Chapter 3
I didn’t fire her.
I told myself it was strategy — keep her close, watch her, learn what she knew before deciding what to do with the daughter of a dead enemy living under my roof. I told myself it had nothing to do with the way Grace had smiled that morning describing a new block Evelyn taught her, or the steadiness that had crept into my daughter’s voice over four months I hadn’t paid close enough attention to.
Three nights later, Dario called again, his voice tighter than before.
“Dominic, I found something else. The men circling the Voss legacy aren’t some scattered remnant. They’re organized. They call themselves the Wolf Circle, and they’ve been rebuilding quietly for years under a man named Petar Kessler, one of Aleksander’s old lieutenants.”
“What do they want?”
“Territory, mostly. But the chatter we intercepted isn’t about territory anymore. It’s about you. Specifically, about what they call ‘closing the Voss debt.'”
“Meaning.”
“Meaning Grace.”
I gripped the phone so hard the plastic creaked.
“They know she’s blind. They know she’s untrained. To them, she’s not your daughter. She’s a symbol — proof that the Caruso family can be hurt exactly the way the Voss family was hurt.”
After the call ended, I found Evelyn in the cellar again, this time alone, running through the same forms she’d been teaching Grace, her movements sharp and controlled in a way that made it impossible to mistake her for a housekeeper ever again.
“Petar Kessler,” I said.
She stopped mid-motion.
“You know that name.”
“He served under my father. He was the one who convinced Kessler and the others not to retaliate immediately after the raid that killed my father. He told them patience would serve them better than rage.” Her voice hardened. “I didn’t know he’d finally run out of patience.”
“They’re targeting Grace.”
Evelyn’s face paled, genuine fear breaking through her composure for the first time. “How long have you known?”
“Minutes.”
“Then we don’t have much time. Kessler doesn’t make idle threats. If the Wolf Circle has decided to act, they’ll act soon, before you can fully prepare.”
“Why do you care what happens to her? She’s my daughter, not yours.”
Evelyn’s eyes flashed with something raw.
“Because for four months, that little girl has trusted me more than anyone else in this house, and I will not let her become collateral damage in a war that started before she was born, a war I could have stopped if I’d come to you sooner instead of trying to handle it quietly myself.”
“You knew about this before tonight.”
“I suspected. I didn’t have proof until Dario’s information matched what I’d already heard through old contacts.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I was protecting her the only way I knew how — training her body to defend itself in case words came too late.”
I stared at this woman, daughter of the man I’d destroyed, who had spent four months secretly preparing my daughter for a war neither of them had chosen.
“I need you to tell me everything you know about Kessler. His men, his patterns, his weaknesses.”
Evelyn studied me for a long moment.
“You’re asking the daughter of your enemy to help you fight her father’s old allies.”
“I’m asking someone who clearly cares more about my daughter’s safety than I realized to help me keep her alive.”
Something shifted in Evelyn’s expression, exhaustion and resolve tangled together.
“Then we start tonight,” she said. “Because if Kessler moves the way I think he will, we won’t have the luxury of waiting until morning.”
Upstairs, Grace’s door creaked open, her voice drifting down the stairwell.
“Dad? Evelyn? Why is everyone still awake?”
Neither of us answered right away, both of us aware that the truth would terrify her far less than what was coming for her in the dark.
