# CHAPTER 3 — THE SILVER WOLF
Bruno looked down at his cufflinks.
Each one was shaped like a silver wolf’s head.
They had been a gift from Alejandro fifteen years earlier.
Every senior Moretti guard recognized them.
So did every employee in the mansion.
“Emma,” Mara said carefully, “are you sure?”
The little girl nodded.
“The wolf was on his sleeve.”
Bruno removed both cufflinks and placed them on the desk.
“I was in the security office from four until the alarm sounded.”
“Can that be verified?” Alejandro asked.
“By twelve cameras and six guards.”
“The official cameras,” Alejandro said.
Bruno understood the accusation.
The man who controlled security could control the recordings.
Dr. Reed glanced between them.
“You need to get to a hospital.”
“I’m not leaving while someone inside my home is cleaning up evidence.”
“You almost died.”
“That is why I’m staying.”
Alejandro turned toward Mara.
“Take Emma downstairs.”
Mara rose quickly.
A guard stepped forward.
Alejandro stopped him with one look.
“They go freely.”
Mara carried Emma toward the door.
As they passed Bruno, Emma reached out and touched his jacket sleeve.
Bruno remained motionless.
“This one isn’t scratchy,” she said.
“What?”
“The other man’s coat was scratchy.”
Bruno crouched to her height.
“Did you see his face?”
“No. He was behind the lady.”
“Did you hear him speak?”
Emma thought for a moment.
“He said, ‘Don’t make me hurt your boy.’”
Bruno’s expression changed.
Teresa’s son, Michael Vale, had disappeared six months earlier.
The family believed he had left the country after gambling debts.
Perhaps he had never left.
Perhaps someone had been using him to control Teresa.
Mara carried Emma from the study.
Alejandro waited until the door closed.
“Search Bruno’s quarters,” Matteo Serra said from the hallway.
No one had heard the adviser approach.
Matteo entered wearing a dark charcoal suit. At sixty-one, he had served Alejandro’s father before Alejandro inherited the organization.
Bruno looked at him.
“Careful.”
“If someone copied your cufflinks, we need proof,” Matteo replied.
“If someone planted one, searching my room gives them exactly what they want.”
Alejandro looked at both men.
“Search it.”
Bruno’s jaw tightened, but he did not object.
Twenty minutes later, the guards returned.
They carried a wooden box from Bruno’s bedroom.
Inside were twelve pairs of cufflinks.
Eleven pairs were complete.
The compartment that should have held the silver wolves contained only one.
Bruno looked at the pair lying on Alejandro’s desk.
He counted them.
Two on the desk.
One in his box.
Three silver wolf cufflinks.
“There were only two,” he said.
Matteo studied him.
“Then someone made a copy.”
Bruno shook his head.
“No.”
He picked up the newest-looking cufflink.
“This isn’t a copy.”
He turned it over.
A tiny number had been engraved on the back.
K-17.
Alejandro stopped breathing for an entirely different reason.
The number had belonged to a private vehicle in Kiara’s security convoy.
The car that disappeared after the crash.
Alejandro lifted his eyes.
“Where did you get this?”
“I’ve never seen it before.”
A guard entered holding a radio.
“We found blood in Teresa Vale’s bathroom.”
“Is it hers?” Bruno asked.
“We don’t know.”
The guard swallowed.
“But there’s something else.”
He placed a photograph on the desk.
It showed Teresa’s missing son sitting in a concrete room with his hands tied.
Across the bottom, someone had written a message.
SERVE THE WINE OR HE DIES.
May you like
On the back was a second message.
The child with the rabbit was never supposed to be here.
