Chapter Two – The Blueprint of Secrets
782 Words
(Aria’s POV)
My lips still burned.
Even as I slinked through the De Luca corridors, masked and silent, the ghost of that kiss haunted me. I could taste him on my tongue—dark, smooth, addictive. A part of me still trembled from the way he looked at me. Like I was fire, and he’d gladly let me burn him alive.
Idiot.
I pressed deeper into the east wing, heart pounding in my chest. Shadows clung to the walls like smoke. The masquerade’s music was muffled now, distant and irrelevant.
My plan was back on track.
Steal the ledger. Expose the De Lucas. Get out.
Fall apart later.
I passed two security cameras, keeping my chin low. I wore a tiny signal disruptor—courtesy of Camilla, one of my few tech contacts from the Vescari underground—which scrambled footage in fifteen-second bursts. Just long enough.
The study was at the end of the hall.
I stopped at the heavy oak doors, glancing once over my shoulder.
No guards. No movement.
I inhaled.
Then I picked the lock.
It took me eleven seconds.
Inside, the De Luca study smelled like old money, mahogany, and secrets. The shelves groaned with ancient books, probably more for show than substance. A fireplace flickered low behind an iron grate. A glass decanter of bourbon gleamed on a marble tray beside two crystal glasses.
I ignored it all.
My eyes went to the desk.
A sleek laptop sat open but in sleep mode. Behind it, a floor-to-ceiling cabinet was sealed with a biometric lock. Perfect.
I sat down, cracked the laptop. No password.
Rookies.
Within seconds, I was past the firewalls. I launched a custom extractor and began a search through secured files. I wasn’t here for emails or petty deals. I needed the weapons ledger. The one that would expose not just the De Lucas, but every syndicate they’d ever worked with.
And then I found it.
OPAL ASSET A–01.
My pulse surged.
Encrypted. Black-level clearance. Last edited forty-eight hours ago.
I didn’t know what it was yet—but it was big. Bigger than arms trading. The tags listed “Eastern Route,” “Private Holdings,” and a name that chilled me to the bone:
Cruz.
I copied the entire folder to my flash drive, fingers trembling.
I wanted to look deeper. To see what Cruz meant. But I didn’t have time. Camilla had warned me—I had seven minutes total before the signal scrambler burned out.
I was already on five.
I replaced everything exactly as I found it, except for one tiny slip of red thread I left tangled in the desk drawer handle.
A Vescari calling card.
Let them know who was coming.
I slipped out as silently as I came in.
---
Matteo’s POV
The girl was gone.
I stood on the balcony, jaw tight, heart still hammering.
What the hell just happened?
She’d slipped through my fingers like smoke. One kiss and she disappeared into the night like a whispered sin. No name. No trace. Just a stolen moment I couldn’t shake.
And now I couldn’t find her.
Not in the ballroom. Not in the corridors. Nowhere.
It wasn’t like me to care.
I didn’t chase.
But something about her...
She had secrets. The way she looked around the room. The way her fingers trembled when I touched her. She was watching. Hunting. Like me.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Marco.
"Lock the estate down."
"Sir?"
"Someone’s inside who doesn’t belong."
"The girl from the balcony?"
"Yes."
A pause.
"Want me to grab her discreetly?"
"No," I said, voice cold. "She’s already gone. Just find out what she touched."
"On it."
I hung up and stared out over the garden.
Who are you, Rina?
---
Aria’s POV
By the time I reached the side exit, my hair was damp with sweat and my heels felt like shackles. But I didn’t stop. Not until I was four blocks away, inside a black car driven by my contact, Nico.
He barely glanced at me as he pulled onto the main road.
"You got it?"
"I got more."
I showed him the flash drive.
"Cruz was in the files."
Nico cursed low under his breath. "That’s the name tied to the Eastern traffic. You sure?"
"Positive."
We didn’t speak the rest of the way.
At home, I showered. Scrubbed the glitter from my skin. Tried to erase his lips from my memory.
But I couldn’t.
Because I knew the truth now.
He wasn’t just a stranger.
He was Matteo De Luca.
The man I swore to destroy.
And I had kissed him like he was salvation.
- Writer
