Enzo’s face became very still.
“Be careful, Julian.”
“I am.”
“That man is my security chief.”
“Then your house is less secure than you think.”
Enzo stepped closer. “You do not give orders in my home.”
Julian’s gaze did not move from his.
“No. I give consequences.”
For the first time since Lina had started working at the estate, Enzo Serrano looked uncertain.
It lasted only a second.
Then he smiled again.
“Matteo,” he called.
The name traveled down the corridor.
A moment later, Matteo Voss returned.
He saw Julian first, then Enzo, then Lina standing with one hand pressed to her wrist.
His eyes narrowed.
“Sir?”
Enzo spoke lightly. “Mr. Cross has a question.”
Julian studied Matteo the way a surgeon might study a wound before cutting.
“Did you touch her?”
Matteo’s face showed nothing. “She fell.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“She’s clumsy.”
Lina looked down.
Julian saw it. The reflexive shrinking. The old training.
He hated old training.
Mara returned from the elevator with a tablet in her hand. She did not interrupt. She simply stood beside Julian and waited.
Julian kept his eyes on Matteo.
“Again,” he said. “Did you touch her?”
Matteo laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because men like him laughed when they wanted witnesses to choose sides.
“With respect, Mr. Cross, you don’t understand how staff behave in houses like this. They exaggerate. They steal. They listen. Sometimes they need correction.”
Lina flinched.
That was his mistake.
Julian did not look at Lina. He did not need to.
He looked at Mara.
“Show me.”
Mara tapped the tablet.
The screen displayed a frozen image from the west gallery camera. Matteo’s hand on Lina’s wrist. Her body turned away. Towels falling.
Matteo’s smile disappeared.
Enzo’s eyes cut toward him.
“You said that camera was down,” Enzo murmured.
Lina heard it.
So did Julian.
There it was.
Not shock that Matteo had hurt her. Not concern that a maid had been threatened.
Irritation that the lie had failed.
Julian took the tablet from Mara.
“Camera wasn’t down,” he said. “Your internal feed was. Mine wasn’t.”
Enzo’s gaze sharpened.
“You put surveillance in my house?”
“I put protection on my elevator entrance after three men connected to your organization tried to search one of my vehicles last month.”
“That is a serious accusation.”
“I make serious accusations when I can prove them.”
Matteo looked at Enzo. “Boss—”
Enzo raised one hand.
The word died.
Julian stepped closer to Matteo.
“Miss Vale,” he said without turning, “did this man threaten your brother?”
Lina’s heart pounded so hard she could barely hear the rain.
Every instinct told her to say no.
No kept Jonah safe.
No kept her employed.
No kept her invisible.
But invisibility had not saved her. It had only made men comfortable hurting her where no one was supposed to look.
She lifted her chin.
“Yes.”
Matteo’s head snapped toward her.
Julian’s voice remained calm.
“With what?”
Lina swallowed. “He knew his school. His illness. He said if I became a problem, my brother would become one too.”
Mara’s jaw tightened.
Enzo sighed, almost bored. “Matteo, you disappoint me.”
Lina stared at him.
Disappoint.
As if a threat against a child were poor manners at dinner.
Matteo’s face changed. “I did it for the house.”
“No,” Julian said. “You did it because fear made you feel tall.”
Matteo stepped forward.
Julian’s guards moved before he finished the step.
Two men in black suits caught Matteo by both arms and pushed him back against the wall. Not violently. Efficiently. The kind of restraint that left no room for performance.
Enzo’s guards reached for their jackets.
Julian did not look away from Enzo.
“Tell your men to think carefully.”
The room held its breath.
Enzo smiled again, but this time there was no warmth pretending to be charm.
“My house. My staff. My discipline.”
“Your house,” Julian agreed. “My evidence. Federal interest.”
The words landed like a dropped blade.
Enzo’s smile vanished.
Julian lifted the tablet slightly.
“Assault. Threats against a minor. Tampering with internal cameras. And that is only what happened in one corridor while I was standing nearby.”
Matteo went pale.
Enzo looked at him properly now, not as an employee, but as a liability.
Lina had seen that look before.
Men in power did not always punish cruelty.
They punished inconvenience.
“Take him downstairs,” Enzo said.
Matteo’s eyes widened. “Mr. Serrano—”
“Quiet.”
The guards started to move him.
Julian spoke.
“No.”
Enzo turned.
Julian’s voice was colder now.
“He doesn’t go downstairs. He goes with my people.”
“That man works for me.”
“He threatened a woman under my protection.”
Lina turned sharply.
Under my protection.