Chapter 393: She Has Connections To Dante’s Organization

POV: DIMITRI

The penthouse was secure in ways that only Dimitri’s resources could make secure.

The windows were reinforced glass that couldn’t be penetrated from the outside. The walls were soundproofed against external surveillance. The communications equipment was military-grade, encrypted beyond civilian capacity. This was the room where real decisions got made, the room where Dimitri Valentino decided how empires would fall.

Dimitri was sitting in the leather chair, a tablet in his hands, monitoring the real-time audio feeds from Eve’s phone, her Hermès bag, her diamond earrings, and the custom fabric of her clothing where the listening devices had been sewn so expertly that only someone looking for them would ever find them.

Mike and Marco sat across from him.

On the tablet’s screen, the audio was playing through speakers set to low volume. Eve’s voice came through clearly, warm and genuine and completely unaware that she was being recorded by the man she loved.

"I’m terrified," Eve was saying to Angela. "I know he’s coming home soon, but I don’t know if anything will actually change. I don’t know if I’ll stop being afraid."

Angela’s voice responded with practiced sympathy. "Fear is normal. You’ve been through trauma. It takes time to process that."

"Do you ever feel like you’re living in someone else’s life?" Eve asked. "Like you woke up one day and everything changed and you can’t get back to who you were?"

"I think most people feel that way at some point," Angela said. "But you’re stronger than you think. You’re going to get through this."

Dimitri paused the audio and turned to Marco.

"How long have you known about this?" Mike asked, his voice absolutely calm despite the weight of what was happening.

"Since the charity event," Marco said simply. "The moment she was introduced to Eve, I flagged her. Something about the approach pattern seemed coordinated. Too smooth. Too perfectly positioned."

"Show me," Dimitri said to Marco.

Marco pulled up a file on his own laptop. The screen filled with Angela Moretti’s background, her real background, not the cover story she’d been given by Dante.

"Angela Moretti," Marco began, "age twenty-seven, born in New Jersey to parents of Italian and Colombian descent. Her father worked for organized crime until he was killed in 2015. Her mother disappeared after that. Angela went into foster care, bounced around the system, came out at age eighteen with connections to street-level operations in Newark."

"She has connections to Dante’s organization," Marco continued. "Deep connections. I found financial transfers dating back four years. Regular payments. Money that only makes sense if she was already working for him before she was introduced to us as someone new to Manhattan."

"So she wasn’t assigned to Eve by accident," Mike said.

"She was positioned by Dante," Marco confirmed. "With The Covenant’s backing. This has been planned for at least two weeks. Probably longer."

Dimitri played the audio again, listening to Eve’s vulnerability being weaponized in real-time.

"When did you first pick up on the conversation pattern suggesting infiltration?" Dimitri asked Marco.

"Three days ago," Marco said. "The coffee shop meeting. Eve was too open too fast. It was like watching someone lower their defenses in real-time. That’s not natural. That suggested Angela knew exactly how to extract information."

"And you’ve been monitoring since then?" Mike asked.

"Every conversation," Marco said. "Every moment they’ve been together. I have recordings of all of it. I know everything Angela has learned about Eve. I know every security gap she’s identified. I know her entire operational mandate."

Marco pulled up a separate file, a comprehensive dossier of Angela’s activities and intelligence gathering.

"She’s mapped Eve’s routines," Marco continued. "Tuesday and Thursday shopping on Madison Avenue. Coffee shops on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. She knows the security gaps. She knows the times when visual surveillance is limited. She knows Eve’s vulnerabilities...her insomnia, her anxiety medication, her tendency to be alone in dressing rooms and bathrooms."

"Has she tried anything?" Dimitri asked.

"Not yet," Marco said. "But the timeline matters. The Covenant won’t wait much longer. Angela’s been building the relationship for two weeks. By now, she should have all the intelligence she needs."

Dimitri stood and walked to the window, looking out at Manhattan.

"So what’s coming?" Mike asked. "What’s the assassination attempt going to look like?"

"Multiple options based on the gaps Angela identified," Marco said. "Most likely scenario: Angela facilitates access to Eve in a vulnerable moment. Somewhere private. Somewhere security can’t directly observe. She either poisons something Eve will consume, or she provides access to someone else who does."

"Timeline?" Dimitri asked, not turning from the window.

"Within the week," Marco said. "The Covenant isn’t patient. They’ve lost opportunities before. They won’t wait for perfect conditions. They’ll move as soon as Angela has enough intelligence to facilitate the strike."

Dimitri turned back to face them.

"They don’t know that we know," Dimitri said.

"No," Marco confirmed. "Angela thinks she’s been flawless."

"Which means we have the advantage," Mike said. "We can see the move coming. We can prepare for it. We can counter it."

"We need to know exactly where and how they’ll move," Dimitri said. "We need to set a trap that catches The Covenant, not just Angela or Dante."

"Angela will get instructions from The Covenant within forty-eight hours," Marco said. "Probably via encrypted message on a burner phone. The message will contain the specific method and timeline for the assassination."

"Can we intercept that?" Mike asked.

"I can clone her burner phone’s signal," Marco said. "I’ll have every message The Covenant sends before Angela does. I’ll know their plan before they execute it."

Dimitri moved back to his chair and pulled up the audio feed again.

On the screen, Angela was saying goodbye to Eve. There was genuine affection in her voice, which made it somehow more sinister.

"I’m so glad you’re in my life," Angela was saying.

"Me too," Eve responded. "I don’t know what I’d do without you."

And Dimitri understood, listening to that exchange, that Angela had done exactly what she’d been designed to do. She’d made herself essential to Eve. She’d become the person Eve trusted most. She’d positioned herself perfectly to be the final weapon in The Covenant’s arsenal.