Chapter 2 - The Serpent’s Teeth
By 2:00 PM, the heavy mahogany doors of the estate’s primary library were locked from the inside.
Adrian sat behind his dark oak desk, wearing a fresh dry suit. On the desk lay three items: the plastic sedative cap, an encrypted satellite phone, and a polished chrome revolver that had belonged to his father.
Standing across from him was Marco, his head of security and personal enforcer for twelve years. Marco’s broad face was carved from granite, his ears scarred from years of street fights.
"We checked the security cameras on the rear alley, Boss," Marco said, his voice a low rumble. "The feed for the west gate went dead at 10:15 PM on Tuesday night. A manual override was entered from inside the house."
"Using whose code?" Adrian asked.
"The master code," Marco replied grimly. "The one given only to you... and Miss Romano."
Adrian didn't blink. "And the black car?"
"Traffic cameras picked up a black Lincoln Navigator leaving the alley at 10:32 PM. It headed south toward the docks in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The vehicle is registered to a shell company owned by Lorenzo Romano."
Adrian leaned back in his chair, folding his long fingers together. "Why would Lorenzo steal an eight-year-old mastiff?"
"It’s not about the dog, Adrian," Marco said bluntly. "It’s about leverage. Don Carlo Romano’s health is failing. Lorenzo wants to take over the family, but he knows you hold fifty percent of their shipping contracts through the Long Island ports. If he has something you care about, he thinks he can force you to sign over the dock deeds before the wedding."
Adrian let out a short, cold laugh. "Lorenzo thinks he can threaten me with my own dog?"
"He knows you love that animal more than most people, Boss," Marco said softly. "After your father died, Bruno was the only thing that kept you from turning this house into a war zone. Everyone in the city knows it."
A knock sounded at the library door.
"Adrian?" Vivienne’s voice called out from the hallway, soft, sweet, and laden with performative concern. "Darling, the kitchen staff said you were down by the gate in the rain. Are you alright? Did you find anything?"
Adrian looked at Marco. Marco quietly drew his weapon and stepped into the shadowy corner behind the door.
"Come in, Vivienne," Adrian said.
The heavy oak door swung open. Vivienne stepped into the room holding a cup of tea on a silver saucer. She wore a warm, sympathetic smile, but her eyes darted nervously toward the empty corners of the library.
"You look so pale, my love," she said, setting the tea down on his desk. "I asked Mrs. Ferrara to make some chamomile. You really need to rest. Searching for Bruno in this weather will only make you sick."
Adrian looked down at the tea cup. Then he reached out, picked up the small plastic sedative cap from his desk, and dropped it into the steaming cup.
The white plastic floated on the amber liquid.
Vivienne froze. The color drained from her face so fast it looked as if she had been struck.
"What... what is that?" she stammered, stepping back slightly.
"That's a cap from a 50-milligram dose of Telazol," Adrian said, his voice dropping into a register so dark and cold it made the air in the room feel heavy. "It’s a powerful anesthetic. Injected intramuscularly, it puts a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound dog to sleep in less than three minutes."
"Adrian... I don't..."
"Where is he, Vivienne?"
Vivienne tried to laugh, but it came out as a pathetic, shaking gasp. "Adrian, you're being absurd! Are you accusing me of poisoning your dog? Why would I—"
"I didn't say you poisoned him," Adrian interrupted, leaning forward over the desk, his dark eyes locked onto hers like steel clamps. "I said you sedated him. You opened the back gate at 10:15 PM. You let Lorenzo’s men onto my property. And you watched them load him into a black Navigator."
Vivienne’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. Her eyes darted wildly toward the door.
"Don't bother looking at the exit," Adrian said calmly.
Marco stepped out from the shadows behind the door, closing it with a sharp, heavy click.
Vivienne gasped, backing into the edge of a bookshelf. "Adrian! Please! You're scaring me!"
"You should be scared," Adrian said quietly. He stood up slowly, towering over her. "You came into my house. You wore my mother's engagement ring. You slept in my bed. And all the while, you were working with your brother to strip my family of our territory."
"It wasn't my idea!" Vivienne cried, tears finally breaking past her mascara, ruinous and real. "Lorenzo forced me! He said if I didn't help him get leverage over you, he would tell the commission about... about father's hidden debts! He threatened me, Adrian!"
Adrian walked around the desk until he was standing six inches from her. He looked down at her face, feeling nothing. No anger. No betrayal. Only a cold, absolute clarity.
"Where is Lorenzo holding Bruno?" Adrian asked.
"He... he has him at the old meatpacking warehouse in Red Hook," Vivienne sobbed, clutching her designer sweater. "He's alive, Adrian! I swear he's alive! Lorenzo just wanted to use him to make you sign the dock transfer at dinner tomorrow night!"
Adrian looked at Marco. "Take her ring."
Vivienne gasped as Marco stepped forward, swiftly pulling the massive diamond ring off her finger.
"Lock her in the basement wine cellar," Adrian ordered, his voice devoid of human warmth. "No phone. No lights. If her father calls, tell him she’s busy picking out wedding flowers."
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"Adrian! No! You can't do this to me! I'm a Romano!" Vivienne screamed as Marco grabbed her arm, dragging her toward the hidden service door behind the bookcase. "My father will burn this house down!"
"Your father is an old man dying of cancer," Adrian said softly, turning his back on her cries. "And your brother is about to learn what happens when you touch something that belongs to a Moretti."
