Obsessed With My Beautiful Enemy

The Traitor inside

CHAPTER 17

SALVATORE POV

I sat at the head of the conference table, staring down at the five soldiers standing across from me in a line.

"Who spoke?"

Silence answered me. The kind of silence that made grown men sweat through their shirts, the kind that hung in the air like a physical thing.

Nobody moved. Nobody breathed too loudly. Good. Fear was healthy. Fear keeps people honest. Usually.

Unfortunately, someone inside my empire had forgotten that basic truth.

My fingers tapped once against the wooden table. Slow. Controlled. Deadly.

"I'll ask again," I said, keeping my voice level and even.

My voice remained calm, which was exactly when people became nervous. Not when I shouted. Not when I threatened. When I sounded calm.

Because everyone knew what happened after the calm disappeared.

"Who spoke to Caruso?"

The men exchanged quick glances with each other. Tiny ones. Barely noticeable.

I noticed anyway. I noticed everything. That was the problem with power. The more power you gained, the more enemies you created. And enemies didn't always come from outside your organization.

Sometimes they sat at your table. Sometimes they shake your hand. Sometimes they called you family.

A muscle tightened in my jaw at the thought.

Charlie stood beside me. Watching. Waiting.

"The communication logs don't lie," he said quietly, his voice steady. "They came from inside the organization."

I already knew that. I'd spent half the night reviewing reports. Financial records. Phone calls. Movement schedules. Everything.

Someone was leaking information. Someone was feeding my enemies pieces of my empire. And I hated not knowing who, because uncertainty made me dangerous.

A knock interrupted the silence, three sharp taps against the conference room door.

My attention shifted toward it immediately.

One of the guards entered. "The shipment arrived safely."

I nodded once without looking at him. "Leave."

The guard hesitated. Only for a second. Then he left the room.

Interesting. Very interesting.

The second the door shut behind him, I looked directly at Charlie.

"Did you see that?"

Charlie sighed. "I saw."

"He hesitated."

"Maybe he was nervous."

"Everyone is nervous."

My gaze returned to the soldiers standing in front of me.

"That isn't an excuse."

Nobody argued. Smart choice.

I stood slowly. The chair scraped against the floor, and several men immediately straightened. Fear. Again. Healthy. Necessary.

But lately it wasn't helping, because no matter how many reports I read, no matter how many meetings I attended, no matter how many enemies I eliminated, the feeling wouldn't disappear.

Something was wrong. Deeply wrong. And I couldn't find it.

That made me angry. The kind of anger that sat beneath your skin and never truly left.

"Find the leak," I said coldly.

Charlie nodded. "We will."

"No."

I looked directly at him. "I want names."

His expression hardened. "Understood."

I dismissed everyone with a wave, and the room emptied quickly. Within seconds only Charlie remained standing there.

The door clicked shut behind the last man.

Finally, Silence. Real silence.

Charlie crossed his arms over his chest.

"You haven't slept."

I laughed. it's sound weird

"When was the last time sleeping solved anything?"

His expression didn't change at all. "You're getting worse."

"Careful," I warned him.

"I'm serious."

I looked away. Toward the massive windows overlooking the ocean. Dark waves crashed against black cliffs below. Violent. Relentless. Beautiful.

The storm rolling across the horizon looked exactly how I felt inside.

Charlie stepped closer. "This isn't just about the leak anymore."

I remained silent because he was right. And we both knew it.

The leak was only part of the problem. The bigger problem had blue eyes. A stubborn mouth. And a habit of invading every thought I had.

Lena.

The realization irritated me immediately. I hated weakness. Hated dependency. Hated needing anything.

Yet somehow, every day she became harder to ignore. Harder to stay away from. Harder to stop thinking about.

Charlie studied me carefully. Then made a terrible decision.

"You should talk to her."

I turned slowly. "What?"

His mouth twitched. Barely. Almost a smile.

"See?"

I stared at him.

He continued anyway. "You're calmer after spending time with her."

I considered firing him. Briefly.

Instead I said, "Leave."

Charlie smirked. Actually smirked. Brave man. Stupid man.

Then he walked out before I could change my mind about keeping him employed.

The moment the door closed, I rubbed a hand over my face.

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

I was hunting traitors. Preparing for war. Managing an empire.

Yet somehow the most dangerous thing in my life was a woman who refused to fear me properly. A woman who looked at me and saw things nobody else did.

The thought followed me for the rest of the afternoon. Into meetings. Into reports. Everywhere.

