The message came through at two in the afternoon.
Not a call. A note, handwritten, delivered through a De Luca-adjacent contact in the city, the kind of intermediary that both sides used when they wanted to talk without officially talking. The note was short. Leni's handwriting again, the same neat, patient script as the cell floor message.
I have information about the facility and Alessio's next move. My price is immunity and clean exit. I want to speak to someone who can authorize it.
Val read it twice. Set it on the table.
"She didn't ask for Vincent," Lucian said.
"No."
"She knows he's incapacitated."
"She knows he's injured," Val said. "She doesn't know how much. But she's smart enough to assume the power structure shifted and she's reaching for whoever's holding it." Val looked at the note again. "Which means she's been watching this house long enough to know how it moves when Vincent can't."
"Six years," Lucian said. Simply.
