Page 102 of Accidental Alliance

How does he know we are with Davide?

Did someone follow us?

Did Davide have a leak in his ranks?

Did Elio trace the stolen car somehow? Did he have eyes on me? On the road from the beginning?

The questions come too quickly, each one worse than the last. I suddenly feel exposed, every choice I have made since leaving our old life laid bare beneath a spotlight I cannot escape.

I thought Davide’s estate meant walls and safety, a little time to breathe before the past found another way to come back.

Somehow, Elio has found us in under twenty-four hours.

Davide curses under his breath. “How many men did he arrive with?”

The first guard speaks this time. “He’s alone.”

For a moment, even Davide looks caught off balance. I have spent the entire day remembering how to read powerful men like him, and Davide’s surprise flashes like a knife in candlelight before he locks it back down.

Alone. That sounds absurd even with how intense this room has grown. Elio Conti does not walk into enemy territory alone unless he is either desperate, arrogant, or has something more lethal than his men protecting his back.

Davide’s eyes narrow. “Alone?”

“Yes, sir.”

“No vehicle behind him? No second car waiting down the road to watch him be let in?”

“Not that we’ve seen,” the enforcer says. “We checked the cameras and swept the outer feeds. It’s just him.”

Why?

That question bursts into my mind like a valve finally giving way under intense pressure.

Why would he do something so reckless?

Why put himself at Davide’s mercy when his father is already pushing into Bianchi territory, creating a hostile takeover?

Why come to the house of a man he has every reason to consider an enemy with no visible backup, no show of force, no protection except for his name?

Davide’s gaze flicks to me for a brief moment before returning to his enforcers. “Did he say why he came?”

This time, the second enforcer hesitates.

Davide’s voice drops to a growl. “Speak.”

“He said he is here for Isabella.”

What?

I have no idea how to grapple with that. I hate being studied right now. I hate the way everyone in the room seems to be waiting for me to provide a reason, an explanation, some neat little confession that will turn Elio’s arrival into something that makes sense.

I do not know why, and that chokes me more than certainty could have. If he had come to threaten me, I could meet that with force of my own.

Davide would have no problem providing me with the necessary tools to wage war against someone threatening the one person he has in his corner willing to help him try and dismantle the Conti regime.

If Elio had come as Vittorio’s mouthpiece offering to negotiate terms before things got to the point of no return, then that would be understandable.

I could find the agenda underneath the calculated move, revealing what the true motive is behind passive words.