Chapter 3 - Blood in the PantryLeo trusted systems more than people.
People lied.
Systems failed too, but at least failures left evidence.
By noon, the mansion had become a fortress undergoing an autopsy.
Every security log was pulled.
Every camera was reviewed.
Every employee was questioned.
Mave hated it.
The cooks whispered.
The groundskeepers avoided looking at her.
Two longtime housemaids were crying in the laundry room because Carmine had asked where they had been between eight and ten that morning.
Mave found Leo in the surveillance office.
“This needs to stop.”
He didn't turn.
“No.”
“You're frightening everyone.”
“Good.”
“They didn't do anything.”
“One of them might have.”
“Most of these people have worked here longer than I have.”
“That doesn't make them innocent.”
“It doesn't make them guilty either.”
Leo finally faced her.
“Someone entered your bedroom.”
“I know.”
“Someone placed a threat on your pillow.”
“I was there.”
“And nobody saw anything.”
Mave folded her arms.
“Maybe the cameras were hacked.”
“They weren't.”
“Maybe whoever entered knew the blind spots.”
“There are no blind spots.”
“Then how?”
Leo's eyes darkened.
“Someone with access disabled one camera for ninety-four seconds.”
Mave's anger disappeared.
“Who has access?”
“Me. Giani. Carmine. Three security supervisors.”
“That's it?”
“That's enough.”
Mave leaned against the desk.
“Do you suspect Carmine?”
Leo didn't answer.
“That means yes.”
“I suspect everyone.”
“Even me?”
His eyes met hers.
“No.”
The certainty made her chest ache.
“That seems like bad management.”
“I don't care.”
“You should.”
“You were the target.”
“Which means I could be manipulating you.”
Leo stepped closer.
“You aren't.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I've spent three years watching you.”
The words changed the air.
Mave looked up.
Leo continued before she could respond.
“You steal the strawberries from fruit trays before serving guests. You hide your mystery novels behind my history books because you think I don't know you read in the library after midnight. When you're nervous, you clean things that aren't dirty. When you're angry, you call me Mr. Castiglion.”
Mave stared.
“And when you're lying,” Leo said, “you touch the little scar under your chin.”
Her hand instinctively rose.
Leo almost smiled.
She lowered it.
“You really do watch me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Neither moved.
The answer existed between them.
Leo's phone rang.
The moment disappeared.
He answered.
Mave watched his face.
“What?”
He listened.
“Keep him there.”
Leo ended the call.
“What happened?”
“One of the security supervisors tried to leave.”
“Maybe he's scared.”
“He took forty thousand dollars from an account this morning.”
Mave closed her eyes.
“That's inconvenient.”
“Stay here.”
“Leo.”
He was already leaving.
She followed.
The supervisor was named Ellis.
Mave knew him.
Quiet man.
Forty-five.
Two children.
He always held doors open for her.
Carmine had him seated in the basement conference room.
Ellis looked terrified.
“Boss, I can explain.”
“Try.”
“My daughter needs surgery.”
Leo stopped.
Mave stood behind him.
Ellis looked at her.
“They offered money.”
“Who?” Leo asked.
“I don't know.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear.”
“How did they contact you?”
“Burner phone.”
“What did they ask?”
Ellis swallowed.
“Camera access.”
“For what?”
“They said nobody would get hurt. Just ninety seconds.”
Leo's jaw tightened.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand.”
“You took forty.”
“They paid ten up front.”
Leo stared at him.
Ellis began crying.
Mave's stomach twisted.
Leo asked, “Where's the phone?”
Ellis gave it to Carmine.
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
Ellis hesitated.
Leo saw it.
“So did I,” Mave whispered.
Ellis looked at her.
“What else?”
“They asked about her schedule.”
The room became very still.
Leo's voice dropped.
“What did you tell them?”
“Nothing.”
“Ellis.”
“I told them she usually leaves Thursdays.”
Leo stepped forward.
Mave touched his arm.
“Leo.”
He froze.
Ellis looked from Mave to Leo.
“I didn't know.”
Mave believed him.
That was the worst part.
“Get out,” Leo said.
Carmine frowned.
“Boss?”
“Take his access. Give him the money for his daughter's surgery. Then he's done.”
Ellis stared.
“You're not—”
“No.”
Leo pointed toward the door.
“Leave before I reconsider.”
Ellis stumbled out.
Carmine followed.
Mave remained.
“You surprised me.”
Leo laughed bitterly.
“Don't romanticize it. If you hadn't been standing here, he might not have walked out.”
“But I was.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
“Maybe that's important.”
Leo didn't answer.
That evening, the estate was quiet.
Too quiet.
Mave tried to sleep.
She couldn't.
At midnight, she went downstairs.
The kitchen was dark.
She opened the refrigerator.
“You're not supposed to be wandering.”
Mave jumped.
Leo sat at the island.
Again.
“Do you live in darkness?”
“It suits me.”
“You're unbearable.”