By evening, my patience was completely gone. Which was exactly why I found myself walking through the fortress corridors, Looking for her.

Not intentionally of course not. I simply happened to be heading in the same direction. Coincidentally.

The lie sounded pathetic even inside my own head.

I found her in the east garden. The one overlooking the ocean.

Matteo sat nearby with Brutus. The massive dog lay stretched across the grass while Matteo laughed softly at something.

Lena sat on a stone bench. Reading Peacefully.

For a moment I simply watched her without moving or saying anything.

Something strange happened whenever I looked at her. The noise inside my head quieted. Not completely, just enough. Enough to let me breathe, think and to remember I was human.

Dangerous. Very dangerous.

Because people like me couldn't afford comforts like that. Yet I kept returning anyway, as if I couldn't help myself.

Lena looked up suddenly. Her eyes found mine immediately. Always.

It was becoming unsettling.

"You stare too much."

I walked closer. "You talk too much."

She rolled her eyes. The gesture should have annoyed me Instead it almost made me smile. Almost.

Matteo noticed me then. His face brightened immediately.

"Salvatore."

I nodded.

Matteo immediately returned to playing with Brutus without another word.

Trust, Simple, Complete.

Something twisted unexpectedly inside my chest.

Lena noticed, Of course she did She always noticed.

"What happened?"

I sat beside her. Close enough to feel her presence. Not touching. Just close.

The scent of her perfume drifted toward me. Dangerous. Everything about her had become dangerous.

"Nothing."

"Liar."

There it was again. That word. That challenge. That refusal to accept easy answers.

I looked at her. Really looked at her.

Sunlight painted gold across her hair. The ocean wind pushed loose strands across her face. Beautiful.

The realization arrived instantly. Unwanted or Uninvited. True.

My jaw tightened. "You enjoy provoking me."

A small smile appeared. "Maybe."

"That's a bad habit."

"You haven't killed me for it yet."

The words landed harder than she intended. Or maybe exactly as intended. I wasn't sure anymore.

Lena's smile faded slightly. The atmosphere shifted. Subtle. But noticeable.

Neither of us looked away. The air felt heavier. Warmer. More dangerous.

"You won't tell me what's wrong."

It wasn't a question.

I leaned back against the bench. "No."

"Because you don't trust me?"

A simple question. Complicated answer.

Trust. I trusted nobody. Not Charlie. Not Diego. Not my soldiers. Not even myself sometimes.

Trust got people buried.

Yet when Lena asked the question, the answer wasn't simple anymore. That alone was a problem. A massive one.

My gaze drifted toward Matteo. Then back to her.

"You ask too many questions."

"And you avoid too many answers."

Fair. Annoyingly fair.

She shifted slightly. Her shoulder brushed mine. Accidentally. Probably.

The contact lasted less than a second. It still felt like someone had lit a match beneath my skin.

Lena froze. I froze.

Neither of us moved. Neither of us acknowledged it. Cowards. Both of us.

Matteo's laughter drifted across the garden. The ocean roared below. The wind moved through the trees. Everything felt normal.

Except it wasn't. Nothing between us felt normal anymore.

"Lena."

Her eyes lifted slowly. "What?"

The single word came out softer than before.

And suddenly I understood something terrifying. Charlie was right.

When she was near me, the anger faded. The paranoia quieted. The endless noise inside my head disappeared.

Not because my problems were solved. But because she distracted me from them. Because she made me forget.

And forgetting was dangerous. For men like me, for kings like me, distraction could become weakness. Weakness could become an obsession. And obsession destroyed everything it touched.

My stomach tightened. Because I was already too close. Far too close.

Before I could say anything, footsteps echoed through the garden. Fast. Urgent.

A soldier appeared, breathing hard. His face was pale.

Every instinct inside me sharpened instantly.

"What happened?"

The soldier swallowed. Then looked directly at me.

"Sir…"

His voice shook. "One of our internal accounts just transmitted classified information."

The world seemed to stop completely.

Lena went still beside me. My expression hardened into something cold and unreadable.

"To who?"

The soldier hesitated. And suddenly I knew I wasn't going to like the answer. Not even a little.

The man's face turned even paler than before.

Then he spoke. And the name that left his mouth made my blood run cold.

Because it wasn't an enemy. It wasn't Rinaldi. It wasn't an outsider.

It was someone from inside my own circle. Someone I trusted. Someone who had access to everything.

And in that moment, I realized the betrayal was far worse than I imagined. Far closer. Far more personal.

And if the information they had stolen was what I thought it was, then Lena was in danger. Immediate danger.