Chapter 2 - The Man Across the Street
"Close the case," Luca said.
The stranger smiled.
"No."
Sofia looked from one man to the other.
Matteo's hand moved beneath his jacket.
Luca noticed.
"Not here."
Children were visible through the library windows.
That was enough.
Matteo lowered his hand.
The stranger removed the photograph.
It showed Luca's father, Antonio Bellucci, standing beside three men outside a warehouse.
Sofia recognized one of them.
She had seen his face in the foundation archives.
Luca's uncle Carlo.
The man whose books she'd been cataloging.
The stranger held the photograph toward Sofia.
"Have you seen this before?"
"No."
"Look carefully."
"I said no."
Luca stepped between them.
"She answered you."
The stranger's smile faded.
"You always were protective of things that belonged to you."
"She doesn't belong to me."
For reasons Sofia didn't understand, the words hurt.
Luca glanced at her.
Something in his expression suggested he regretted saying them.
The stranger closed the briefcase.
"My employer wants the missing pages."
"I don't have them," Luca said.
"We think she does."
Sofia stared.
"I don't even know what pages you're talking about."
The stranger studied her.
"Then you won't mind if we search your apartment."
Luca moved so quickly Sofia barely saw it.
One second he was standing beside her.
The next, his hand was around the man's collar, pinning him against the sedan.
"You go near her home," Luca said quietly, "and this conversation changes."
The stranger didn't struggle.
"There's the Luca Bellucci I've heard about."
"Luca."
Sofia touched his arm.
He froze.
Her fingers rested over the tattoos beneath his sleeve.
"Children are watching."
Luca looked toward the library.
Several faces were pressed against the glass.
He released the man.
The stranger straightened his coat.
"Forty-eight hours."
Then he drove away.
Sofia turned on Luca.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
She laughed once.
"That was many things. Nothing wasn't one of them."
"Go home."
"No."
"Sofia."
"You fired me."
"Yes."
"You humiliated me."
His jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"And now men are following me because of something I supposedly know."
Luca said nothing.
Sofia stepped closer.
"So you're going to explain."
"I can't."
"Then stop watching me."
His eyes changed.
She had guessed correctly.
"It was you."
Luca looked at Matteo.
Matteo suddenly found the pavement fascinating.
Sofia folded her arms.
"Five days?"
Luca remained silent.
"You fired me and then had me followed every day?"
"For security."
"Security?"
"Yes."
"You could have told me."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because fear changes behavior."
Sofia stared at him.
"You wanted me to look normal."
"Yes."
"So whoever is watching me wouldn't know I was protected."
Luca didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Sofia felt anger rising.
"You don't get to decide what I know about my own danger."
"I made the decision that kept you alive."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
His certainty silenced her.
Luca lowered his voice.
"Someone entered your apartment two nights ago."
Sofia went still.
"What?"
"They didn't take anything."
Her face drained.
"How do you know?"
"I had someone watching the building."
"You had someone watching my home?"
"Yes."
"That's insane."
"It may have saved you."
Sofia took a step back.
Every ordinary moment of the last week suddenly felt contaminated.
The noise outside her apartment.
The drawer she'd thought she left open.
The kitchen window that hadn't latched properly.
She had blamed herself.
"Who are these people?"
"I don't know yet."
"Then tell me what they want."
Luca looked toward the library.
"The ledger."
"The one I found?"
"Yes."
"What was in it?"
"Names."
"Whose?"
"People who paid my uncle. People he paid. Judges. businessmen. police officers. politicians."
Sofia swallowed.
"And the missing pages?"
"Contain three names my father died protecting."
Her anger weakened.
"Your father?"
Luca's expression became unreadable again.
"He died when I was twenty."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
"You don't have to pretend it doesn't hurt."
His gaze snapped to hers.
Nobody spoke to Luca that way.
Sofia had forgotten she was supposed to be afraid of him.
Or perhaps she had stopped caring.
"You found numbers on my library card," she said.
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"How do you know?"
"I saw you looking at it before I left."
He almost smiled.
"You notice too much."
"Occupational hazard."
"Those numbers correspond to missing entries."
"I didn't write them."
"I know."
"Then someone planted them."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To make me suspect you."
Sofia stared at him.
"Did you?"
"For approximately seven seconds."
"That's comforting."
"It should be."
"Why?"
"Because I'm suspicious of everyone."
For the first time since being fired, Sofia smiled.
Just barely.
Luca saw it.
