and :45.
But one category went at :17 and :47.
Private transportation logs.
“Who receives these?” Camille asked.
Marco checked.
“Me. Lucian. Transportation director.”
“And?”
Marco hesitated.
“Family office manager.”
Lucian’s expression hardened.
“Daniel.”
Nico stepped backward.
“No.”
Camille looked at him.
“Who’s Daniel?”
Nico stared at the counter.
“Daniel Mercer. He’s been with us since I was thirteen.”
Lucian’s voice was cold.
“He managed my father’s personal office.”
“After your father died?”
“I kept him.”
“Why?”
“Because he was loyal.”
Camille did not say anything.
Lucian’s jaw tightened.
“Was.”
Marco immediately began checking records.
Daniel Mercer had access to nearly everything.
Guest arrivals.
Vehicles.
Household schedules.
Lucian’s private calendar.
Security timing.
He had also signed the temporary credentials that allowed Beatrice’s event team into restricted mansion corridors.
Nico paced.
“He taught me to drive.”
Lucian said nothing.
“He came to my graduation.”
Nothing.
“He sat with Mom when she was sick.”
“Nico.”
“He’s family.”
Lucian finally looked at him.
“No.”
The word was quiet.
“He works for the family.”
Nico laughed bitterly.
“Is that how you survive everything? Change the definition after somebody hurts you?”
Lucian’s eyes flashed.
Camille stepped between them emotionally before either could say something permanent.
“We don’t know yet.”
Marco looked up.
“We do.”
He turned the screen.
A camera feed from the lake house gate.
Daniel Mercer was outside.
Nico stopped breathing.
Daniel stood alone beside a black sedan.
Gray-haired.
Sixty.
Calm.
He looked like somebody’s favorite uncle.
Camille had met him twice at the mansion.
He had brought her coffee once.
Remembered she took cinnamon.
Marco’s phone rang.
Gate security.
Daniel was requesting entry.
“He says he has information about Adrian,” Marco said.
Lucian stared at the camera.
“Let him in.”
Nico turned.
“Lucian.”
“Let him in.”
Marco hesitated.
Then nodded.
Daniel entered under heavy security.
No weapons.
No phone.
He was escorted to the main sitting room.
Camille stood near the fireplace.
Lucian remained opposite him.
Nico stayed by the window.
Daniel looked from one brother to the other.
His face softened.
“This is unfortunate.”
Lucian’s voice was flat.
“Sit.”
Daniel did.
“Thomas Avery contacted you?”
Lucian did not answer.
Daniel sighed.
“I suppose that means there’s no point pretending.”
Nico’s face crumpled with something much younger than his thirty-one years.
“How long?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Nico—”
“How long?”
“Four years.”
Nico turned away.
Lucian remained still.
“Why?”
Daniel looked tired.
“Because your father built something stronger than either of you understood.”
“My father built fear,” Lucian said.
“He built order.”
“He built obedience.”
“And what have you built?”
Lucian said nothing.
Daniel leaned forward.
“You closed profitable operations because you disliked how Adrian managed them. You paid debts for people who belonged to us. You released contracts. You turned leverage into favors.”
“People don’t belong to us.”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“That sentence is why Adrian knew you could be weakened.”
Camille watched Lucian.
Something about Daniel’s words seemed to strike deeper than accusation.
They challenged the central decision Lucian had made after his father died.
To become something different.
Still dangerous.
Still powerful.
But not his father.
Daniel looked at Camille.
“And then you arrived.”
Camille met his gaze.
“What does that mean?”
“You changed the atmosphere.”
She almost laughed.
“I taught people which fork to use.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You made him listen.”
Lucian’s expression darkened.
Daniel continued.
“Staff stopped fearing mistakes because he began asking questions before punishing them. Nico started taking the Bellini weekend seriously. People noticed.”
Camille stared.
“And this bothered Adrian?”
“It terrified him.”
“Why?”
“Because Lucian Moretti feared is useful.”
Daniel looked at Lucian.
“Lucian Moretti respected is nearly impossible to defeat.”
The room fell silent.
Camille had not expected that.
Perhaps Lucian had not either.
Daniel looked at her again.
“So Adrian decided you had to go.”
“Through embarrassment?”
“At first.”
“The article?”
“Yes.”
“The attack?”
Daniel’s eyes dropped.
“I did not authorize that.”
Lucian moved.
In two steps he stood directly in front of Daniel.
“You gave him access.”
“Yes.”
“You gave him the gate schedule.”
“Yes.”
“You knew what he was.”
“Yes.”
“Then you authorized everything that followed.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Lucian’s hands remained at his sides.
