Dante was standing over a table covered in tactical maps when she entered. Marco, his consigliere, stopped mid-sentence. The moment Dante saw Nora’s pale face, he crossed the room in three massive strides.
“What happened?” he demanded, his voice dropping to that dangerous, lethal register.
Nora placed the burner phone on the table. “Silas has Toby. He used Maria to get this to me. He wants the encrypted ledger from your safe. He told me to bring it to the steel plant at midnight.”
The room went dead silent. Marco’s eyes widened. Dante stared at the phone, then slowly lifted his gaze to Nora’s face.
“Did you open the safe?” he asked, his voice terrifyingly calm.
“I opened the study. I found the safe. Then I closed it,” Nora said, lifting her chin, refusing to look away. “I thought about taking it. For about thirty seconds, I thought about betraying you because he has my brother. But you are my husband. And I love you. So I am telling you the truth, and I am asking you to help me save him without becoming Silas’s weapon.”
Something monumental shifted in Dante’s expression. The cold, calculating mafia boss vanished, replaced by a man looking at a miracle. He pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her hair, holding her so tightly she could feel the rapid beating of his heart.
“You saved him,” Dante whispered fiercely. “The moment you walked through that door.”
“We have under an hour,” Marco interrupted, his voice tight with urgency.
Dante released Nora but kept his arm firmly around her waist. “Call our federal liaisons,” he ordered Marco.