She found leftover cheesecake.
“Want some?”
“No.”
She cut two slices.
Leo ate his anyway.
For several minutes, they said nothing.
Then Mave asked, “What were you like before your father died?”
Leo stared at the plate.
“Different.”
“That isn't descriptive.”
“I laughed more.”
“I've seen you laugh.”
“Usually at other people's problems.”
“That still counts.”
He looked at her.
“I was studying architecture.”
Mave blinked.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“You wanted to design buildings?”
“I liked things that stayed where you put them.”
She smiled.
“That makes an alarming amount of sense.”
“My father wanted me in the business.”
“And you didn't?”
“No.”
“What changed?”
“He died.”
Leo pushed the plate away.
“Someone had to take control before everyone tore each other apart.”
“So you became him.”
The words slipped out.
Mave immediately regretted them.
Leo did not become angry.
Instead, he looked tired.
“Maybe.”
“You don't have to stay him.”
His eyes lifted.
Before he could answer, the lights went out.
Again.
Mave froze.
Leo stood.
“No alarm.”
That was worse.
He reached beneath the island and pulled a pistol from a hidden compartment.
“You have guns in the kitchen?”
“Later.”
A faint sound came from the service hall.
Leo moved toward it.
Mave followed.
“No.”
“I am not standing alone.”
“Mave.”
“I'll stay behind you.”
He clearly wanted to argue.
Another sound.
A door clicking.
Leo moved.
The pantry door stood slightly open.
He pushed it.
A man lunged.
Everything happened at once.
Leo struck the attacker's wrist.
A blade flashed.
Mave heard a grunt.
Another man appeared behind them.
“Leo!”
She grabbed the nearest object.
A cast-iron pan.
She swung.
It connected with the second man's face.
He collapsed.
Leo stared at her for half a second.
“Remind me never to criticize your cookware.”
“Behind you!”
Leo turned.
The first attacker charged.
A shot cracked.
The man fell.
Mave's ears rang.
Then Leo stumbled.
“Leo?”
Blood spread across his shirt.
Her heart stopped.
“No.”
“It's a cut.”
“It is not a cut.”
“Knife caught my side.”
Mave dragged him toward the pantry wall.
“You're bleeding everywhere.”
“I've had worse.”
“Congratulations.”
She ripped open his shirt.
The wound was deep but not immediately catastrophic.
Mave grabbed towels.
“Pressure.”
“I know.”
“Then do it.”
Leo obeyed.
Footsteps thundered down the hall.
Carmine entered with three guards.
His expression changed at the sight of Leo.
“Boss.”
“Two intruders.”
“One alive,” Mave said.
Carmine looked at the unconscious man she had hit.
“What happened to him?”
“Le Creuset.”
Carmine stared.
Mave pointed toward Leo.
“Doctor. Now.”
Twenty minutes later, Leo was in his bedroom while a private physician stitched his side.
Mave refused to leave.
Neither Leo nor the doctor succeeded in changing her mind.
“It missed anything vital,” the doctor said.
“See?” Leo muttered.
Mave glared.
“You were lucky.”
Leo watched her.
She was angry because she was afraid.
He recognized the feeling.
After the physician left, Mave sat beside the bed.
“I almost lost you.”
Leo's expression softened.
“You didn't.”
“You could have died.”
“So could you.”
She looked away.
“The man Carmine took downstairs had a tattoo.”
Leo became alert.
“You saw it?”
“Inside his wrist.”
“What?”
“A crown with three nails.”
Leo's face changed.
“What?”
“That symbol belongs to my uncle.”
Mave swallowed.
“So Dominic is alive.”
“Yes.”
A knock sounded.
Carmine entered holding a folder.
“Boss, you need to see this.”
Leo took it.
Inside was a photograph taken ten years earlier.
Dominic Castiglion.
Older.
Bearded.
Standing beside Sergei Volkov.
The head of the Russian syndicate.
Mave felt cold.
Carmine continued.
“The man downstairs talked.”
“What did he say?”
“Dominic has been financing Volkov for years.”
Leo's fingers tightened around the photograph.
“And?”
Carmine hesitated.
“They don't just want the ledger.”
Leo looked toward Mave.
Carmine said, “They want her alive.”
“Why?” Mave asked.
The room became silent.
Carmine looked at Leo.
Then at her.
“Because Evelyn Quinn didn't just hide evidence.”
He placed another document on the bed.
A legal document.
A trust agreement.
Mave read the first line.
Her knees weakened.
The account had been established by Salvatore Castiglion.
Beneficiary:
Evelyn Quinn.
Secondary beneficiary:
Mave Quinn.
Value at maturity:
Twenty-eight million dollars.
Mave stared at the number.
“What is this?”
Leo read the page.
His face hardened.
Carmine answered.
“Your mother wasn't just protecting evidence.”
He looked at her.
“She owned part of Castiglion Maritime.”
May you like
And if the document was real, after her mother's death—
So did Mave.
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