CHAPTER 8: A GAME OF GLASS

The Brooklyn safehouse was quiet-too quiet for Isabella's liking. No music. No guards. No footsteps. Just Nico, waiting in the corner chair like a shadow that never left.

She stood in the doorway for a beat too long.

" You knew i was coming ?" she asked.

He didn't smile. "I always know when you're coming."

She hated how her heart skipped at that.

"I spoke to Luca."

"I know."

Her eyes narrowed. "Of course you do. You listed to everything, don't you?"

Nico rose slowly, deliberate in his movement. Not threatening-but not apologizing either.

"I bugged his loft two weeks ago. It was only a matter of time before he tried to poison your mind."

She crossed the room, dropping her coat on the table. 'He said you were the one who betrayed Matteo. That you were in Ricci's pocket. That you came to keep me quiet-not protect me."

"I figured he'd say that."

"Is it true?"

Silence.

Nico stared at her for a long time, then finally answered:

"Yes".

Her breath caught. She hadn't expected that.

"I worked for the Ricci once," he continued. "Before Vittorio brought me in. Before Matteo died. I was young, good with guns, better with secrets. I was their ghost for three years. But I got out."

"Why?" she asked. "Ricci doesn't let people leave."

He stepped forward, his eyes unreadable. "Because I saw what they did to someone who tried to stop the bleeding. A man with a conscience. He had a wife. A daughter. They made sure he watched before they killed them both.

Isabella swallowed hard.

"That man was your friend?"

Nico shook his head.

"He was me. or who I would have become. If I stayed."

She didn't respond.

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a flash drive-black, unmarked.

"This is my insurance policy. Names, payments, contracts i carried out for Ricci. You're on the list too, Isabella. Not because i targeted you-but because you were always going to be the future,"

Her hand trembled as she took it.

"You held this over me?"

"I held it to protect you. If Ricci ever tried to pull me back in, I could take him down with one upload. But I never used it. Not even after Matteo died".

She stared at him.

"And now?"

"Now its's yours."

She didn't speak for a long time. Finally, she asked:

"Why are you telling me this now?'

'Because you're going to war," he said. "And I'd rather you shoot me in the chest than stab me in the back"

Her voiced cracked slightly. "And if i believe Luca?"

He moved closer-close enough that she could see the burn scar just below his collarbone.

"Then i die, " he said, "But not as your enemy."

The tension stretched so taut, it could have snapped like wire.

But Isabella just turned, slid the flash drive into her pocket, and whispered:

"I haven't decided yet?"

And with that, she walked into the bedroom, leaving Nico alone in the silence once more.