Chapter 22
The Watcher
Victor’s private investigator was good at his job.
He’d been following Beatrice Rossi since she left the Marchetti compound that morning.
Maintaining a careful distance, blending into the background like a ghost. He had been taking pictures of these two for a long time, knowing one day Marco Valenti would mess up.
The coffee shop had been perfect. Public enough that she felt safe. Private enough that she wouldn’t notice surveillance.
He’d taken the first photograph the moment she and Marco Valenti embraced outside the shop. their bodies close, her face buried briefly in his neck. The camera had captured it all: the ease between them, the familiarity, the way her hand had lingered on his back.
Then the cheek kiss. That had been even better. The PI had zoomed in, capturing the soft press of Marco’s lips against her skin. The way her eyes had closed briefly, with a small smile on her face.
Inside the shop, he’d positioned himself carefully, angling his camera through the window and then from inside. Capturing them holding hands across the table. The operative had taken dozens of photographs. Her leaning forward, her eyes bright with laughter, her fingers intertwined with Marco’s.
The PI knew who Marco Valenti was. Everyone in Chicago’s underworld knew. The Valenti heir. The rival family. The man whose very existence was an insult to the Marchetti brothers.
And here was Beatrice Rossi, the woman all three brothers were obsessed with. Holding hands with him in a coffee shop like they were lovers.
The operative smiled to himself as he captured another shot. This one of Marco touching her face, his thumb brushing her cheekbone with obvious affection.
This was exactly what Victor needed. He finished his coffee, left cash on the table, and slipped out of the shop. He had a meeting to attend. Victor would want to see these photographs immediately.
The operative didn’t know what Victor planned to do with the images. He didn’t need to know. His job was simple: document the meeting, dig up more proof of the two of them together, deliver the evidence, and collect his payment.
But as he walked away from the coffee shop, he couldn’t help but think that Beatrice Rossi had just made a very dangerous mistake.
The Marchetti brothers were going to lose their minds when they found out about this, and Victor was going to use that chaos to burn everything down.