“Addie?”
She sighed.
“The first one contained five hundred dollars.”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“I didn’t take it,” she said quickly. “I gave it to the house manager.”
“I know. That incident was logged.”
“The second contained a note.”
“What did it say?”
Adeline looked at Ben.
Elias understood.
“It mentioned your brother.”
She nodded.
Ben went pale.
“What?”
“They knew your hospital. Your doctor. Your schedule.”
Elias’s voice became colder.
“What did they want?”
“They told me to leave a basement door unlocked.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then why did cameras catch you there?”
“Because I went downstairs to photograph the note location. I thought I could figure out who was doing it.”
Elias stared at her.
“You investigated someone infiltrating my house by yourself?”
“I couldn’t exactly call the police and say someone inside a mafia boss’s mansion was blackmailing me.”
Ben blinked.
“Mafia boss?”
Adeline closed her eyes.
“Oh, fantastic.”
Elias ignored him.
“Where are the notes?”
Adeline crossed the room and opened a kitchen drawer.
She handed him three folded pieces of paper.
Elias read them.
His jaw tightened.
The third note contained information only five people in his organization possessed.
One of them was Rourke Delaney.
His phone rang.
Rourke.
Elias answered.
“Where are you?”
“Driving.”
“We have another problem,” Rourke said. “Adeline Hayes didn’t report home.”
Elias stared at Adeline.
“How do you know?”
Silence.
Then Rourke laughed softly.
“You really shouldn’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Elias.”
The call ended.
Elias looked toward the broken apartment door.
Footsteps sounded in the stairwell.
Several of them.
Adeline whispered, “What’s happening?”
Elias reached for his phone.
“Your biggest problem is no longer stealing bread.”
“What is?”
He looked at her.
THE MAFIA KING WHO HID IN A FUNERAL HEARSE
EVERY ALPHA FAILED TO SUMMON THE MOON GODDESS—THEN SHE CALLED AN OMEGA M...
EVERYONE SAID THE OLD DRAGON WAS TOO WEAK TO STAND—UNTIL A STABLE GIRL F...
“Someone knows I followed you.”
---
CHAPTER 2
Elias called Bruno.
“Chelsea. I need you.”
“How many?”
“Unknown.”
“Five minutes.”
“I need three.”
Bruno hung up.
Adeline locked the door.
“That hinge won’t hold,” Ben said.
“I know.”
Elias crossed toward the window.
His shirt collar shifted, revealing more of the dark tattoo covering his upper chest.
Adeline stared at him.
“What exactly do you do?”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Keep you alive.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“It’s the answer that matters.”
A knock came.
Three slow taps.
“Adeline?” a voice called. “Building maintenance.”
Ben whispered, “At seven in the morning?”
Elias held one finger to his lips.
The doorknob moved.
Then stopped.
Elias positioned himself beside the wall.
A moment later came the sound of retreating footsteps.
Then silence.
Adeline exhaled.
“Why did they leave?”
Elias looked through the window.
A black SUV had stopped outside.
Bruno stepped out with three men.