Chapter 9 - Shadows in the Syndicate
The morning after the fever, a heavy silence hung over the estate, but beneath the surface, poison was brewing.
Hannah walked into the kitchen to prepare Matteo's breakfast—pancakes with sliced strawberries, his favorite. As she reached into the walk-in pantry for the jar of organic honey, she noticed something off. The seal on the honey jar was broken, and a faint, powdery residue clung to the underside of the gold rim.
Hannah picked it up, sniffing carefully. A faint, bitter almond scent drifted from the amber liquid.
Cyanide.
Her blood turned to ice. She set the jar down with trembling hands and immediately carried it straight to Lucas's study, bypassing the guards without knocking.
Lucas was in the middle of a heated argument with Marco, his underboss and second-in-command for over a decade. Marco was a stocky, scarred man with cold, hooded eyes who had always looked at Hannah with barely concealed contempt.
"I am telling you, Lucas, the Bellini family is mobilizing," Marco was saying, his fists slammed on the desk. "If you don't take their alliance, we will have a three-way war with the Vaneck syndicate by the end of the month!"
"The Bellinis cross my threshold again, and they die," Lucas said flatly. "That is final."
"Lucas," Hannah's voice cut through the room.
Both men turned.
"Someone tried to poison Matteo's food," Hannah said, holding up the jar by its metal handle with a clean napkin. "Almond scent. Broken seal. It was placed right in the front of the pantry this morning."
Lucas was on his feet in an instant, his face draining of color before morphing into an expression of pure, demonic fury. "What?"
Marco stepped forward, scoffing. "Oh, please! Now the nanny is a toxicologist? Lucas, she’s paranoid. She probably smelled the almond extract from the baking cabinet!"
"I taught high school chemistry for four years before elementary school, Marco," Hannah said, turning her gaze directly onto the underboss. "And almond extract doesn't leave a crystalline residue on the rim. Someone inside this house has access to the pantry."
Marco’s hand twitched toward his waistband. "Are you accusing me, girl?"
"I didn't name anyone, Marco," Hannah replied coolly, stepping closer to Lucas. "Why are you getting defensive?"
"Enough!" Lucas roared. The roar shook the glass in the windows. He snatched the jar from Hannah's hand, his eyes burning with lethal certainty. "Marco. Test this. In our private lab. If there is a single trace of poison in this honey, every single guard on duty last night will be interrogated in the basement."
Marco swallowed, his jaw working as he took the jar. "Of course, boss. Right away."
When Marco left, Lucas turned to Hannah. The composure he had maintained for years was fracturing under the weight of an invisible enemy.
"You saved him again," Lucas said, his chest heaving.
"It's someone inside, Lucas," Hannah urged, stepping closer, reaching out to grasp his forearm. "The mercenaries, the ambush, now this. Someone is selling the estate’s schedules. You can't trust your circle."
Lucas looked down at her hand on his arm, then covered it with his own. "I don't trust my circle. I only trust you."
He took a slow step forward, pulling her against him until there was no space left between them. "Tonight is the annual Solstice Gala at the St. Regis. The entire syndicate council will be there. The Bellinis, the Vanecks, everyone."
"You can't go," Hannah said, her breath catching. "It's a trap."
"I have to go," Lucas replied, his eyes dark with promise. "Because whoever is pulling the strings will expect me to come alone. But I'm bringing Matteo. And I'm bringing you."
"Me? Lucas, I don't belong in that world—"
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"You belong with me," he commanded softly, his hand rising to cup the back of her neck, pulling her face toward his until their lips were inches apart. "Tonight, the city will see that Hannah Ward is under the protection of the Moretti crown. And whoever reaches for you... dies."
***