And forgot what he was saying.
It annoyed him.
Sofia Moretti had always done that.
She would walk into his office carrying books and suddenly the room would feel less severe.
She talked to security guards by name.
Remembered birthdays.
Left books on Luca's desk because she thought he'd like them.
Once, she'd told the most feared man in his organization that he had overdue books.
He had paid the fine.
Nobody had ever let him forget it.
And now someone wanted to use her against him.
That was unacceptable.
"You can't stay alone tonight," Luca said.
Sofia's smile disappeared.
"Absolutely not."
"That wasn't a question."
"Then my answer is even more absolutely not."
"Sofia."
"Luca."
Matteo covered a cough that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
Luca glared at him.
Matteo walked away.
Sofia crossed her arms.
"I'm staying at my apartment."
"It's compromised."
"I'll stay with Mrs. Alvarez."
"They know where you work."
"My sister."
"They may know about her."
"How?"
"Because I found a file on you."
Her anger returned instantly.
"What file?"
"Not mine."
"Whose?"
"We don't know."
Sofia looked toward the street where the stranger had disappeared.
"What did it contain?"
"Your address. Your sister's address. Your employment history."
"What else?"
Luca hesitated.
"What else?"
"Photographs."
The word chilled her.
"What photographs?"
"You leaving work. Grocery shopping. At your apartment window."
Sofia wrapped her arms around herself.
Luca wanted to reach for her.
He didn't.
"You'll stay somewhere secure until I know who's behind this."
"Where?"
"My home."
She stared.
"No."
"Yes."
"That sounds like the beginning of every terrible decision a woman makes in a thriller."
"You read too much."
"I'm a librarian."
For the first time, Luca smiled.
It lasted less than a second.
But Sofia saw it.
"One night," she said.
"Until it's safe."
"One."
"We'll negotiate later."
"We won't."
An hour later, Sofia entered Luca's penthouse.
She expected marble and cold furniture.
There was marble.
But there were also books.
Hundreds of them.
Shelves covered an entire wall.
Sofia stopped.
"You read?"
Luca removed his jacket.
"You sound surprised."
"I've seen your borrowing history."
"You monitor my borrowing history?"
"I monitored everyone's."
"That's disturbing."
"Says the man who had me followed."
"Fair."
She approached the shelves.
History.
Poetry.
Crime novels.
Classic literature.
A battered copy of The Count of Monte Cristo.
She pulled it free.
"This doesn't belong here."
"Why?"
"It's been read."
"Several times."
Sofia looked at him.
A quiet intimacy passed between them.
Then Matteo entered.
"Boss."
Luca turned.
Matteo's expression erased the moment.
"What?"
"We checked Sofia's apartment."
Sofia stiffened.
"And?"
"Someone went back."
Luca's eyes darkened.
Matteo placed a clear evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a photograph.
Sofia stepped closer.
It showed her standing in the Bellucci archive.
The picture had been taken through the doorway on the night she found the ledger.
On the back, someone had written five words.
SHE SAW WHAT CARLO HID.
Sofia's breath caught.
Luca flipped the photograph over again.
Something had been circled behind her.
A bookshelf.
Shelf seven.
Luca stared at it.
Then at Sofia.
"What was there?"
"I don't know."
"Think."
She closed her eyes.
That night.
The ledger.
Carlo's collection.
Dante.
Old legal volumes.
A green book with no catalog number.
Her eyes opened.
"There was another book."
"What book?"
"I put it aside because it wasn't in the database."
"What was it called?"
"It didn't have a title."
Luca was already moving.
Matteo followed.
Sofia grabbed Luca's sleeve.
"Where are you going?"
"The archive."
"I'm coming."
"No."
"I know exactly where the book was."
Luca stared at her.
Five minutes later, all three were in the elevator.
At Bellucci headquarters, the building was almost empty.
They entered the archive.
Sofia switched on the lights.
Shelf seven.
She walked directly toward it.
"There."
Empty space.
The book was gone.
Matteo cursed.
Sofia crouched.
Something white lay beneath the shelf.
A folded piece of paper.
She reached for it.
Luca caught her wrist.
"Gloves."
Matteo handed him a pair.
Luca unfolded the paper.
One sentence.
IF SOFIA REMEMBERS THE NAME, SHE DIES.
Nobody spoke.
Then the archive door clicked shut behind them.
Luca turned.
May you like
The lights went out.
And from somewhere in the darkness, a man's voice whispered Sofia's name.
