Lina’s POV
By morning, the house felt different again. Sharper. Guards rotated in tighter intervals. Vehicles moved in staggered patterns. Even the staff walked as if the marble floors might c***k beneath them. Carlino had turned the house into a tighter fortress.
Which meant it would become a tighter cage. I stood close to the kitchen island, watching the new guard at the south window adjust his earpiece. He wasn’t one of the usual men. Younger. Alert. Nervous.
Patterns were changing.
It was good, because I needed to learn them for my own benefits.
Bella slid a knife through a row of tomatoes with clean, decisive strokes. She didn’t look up when she spoke. “You’re staring like you’re memorizing,” she said quietly.
“I am.”
She finally met my eyes. That was when a thought striked.
B
