The sun hadn't risen yet, but the city below them was already humming-sirens, garbage trucks, a distant car alarm. New York didn't sleep. It waited.
Nico stood near the window of Isabella's hidden apartment, watching the horizon while she replayed the video again. Not because she missed anything-because she couldn't believe it.
"Do you believe him?" she finally asked.
Nico didn't turn around. "Matteo?"
She nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "I do."
Isabella leaned back in her chair, folding her arms, "Then that means my Father.....knew. Or worse, hegave the order."
Nico exhaled slowly. "We don't have proof".
" I don't need proof. I know his tells. I know the way he speaks when he's lying. He didn't cry at the funeral. Didn't even pretend.'
'Crying doesn't mean guilt," Nico said. "But indifference? That's a different thing."
Silence stretched between them, taut and pulsing.
"Do you think I'm strong enough for this?" She asked suddenly.
He turned, finally.
"I think you're already stronger than you realize."
She held his gaze. "Even if it means going into war with the man that raised me?"
"That man's gone, Isabella."
Something in her broke then-not loudly. Just a soft shift, like the last crack in ice before it gives away. She looked away. "I need to talk to Luca."
Nico's jaw tightened. "You trust him"?
"No." She stood. "But I need to know if he's involved."
"You want me there?"
"No, "She said. "I want to go alone."
Nico crossed the room in three long strides and stopped inches from her. "I don't let you walk into danger just because you want to," he said.
Her chin lifted, fierce and proud. "You don't let me do anything, Nico. You follow me because I'm the only one still willing to fix what this familybroke".
His fingers twitched at his sides. She was infuriating. Brilliant. And standing on a cliff edge she didn't fully see.
"You go see Luca, " he said, voice like gravel, "but I'II be watching. From the shadows. If he even thinks about double-crossing you-"
"You'II kill him?"
" I won't hesitate".
She stepped closer. "You're good at killing. What else are you good at?"
The air between them turned electric-hot and tense and full of things neither of them could name.
Nico's voice dropped. "Loyalty."
Isabella stared at him for a moment longer, then turned away and grabbed her coat.
"I'll be back before sunset."
But his gun was loaded. And his car was already running downstairs. Because Isabella Moretti might walk into the Lion's den alone-
-But Nico DeLuca would burn it down before he let her be devoured.