Chapter 428: I’m Calling About Isabella’s Medication

"So you’re saying Dimitri might already know Isabella is being poisoned?" Dante asked.

"I’m saying he probably suspects," Luca said. "And at minimum, he has resources to find answers. Resources you can access if you ask."

"I’m not asking Dimitri for anything," Dante said.

"Then Isabella suffers," Luca said, and his tone was absolute. "Because without Dimitri’s resources, we’re stuck. The medication source is hidden too well. Prometheus Laboratories is too secretive. We can’t find them fast enough with what we have."

Dante listened to his second-in-command lay out the logic, and he knew Luca was right.

"If I call him," Dante said slowly, "he’s going to know that I don’t have the resources to handle this alone. He’s going to know that I’m vulnerable. He’s going to see it as weakness."

"Or," Luca said, "he’s going to see it as a man protecting the woman he loves. And Dimitri understands that. He’s doing the same thing with his American woman."

Dante considered this.

"What if he refuses?" Dante asked.

"Then you’re no worse off than you are now," Luca said. "But I don’t think he’ll refuse. Because Isabella matters to him too. She was supposed to be his fiancée. And if an organization has been poisoning her without his knowledge, that’s information he’ll want to have."

Dante sat in silence for a long moment, wrestling with what Luca was asking him to do.

Call his enemy.

Ask for help.

Admit vulnerability.

All for Isabella.

But that was the thing, wasn’t it? He would do anything for Isabella. He would call his enemies. He would swallow his pride. He would admit vulnerability. He would do whatever it took to save her.

"If I call him," Dante said finally, "this stays between us."

"Understood," Luca said.

"And if he helps," Dante continued, "he doesn’t get anything in return. This isn’t a trade. This isn’t establishing an alliance. He helps because Isabella’s life is at stake. That’s all."

"Understood," Luca said.

***

Dante sat alone in the study of the coastal villa, holding his phone, staring at Dimitri’s number.

His enemy’s number.

The man who was supposed to marry Isabella.

Dante understood that making this call changed everything.

It admitted weakness. It created an opening for Dimitri to exploit.

But Isabella’s life was more important than his pride.

Dante took a breath and dialed.

***

POV: DIMITRI / DANTE

The phone on Dimitri’s desk was not a phone anyone called.

Six people had the number. Marco, Mike, Enzo, a lawyer in Zurich, Nonna, and his father.

At eight minutes to midnight, it rang.

Dimitri looked at the screen. Unknown number. Marco’s software gave no name and no location. He let it ring a second time, then a third, and found that his first thought wasn’t who is this. It was who sold it.

He answered on the fourth ring and said nothing.

"Valentino," the voice said.

He knew it at once.

"It’s Dante"

"Someone is going to regret giving you this number," Dimitri said.

"Probably." Dante’s voice stayed level. "I’m not calling about us."

"There is no us."

"No," Dante agreed. There was a short pause. "I’m calling about Isabella’s medication."

Dimitri set the report down. He had known for some time, since the night Dr. Armani finally ran out of lies. He had never expected to hear the subject raised by Dante.

"I’m listening," he said.

"She’s been off it for four days."

"Off it," Dimitri repeated.

"The supply stopped. She hasn’t had a dose since she left her father’s house." Dante’s voice was flat. "It started with her hands. Now she can’t hold a cup without using both. Her jaw is locked. She isn’t eating, and she isn’t sleeping."

"Has she seized?" Dimitri asked.

"No," Dante said slowly. "Not yet."

"Is she keeping water down?"

"Barely."

"Then you have less time than you think." Dimitri leaned back in his chair. "Go on."

Dante took a moment before he did. Dimitri heard it and let it pass.

"I kept one of her pills," Dante said. "The first test came back clean. Standard anxiety medication. Then she started shaking, and I knew I’d been looking at the wrong thing. Luca ran it again, every layer this time. There are two, Valentino. A shell of real medication on the outside, made to pass any ordinary test. Under it, something else. Something addictive."

"How long has she been taking it?"

"Years. Monthly deliveries, prescribed by a Dr. Armani who doesn’t exist in any registry in Rome. The clinic isn’t real. The courier is a shell company. The delivery address changed three times and she never noticed." Dante paused. "As long as the box came, nothing else mattered to her. She still thinks she’s ill."

"Does she know what’s happening to her now?"

"She knows the pills are making her sick. She doesn’t know why"

"And her father?"

"Lorenzo has no idea. He found the doctor himself. He thinks he’s been protecting her."

Dimitri turned his chair toward the window. Rome lay dark beyond the glass.

"How long has your man been looking?" he asked.

"Three days. He’s found a shell company, a courier that disappears when you call it, and a clinic that turns out to be a mailbox." Dante’s voice tightened. "Whoever built this didn’t leave a seam."

"Who made it?"

"I don’t know. That’s why I’m calling." The answer came quickly. "Luca traced the compound as far as it goes. It took a real laboratory, real chemists, and real money. He says only two organizations could have done it. One is The Covenant, and I’d know if they had touched her. They haven’t. That leaves Prometheus Laboratories."

Dimitri didn’t answer.

On the desk, the glass he hadn’t touched had left a pale ring on the wood. He looked at it.

"Valentino?" Dante said.

"Go on," Dimitri said.

"I can’t find them. Nobody I can reach has even heard the name. I can’t go to Lorenzo, because he’d put a bullet in me before I finished a sentence." Dante’s voice dropped. "That leaves you. You have reach I don’t. I’m asking you to use it."