Chapter 17 A Bodyguard’s Loyalty Test #5
Enzo’s hands tightened into fists. “I’ll take your device.”
The handler’s eyes went bright with something ugly. “You can’t.”
Enzo moved first - fast, decisive. He lunged toward the coat seam and slapped his palm against the hidden case. The fabric resisted, then gave, revealing the edge of something hard inside. Enzo yanked.
The handler pivoted, twisting his arm like he’d already practiced the move. The hidden case slipped, but the handler brought his other hand up - toward the intercom panel.
Enzo slammed his body between Valentina and the panel, but the handler’s fingers brushed the edge and triggered a command anyway. A thin chirp sounded from the suite speakers.
Then a new voice filled the room.
Not the handler this time. Not Enzo’s.
A calm male voice - closer, recorded, threaded with static like it had been broadcast from somewhere else. “Valentina. Step away from the door.”
Valentina’s breath hitched. Her eyes widened in sudden, sharp recognition - recognition that looked like fear and anger combined.
Enzo turned his head just enough to see her reaction. “You know the voice.”
Valentina’s lips parted, but no sound came out. Her throat bobbed once. Then she whispered, “That’s not… that’s not a stranger.”
The handler watched her with satisfaction. “No. It’s your handler’s real voice. The man who trained the protectors. The man who knows which commands will break you.”
Enzo’s skin went cold. “You’re lying.”
The handler’s smile faded. “Am I?”
Vito’s comm returned, louder now, strained with urgency. “Enzo, the bodyguard just walked out of the control line. He’s moving toward the service stairwell.”
Enzo’s mind snapped to it. The service stairwell. That wasn’t random. It was a route to the archive annex - near where Valentina’s legal folder was stored and where the chain-of-custody binder lived. He’d assumed the compromise would target the suite. He’d been wrong.
It wasn’t only to kill Valentina. It was to retrieve or destroy evidence.
Enzo looked at Valentina. The hallway behind the handler was narrowing with locks engaging.
The suite doors were losing flexibility.
If they didn’t stop this now, someone would reach the storage panel before Vito could stop them - and the sealed pact documentation could be shifted again, copied again, or burned.
The handler raised his gloved hand toward Enzo’s face, slow. “You want to know the cost of chasing betrayal leads? It’s that you’re not the only one who has your voice.”
Enzo grabbed the handler by the collar and yanked him closer, forcing their faces within inches. The handler’s eyes were steady, no panic. Like he’d already accepted consequences.
Enzo’s voice dropped to a low threat. “Where’s the original sealed pact copy?”
The handler’s gaze flicked - subtle, involuntary - toward Valentina’s side of the room, toward the false panel where the folder should have been. Not where it was now. Where it would be, after the handler’s team moved it.
He wasn’t answering Enzo’s question. He was answering the mastermind’s.
Valentina’s hand drifted toward her pocket, fingers searching for something she should’ve had - then realizing she didn’t. Her face twisted with helpless fury. “They took my folder. They took my phone. They took - ”
“They didn’t take everything,” Enzo said, forcing calm into his voice. “You still have me.”
Valentina’s eyes snapped to his. “No. You have you. You don’t get to pretend you can fix this with a promise.”
Enzo flinched at her honesty. The possessiveness he carried for her rose like a tide, but it was tangled with guilt.
He’d chosen to chase the betrayal lead because he thought he could handle it.
He’d left her under temporary protection, with specific orders.
And now those orders were being replayed like a death sentence.
He had to earn her trust again, not by words but by action that didn’t leave her bleeding.
The suite door behind the handler clicked again. A lock engaging deeper into the frame. The handler glanced once - only once - toward that door. He wasn’t trapped yet. But time was turning against them.
Enzo’s comm cut in sharply. “Enzo. I can’t hold the suite lock much longer. It’s going to seal in - one… two… now.”
The lights in the suite flickered. The air seemed to press against Enzo’s chest, like the building itself was tightening.
Enzo made a choice.
He released the handler and spun toward the false panel wall beside the kitchenette. His fingers found the seam Vito had shown him earlier - the panel that hid Valentina’s legal folder. He pried it open with a sharp jerk.
Inside, the spot was empty.
Enzo’s lungs seized. “No.”
Valentina stepped closer, shaking. “It’s gone.”
The handler’s voice came from the suite speakers again - this time without static, as if he’d hijacked the room’s internal audio feed. “Valentina, you’re too late.”
Enzo turned, eyes blazing. “You’re not taking from her.”
The handler’s gaze was cold. “We already did.”
Then he moved - fast, finally making a move that looked like a gunman’s instinct instead of a