Chapter 171: When The Castellis Declare War

"We reviewed the communications recovered from Dante’s men and compared them with the records we had already collected from the intermediaries. We also questioned the remaining guards separately."

"And?"

Timothy placed the folder on the table.

"We found repeated contact between Dante and DeLuca’s organization. Several meetings were recorded in the travel logs, and we recovered messages confirming arrangements made through two intermediaries. The identities have been verified."

Lorenzo opened the folder. "How extensive?"

"Substantial, Don. The communications go back several months, and there are indications that the arrangement began earlier than that."

I looked at the documents as Lorenzo turned through them, recognizing dates, names, and locations that meant very little to me individually but seemed to tell a much uglier story when placed together.

"Does this confirm what Marco told us?" I asked.

"Yes," Timothy replied. "The meetings were real, and Dante was in regular contact with DeLuca’s people."

Marco lowered his head. "I told you, Don."

Lorenzo barely glanced at him.

"Timothy, have the records been independently verified?"

"Yes. We checked the communications against the available surveillance footage and the travel records. The dates and locations match."

Lorenzo closed the folder. "Good. Continue tracing every contact."

"Understood."

I looked at the documents again, then at Marco.

Dante had not simply returned to the estate because he wanted to confront Lorenzo about Elizabeth.

He had been working with the very organization that had attacked us in Paris, and whatever grief he carried had apparently been used as a weapon against his own family.

He was the spy.

I thought about the gun in his hand, the fury in his eyes, and the way he had looked at Lorenzo when he accused him of killing Elizabeth.

He had genuinely believed it.

That was perhaps the most disturbing part.

Deluca had managed to take a grieving man, feed his anger, and turn it into something that nearly ended with his brother dead on the dining room floor.

"How long has DeLuca been involved?" Lorenzo asked.

Timothy hesitated. "That is what we’re trying to establish. Some of the earliest records suggest Dante’s contact with the organization began before the old Don’s death."

Lorenzo’s gaze lifted. "Before my father died?"

"Yes, Don."

The room fell silent again.

I looked between them. "So DeLuca was already working on this while Frederick was alive."

"It’s possible," Lorenzo answered.

He rose from his chair and walked toward the table where Timothy had placed the remaining documents.

His expression had become increasingly distant, his attention fixed on the dates.

"DeLuca has always wanted a greater share of the territories," he said. "But he never had the influence or resources to challenge my father directly. My father kept the organization stable, and the other families understood that interfering with the Castellis would come at a considerable cost."

"Then your father’s death changed things," I said.

"Yes. His death created an opportunity, and my succession gave DeLuca something to exploit. The disagreements between Dante and me were already known, and he would have understood that a family divided was considerably easier to weaken."

I slowly exhaled. "So he just decided to chill and wait for the right moment."

"Perhaps he had been waiting for years."

The thought made my stomach turn.

Frederick had been dead for some time, and Lorenzo had spent years carrying the responsibility of maintaining the family while trying to keep his brothers from tearing the organization apart.

Meanwhile, someone might have been quietly arranging the pieces around him, waiting for the fractures to become wide enough to exploit.

"And Dante was the easiest person to manipulate," I said.

Lorenzo looked at me. "He was grieving. He blamed me for our mother’s death long before any of this happened, and Elizabeth’s murder gave him another reason to believe I had taken everything from him."

"Which means DeLuca didn’t need to invent Dante’s hatred. He only needed to give it somewhere to go."

"Exactly."

I looked down at the folder again.

There was something particularly cruel about using a man’s grief to make him destroy the only family he had left.

Dante had been wrong to threaten Lorenzo, and pointing a gun at Emil had been unforgivable, but I could not stop thinking about the possibility that someone had spent months, perhaps years, feeding him carefully selected pieces of information until he could no longer distinguish truth from manipulation.

I folded my arms, looking at the papers spread across the table.

"There’s something I still don’t understand, though."

"What is it?"

"What exactly does DeLuca want?"

Lorenzo was quiet for a moment before answering.

