“I protect you anyway.”
“Because I know too much?”
“Because losing you would destroy what is left of me.”
The honesty in his voice frightened me more than his anger ever had.
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
My sister’s name filled the screen.
I answered so quickly I almost dropped it.
“Where are you?”
“At the café,” she said.
“Why?”
Behind her voice, cups clinked and music played.
Normal sounds.
Safe sounds.
Then she lowered her voice.
“Cara, there’s a man outside who keeps looking at me.”
Dante was already reaching for his coat.
“Do not look at him again,” I said.
“Go to the counter and tell the woman working there that your sister is coming to get you.
Stay where people can see you.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.
I’m coming.”
Dante held out his hand for the phone.
I shook my head.
He did not argue.
He spoke toward it instead.
“Tell her to order the honey cake.”
My sister heard him.
“Is that Mr.
Moretti?”
“Order the honey cake,” I repeated.
Dante nodded once.
It was apparently a signal to the protection team.
We left through the private elevator.
In the mirrored walls, we looked like strangers forced into the same frame: Dante in his dark suit, me clutching surveillance photographs with my resignation letter still trembling in my other hand.
The car was waiting below.
During the drive, Dante received short updates through an earpiece.
He never raised his voice.
He never said what would happen to the man in the gray coat.
I did not ask.
When we reached the café, my sister was behind the counter beside the frightened manager.
Two of Dante’s people stood near the entrance dressed like ordinary customers.
The man in the gray coat was gone.
I ran inside and pulled my sister against me.
She protested at first, embarrassed by the attention, but then she felt me shaking.
“What happened?” she whispered.
“I made a mistake.”
Dante entered several steps behind me.
My sister looked from him to the black car outside.
“This is about your job, isn’t it?”
I wanted to lie.
I had spent years protecting her with edited truths: my employer was demanding, the late meetings were harmless, the security outside our building was temporary.
Those lies had not kept her safe.
They had only kept her unprepared.
“Yes,” I said.
“Someone tried to use me to get close to him.
