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Atlas nodded. “We can release the evidence without putting Adriana in front of a camera,” Atlas explained. “Anonymous files can reach every major newspaper in Europe before the Coccicos realize what’s happened.”
“You meet them only at a location we control,” Demitri continued. “We choose the room, the exits and every person permitted within a hundred metres.”
“Agreed.”
“Raze handles the route.”
Raze’s expression turned coldly satisfied.
Demitri looked back at me.
“If either contact deviates from the plan, the meeting ends.”
His gaze did not waver. The priest was gone from his voice. This was the man he had spent years trying to bury.
“I agree.”
I held his gaze. The argument remained between us, heated and unresolved, but something had changed. He still hated my decision. He might never forgive the fear it caused him.
Atlas returned to the desk.
“I’ll have Artemus complete full checks on the journalist and find an agreeable prosecutor. We also need an independent outlet beyond Italy.”
Raze gathered the pages and began sorting them.
“One journalist is a target. Ten are a problem. Fifty will make a hell of a lot of noise.”
“So we send the evidence to all of them,” I added.
Raze looked at me. A slow, merciless smile touched his mouth. “You’re learning.”
Demitri remained silent. He looked as though he still wanted to carry me upstairs, lock every door and stand outside with a gun until the danger passed. Instead, he reached for my hand. His fingers closed around mine in front of his family. It felt like a vow made by a man who had accepted that he could not keep me from walking into danger and had decided to make the danger regret finding me.
“You understand what you’re choosing?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You understand that once this goes public, there’ll be no turning back?”
“Yes.”
“They’ll come for you.”
“They’re already after me.”
Demitri studied me for a final moment. Then he nodded. His eyes shifted toward the names spread across the desk.
He remained beside me, his hand still wrapped around mine. He had not rescued me from the danger. He had accepted that I could see it clearly and choose to step toward it, anyway.
For the first time since I entered his church, he was no longer standing between me and the men hunting me.
He stood at my side, already starting to build a fortress around me.
30
DEMITRI
Artemus contacted Lucia Bellini through three intermediaries.
