The heir to the most feared family in the Northeast collapsed on the marble floor I had just finished polishing

For two agonizing hours, the storm outside raged while the storm above us tore the estate apart.

We heard furniture being overturned, glass smashing, and heavy footsteps sweeping through every corridor of the west wing. Whoever these men were, they weren't mere thieves. They operated with tactical precision, speaking in short, clipped commands. They were professional hitmen, hired to make sure Leonardo Moretti never woke up.

In the dark basement, I kept my hands firmly pressed against Leonardo's side. His skin felt burning hot one minute and ice-cold the next. Fever was setting in.

"Leora..." he rasped weakly around 2:00 a.m. His eyes fluttered open in the dim glow of my phone's lock screen.

"Keep quiet," I whispered, leaning close to his ear. "They're still upstairs."

He took a slow, painful breath, his dark eyes staring intensely into mine. "Why didn't you leave me? You could have run out the kitchen staff exit."

"Because I'm not a murderer," I said quietly. "And because I know what it's like to watch someone die while people stand by doing nothing."

My mind flashed briefly to my sister Sophie, sitting in that sterile hospital room, connected to tubes, waiting for a donor that never seemed to come. Every dollar I made keeping this mansion pristine went straight to her medical trust. If I died tonight, Sophie wouldn't survive the year.

Leonardo fell silent for a moment, listening to the muffled thuds above. "It was Marcus," he whispered softly, a cold, dangerous tone slipping into his ragged voice.

"Who?"

"My uncle's right hand. Only three people knew I was returning from Chicago tonight via the mountain road. The security grid wasn't hacked... it was disabled from the master control room in the mansion."

My chest tightened. That meant the traitor was inside Blackwood. It could be anyone—security guards, managers, even staff members I worked with every day.

"If Marcus is behind this," Leonardo continued, his jaw setting hard, "my father is either compromised or surrounded. They want the family line severed before the council meeting on Friday."

"I don't care about syndicate politics, Mr. Moretti," I murmured, adjusting the blood-soaked bandages. "I just need us to survive until morning."

"If I survive this night, Leora... you won't ever have to worry about surviving again."

Before I could process his words, the noise upstairs shifted. The heavy footsteps converged back near the grand foyer.

"Target isn't in the primary structure!" a harsh voice yelled from above, muffled by the flooring. "The blood trail ends near the main doors. He must have dragged himself out into the woods before the storm wiped the tracks! Spread out into the perimeter!"

The heavy oak doors slammed shut. Within ten minutes, the sound of high-powered engines faded into the distance as the hitmen moved their search outside into the raging mountain woods.

Silence fell over the mansion once more.

I let out a long breath I felt like I had been holding for hours. My body was trembling from cold and nervous exhaustion.

"They're gone," I whispered. "For now."

"We can't stay here," Leonardo said, attempting to sit up with a wince of agonizing pain. "They'll realize their mistake by dawn when they don't find a body in the forest. They will return to burn this place to the ground."

"Can you walk?"

"With help."

I hauled him up once more. The bleed had slowed thanks to the tight pressure bandage, but he was dangerously weak. We navigated the damp, winding catacombs of the old basement until we reached an old exterior storm cellar door that opened into the thick overgrown brush behind the estate's greenhouse.

I pushed the iron doors open. Cold rain washed over my face. The storm was finally breaking, leaving behind a heavy gray mist that hung thick over the pine trees.

I helped Leonardo out into the crisp mountain air. Hidden under the dense canopy of the pines, two miles away down the mountain, was my beaten-up ten-year-old hatchback parked near the outer maintenance gate.