"The DeLuca family has always been second to the Castellis in influence, wealth, territory, and political reach. For generations, they have operated beneath our shadow. They have competed with us, negotiated with us, and occasionally challenged us, but they have never possessed the power to replace us."

"And now he wants to?"

"He no longer wants to compete, Alex. He wants what we have."

The simplicity of the answer made it considerably more unsettling.

Lorenzo continued, his voice calm as he explained the hierarchy that had existed between the families for decades.

The Castellis had controlled territories and businesses that DeLuca wanted, while their connections extended into circles that had always been difficult for their rivals to access.

DeLuca had apparently grown tired of being the family that came second.

"Destroying the Castelli family from within would be far easier than defeating us directly," Lorenzo said. "He could weaken my authority by turning my brother against me, damage the organization’s stability by targeting our businesses, and make our allies question whether I could protect them. If I appeared incapable of controlling my own family, the other families would begin reconsidering their loyalty."

"And if they started abandoning you, DeLuca could move in and take over."

"Yes."

I thought about the events in Paris, and my stomach tightened again. "But why target me?"

Lorenzo’s eyes moved toward mine. "Because you matter to me."

I gave a humorless little laugh. "Well, that is a wonderfully romantic explanation for being kidnapped."

His expression did not change. "Alex."

"I know, I know."

I looked away, trying to organize the thoughts that had been crowding my mind since Marco mentioned the questions Dante had asked about my movements.

"Timothy," Lorenzo said, turning toward his second-in-command, "I want every communication between Dante and DeLuca traced. Every message, every intermediary, every meeting location. I want names, addresses, financial records, and anything that might establish how long this arrangement has existed."

"Understood, Don."

"Identify everyone involved, including anyone inside our organization who may have been providing information. I want a complete review of the security arrangements at the estate and all major businesses. Nobody enters or leaves without verification, and I want additional protection around the people who have been directly targeted."

Timothy nodded, already making notes.

"Should we suspend the scheduled meetings with our business partners?"

"No. We continue operating normally, but every meeting will be reviewed and monitored. I don’t want our rivals realizing how much we know before we understand the full extent of the leaks."

"Understood."

"Also, I want our people to locate DeLuca’s current movements. Quietly. No unnecessary confrontations, and nobody makes a move without my approval."

Timothy glanced at him. "Are we preparing for retaliation, Don?"

Lorenzo looked at the documents on the table before slowly closing the folder.

"We’re preparing for whatever comes next."

I watched him carefully.

There was a difference between protecting the family and preparing to attack someone who had threatened it.

Lorenzo had spent the previous weeks trying to understand who was responsible, gathering evidence, and hoping that the situation could be resolved without dragging the entire organization into another conflict.

That hope had apparently reached its expiration date.

"You’re going after DeLuca," I said.

Lorenzo turned toward me.

His expression was unreadable, but I knew him well enough by now to recognize when a decision had already been made.

"If it’s a war DeLuca wants, then it’s a war he will get."

His voice was quiet, almost conversational, yet there was no uncertainty in it.

"No negotiation?" I asked.

"No."He replied, "There will be no second chances for what happened in Paris."

I swallowed, suddenly aware of the weight behind his words.

Lorenzo was not reacting to an insult or allowing his pride to dictate his next move.

He was making a decision based on everything we had learned, and the consequences would extend far beyond the walls of this estate.

I reached for his hand, and he turned his palm to hold mine.

"Just make sure you don’t forget that you’re not the only person who has to live with the consequences," I said.

His expression softened slightly. "I won’t."

"And please don’t decide that sleeping is suddenly optional because someone has declared war on you."

A faint smile appeared. "I’ll try my hardest."

"That’s not particularly reassuring, Dracula."

"I’ll sleep, tesoro."

"Good. And you better not leave me behind."

Timothy lowered his head, but I caught the brief twitch of his mouth.

Lorenzo brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. "I have no intention of leaving you, amore mio."

I held his gaze for a moment before letting out a quiet breath.