Chapter 14
Chapter 14: The Art of the Bluff
Enzo returned to the estate at four in the morning, his coat soaked with rain and smelling of sulfur. He didn't go to the vault. He went straight to the master bedroom.
Harper was awake, sitting by the window with Bruno’s massive head resting on her knee. She looked up as Enzo entered, taking in the grim set of his jaw and the tight, white line of his knuckles.
"He wants me," she said. It wasn't a question.
Enzo sat on the edge of the bed, pulling his boots off with a heavy thud. "He wants your signature. He’s got a frame built against the sanctuary. If I kill him now, the files trigger automatically through a dead-man's switch. He’s smarter than your father, Harper. He’s desperate, and he’s clean."
Harper stood up, gently pushing Bruno aside. She walked over to Enzo, her bare feet silent on the hardwood. She knelt between his knees, looking up into his dark, tired eyes. "Then we give him what he wants."
Enzo’s gaze sharpened, his hand gripping her chin tightly, though his touch remained careful. "I don't put you in the line of fire, Harper. Not ever again. I swore to Nathan, and I swore to myself."
"You aren't putting me anywhere," Harper said, her voice carrying a cold, crystalline steel that Enzo had never heard from her before. "I am putting myself there. Julian thinks I’m the same terrified girl who used to hide in the pantry when Preston started unbuckling his belt. He thinks I’m a piece of paper to be signed. He doesn't know what you taught me, Enzo. He doesn't know that a DeLuca doesn't negotiate."
She reached up, her fingers tracing the sharp line of his jaw. "We use the signature as bait. We get him in a room where his dead-man's switch can't reach the network. We jam the signal, we take the files, and then..."
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"And then I break him," Enzo murmured, his eyes darkening with a vicious satisfaction.
"No," Harper said, her lips curving into a small, dangerous smile that sent a shiver down Enzo’s spine. "Then we break him."