Camille saw the effort that took.
“What happens Saturday?” Lucian asked.
Daniel opened his eyes.
“Adrian plans to expose fabricated financial records during the Bellini vote.”
Marco spoke.
“To make Lucian appear criminally connected to foundation funds.”
“Yes.”
“Who has the evidence?”
“Evelyn Hall.”
Camille’s stomach turned.
Of course.
“Where?”
Daniel looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Lucian leaned closer.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was removed from operational planning after the mansion breach.”
“Why?”
“Adrian believes I warned you.”
“Did you?”
Daniel looked toward Nico.
“No.”
Then Nico’s phone vibrated.
A message.
Unknown number.
He opened it.
Camille watched his face drain of color.
“What?” Lucian demanded.
Nico handed over the phone.
A photograph showed Evelyn Hall sitting in the back seat of a car.
Beside her was Thomas Avery.
Both appeared frightened.
Alive.
Underneath:
SATURDAY. COMPLETE THE VOTE. NO POLICE. BRING CAMILLE BROOKS.
Camille read it twice.
Lucian immediately said, “No.”
She looked at him.
“We don’t even know what they want.”
“They want you.”
“Obviously.”
“You are not going.”
Daniel laughed softly.
Everyone turned.
Lucian’s voice became dangerous.
“Something amusing?”
“You still don’t understand Adrian.”
Daniel looked at Camille.
“He doesn’t want Camille because she knows something.”
Camille’s skin prickled.
“Then why?”
“Because you care about her.”
Lucian’s face went blank.
Daniel smiled without humor.
“Adrian watched your father for twenty years. He knows how Moretti men behave when they find something they cannot tolerate losing.”
Camille looked at Lucian.
He did not look at her.
Daniel continued.
“He doesn’t need Camille as leverage against your organization.”
A terrible silence filled the room.
“He needs her as leverage against you.”
Lucian turned away.
That was confirmation enough.
Camille felt heat rise beneath her skin despite everything.
This was not the time.
Definitely not the time.
Yet Daniel’s words had exposed something they had both carefully avoided naming.
Lucian finally spoke.
“Marco, take Daniel downstairs.”
Nico stared.
“Lucian—”
“He stays alive.”
Daniel stood.
As security moved around him, he looked at Nico.
“I am sorry.”
Nico’s expression broke.
“No, you’re not.”
Daniel disappeared through the hallway.
Camille remained by the fireplace.
Lucian walked to the window.
Nobody spoke until Marco returned.
Then Camille said, “I’m going Saturday.”
Lucian turned.
“No.”
“That was not a request.”
“Then it was irrelevant.”
Camille approached him.
“If Adrian expects me and I don’t appear, Evelyn and Thomas may die.”
“I’ll recover them another way.”
“In forty-eight hours?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Lucian did not answer.
“Exactly.”
“I will not deliver you to him.”
“You won’t.”
“Camille—”
“I’m not cargo.”
“You think that distinction matters to him?”
“It matters to me.”
Lucian’s composure cracked.
“Do you understand what happens if he takes you?”
“Yes.”
“No, you don’t.”
His voice rose for the first time since Camille met him.
Nico and Marco became silent.
Lucian stepped close.
“I have spent six days discovering every irritating, infuriating, impossible thing about you.”
Camille’s heart hammered.
“You correct me in my own home. You argue when any reasonable person would leave. You make my brother behave like a human being.”
Nico murmured, “Debatable.”
Nobody looked at him.
Lucian’s voice dropped.
“And somehow, against every instinct I possess, I have begun listening for your footsteps before you enter a room.”
Camille forgot how to breathe.
Lucian stared down at her.
“So no, Camille. I will not calmly send you into Adrian Vale’s hands because it is strategically convenient.”
Camille whispered, “Lucian.”
He looked furious at himself now.
At the situation.
At her.
At whatever truth he had accidentally spoken.
Then Marco interrupted.
“We have another issue.”
Lucian closed his eyes briefly.
“What?”
“Someone just accessed the lake-house cameras remotely.”
Every screen in the room suddenly went black.
Then one monitor flickered back on.
Adrian Vale appeared.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
Smiling.
Live.
“Good evening, Lucian.”
Lucian slowly faced the screen.
Adrian’s smile widened.
“And hello, Camille.”
Camille felt every hair on her arms rise.
Adrian leaned closer to the camera.
“Saturday seems terribly far away.”
Behind him, Evelyn Hall sat tied to a chair.
Thomas Avery beside her.
May you like
Adrian smiled.
“So I thought we might begin tonight.”
