Page 126 of Righteous Enforcer
But I refuse to believe it. Not yet.
I take the service stairs up, keeping to the shadows. The main house is quieter than I expected.
Either Ivan is overconfident or this is a trap as Alessandro predicted.
The grand foyer stands empty. I press forward, checking rooms systematically.
Then I hear it. Voices drifting from behind me. I freeze, straining to listen.
“I don’t know why he cared or why you do, for that matter. After all this time, I have nothing to offer.” Eva's voice. Alive. Relief floods through me like a drug.
I follow the sound. The wood creaks and I go still, waiting a beat to see if I’ve alerted anyone.
But the voices continue, so I move again. Eva is close. And so is the man I'm going to kill.
I pause outside the dining room, pressing my back against the wall as voices filter through the partially open door.
I roll my shoulder blades against the wall, preparing to burst in.
“You’re a shrewd woman. You’ve proven it by faking your death. Escaping from my men. Making Adriano love you even though everything about you is a lie. I admire your skills. Why not embrace who you truly are? Work with me,” Ivan says.
“Given my past, I don’t know why you’d trust me.”
I stop cold. She doesn’t sound like she’s in distress.
“It wasn’t us you betrayed. It was the Dantes. First by giving us information and then by leaving. I mean, of course, you left us too, but the point was to escape Lorenzo, right? Really, Eva, had you come to us, we’d have helped you. And your father would still be alive.”
Giving information. Deep down, I worried it was something like that, but hearing it feels like a stab straight through my heart.
“So now we set up new terms. You've proven your value by infiltrating the Dante family once. Do it again."
"It won't work. They'll never trust me now," Eva replies, her voice calm, controlled—not the voice of a prisoner.
"Oh, but they do. Adriano does. And that's all that matters. Provide us information on their operations for the next six months, and you'll be free. Truly free this time. I’ll even get your daughter back and help you disappear into a new life. Anywhere you want. New identities and no fears of retaliation by the Dantes."
My blood freezes in my veins.
I press my eye to the crack in the door. My stomach plummets.
Eva sits at a dining table next to Ivan.
She doesn’t look like a woman grabbed off the street.
She doesn’t have a single bruise.
She’s got a steak dinner and wine in front of her.
She’s not a prisoner. She’s a guest.
The woman I mourned, the woman I welcomed back, the woman I made love to just last night, has been playing me. Playing all of us.
A coldness spreads through me. Every doubt Alessandro raised, every inconsistency in her story, every time she deflected my questions, it all makes perfect sense now.
I was never the predator Eva feared. I was the prey she hunted. And like a fucking moron, I’d fallen for it.
My finger hovers over the trigger.
Two shots.
