40. Bianca

After Adrian storms out of the closet, I rush after him. At some point, I lose sight of him in the throng of people, so I walk around here and there, trying to see if I can spot him.

We still need to complete the mission!

I somehow end up in the other wing of the house and close to the study.

Should I…

But then I shake my head. I need to do this with Adrian. Show him we can be a team.

I head towards the drawing room, as it"s the only one I haven"t checked.

The moment I walk inside, I can already tell the atmosphere is different. There are multiple tables spread around the room, similar to a casino. People are smoking inside, and the entire space is a hotbox. I step inside and take in the participants, my eyes scanning for Adrian. When I see no sign of him, I turn to leave but not before seeing a flash of white.

I"m not even conscious of my own actions. My feet take me forward until I"m in front of the table. A man is spreading cocaine onto the surface, preparing to inhale it. My hands clench at the sudden urge to move and partake as well.

I put one foot in front of the other, my eyes never leaving the white powder. Just as I"m about to reach the man sniffing the drug, someone pulls on my arm and twists me around.

I come face to face with Adrian, his eyes intently watching me, his hand coming up to my face for a light caress.

"Close your eyes and breathe," he says in a low voice, and I do. I then immediately feel his lips on mine, his mouth ever so lightly brushing against mine before his tongue strokes the seam of my lips, opening them for his invasion. The moment our mouths fuse together, I forget about everything. The magic powder is but a distant thought.

I don"t want this to end. I tighten my arms around Adrian"s biceps, clutching at his suit"s material, my body begging him to never let go.

But he does.

I hear hands clapping around us, and I look to see a number of the older men at the poker tables are whistling and clapping at our public display.

Adrian excuses us and takes me into the hallway. He doesn"t say anything, and I feel compelled to fill the void.

"Thank you. For distracting me." He just grunts in acknowledgment before lowering his head so he can whisper in my ear.

"Don"t thank me. I managed to place one bug," he whispers, and I almost feel disappointed. "Let"s go through the kitchen and into the study."

We quickly make an excuse to be in the kitchen, and while Adrian chats up the staff, I manage to stealthily place two bugs, one to the back of the fridge and one under the sink. After giving him a sign, he excuses himself, and we head to the study in the west wing.

"So far, so good," he says when he sees the hallway clear.

Three doors down, we come to a stop in front of the study. I signal him to open it while I stand guard.

He turns the knob ever so slowly to avoid making too much noise, but to our surprise, it"s locked.

"Of course. We should have realized he wouldn"t leave his study open during a house party?" I whisper angrily.

"What then?"

"Move aside and stand guard." We switch places, and I remove a couple ivory pins from my garter.

I"d remembered last minute to add them, but now they come in handy. The pins are extremely thin, sharp, and sturdy, making them the perfect mini weapons for metal detectors.

They can also do a lot of damage if used properly.

Although I"d never tried this before, maybe they can be used to pick a lock too.

I use the first pin as a tension wrench and insert it in the lower half of the lock. Then I add the second pin, and I jiggle it continuously while adding pressure on the first one. It takes about a minute or so for the first pin to give and a clicking sound to announce that the door is now unlocked.

I creak the door open and signal Adrian to follow me. When I turn, he"s looking at me with an expression akin to awe.

"Impressive," he says in a hushed tone as he enters the room.

Enzo"s study has a traditional European design with luxurious Italian furniture that blends New and Old World materials. I look around and see countless upon countless shelves of books.

"You think Enzo reads all this?" I ask, trailing my hands on the spines of the books. They"re in different languages, too.

"He"s very eloquent. I"d wager that yes, he does read them." I shrug at Adrian"s words. My first impression of Enzo hadn"t been a good one, but from our short interactions, even I could agree that he could teach rhetoric to the Greeks.

"We need to find a few spots that he"s unlikely to touch," Adrian notes, scrutinizing the space.

"Look for dust," I say and head behind his desk, where a massive floor-to-ceiling block of furniture houses a bust of Machiavelli. My hand feels for the back of the statue, and there is indeed dust. I take out a bug and place it at the base of the figure.

"One down." I turn to see Adrian crouching on the floor at the desk"s foot, where the study"s feet seem to be slightly uneven.

"You think there"s enough space?" I stoop down to see what he"s doing. There clearly isn"t enough space for a hand to place the bug.

"Wait," I say and remove the obsidian blade from my thigh. "This should be just about thin enough."

Adrian takes the knife from my hand and carefully places the bug, adhesive side up, on the blade.

Carefully, he lowers it and inserts it in the crevice. The fit is very tight, but with a little pressure, the bug remains in place when he withdraws the knife.

It"s not visible either. I sigh in relief. The less time we"re in here, the better. Now that it"s all done, we can leave before we"re caught.

"Let"s go." I nod my head towards the door, and Adrian follows me. Opening the door slightly, I look to see if there are people in the hallway, leading him out with me when I realize it"s empty. It"s only when we"re once again close to the ballroom that tension drains from both our shoulders.

I look at him with a conspiratorial grin that he returns, and we high-five.

"What has you so giddy, lovebirds?" Enzo surprises us from behind.

"Nothing much," Adrian replies. "Is the man Jimenez sent around here? I"d like an introduction," he continues, and Enzo"s mouth immediately curls up in disgust.

"He"s around here somewhere. Unpleasant fellow if I may say so myself." He shakes his head before continuing, "I tried talking to him when he arrived, and he had the gall to tell me he"s not here to socialize. I am the host!" Enzo exclaims, clearly scandalized that his Italian etiquette has been breached.

"I thought the whole purpose of this was diplomacy," Adrian adds, and Enzo agrees.

"It was supposed to be. Clearly, they had other ideas. I made sure to have someone follow him, though. Just in case he decides to do something." Enzo pats Adrian on the back and leaves us. I can clearly see this situation bothers him; he doesn"t even try to flirt with me.

"Too bad you don"t know who to look for," I say.

"Since we"ve fulfilled our purpose here, we might as well go," he adds, clearly disappointed that he didn"t manage to meet Jimenez"s substitute.

He puts his hand at my lower back and leads me towards the exit. We"re in the foyer when a shrilling scream explodes from the west wing of the house. Even with the overlapping voices engaged in conversation throughout the house, the shriek is loud enough to jolt everyone to attention. Both Adrian and I look at each other before we spring into action, going towards the direction of the sound.

Going deeper into the west wing, we follow the other people in front of us until we notice a small crowd in front of the study with Enzo in front of the door, trying to tell people to keep their distance. His jaw tightens when he sees us, but he calls us over.

"There"s no way to say this." Enzo starts, and he looks as if he"s trying to find his words. "Maybe only Hastings should go in."

Wait, what? What"s going on?

"What"s happening?" Adrian asks, and Enzo grimaces.

"There"s a body in the study."

"A body?" My eyebrows shoot up. "We"re going in," I declare, and Enzo might have wanted to add something, but I already push past him and open the door.

What greets me is a sight I don"t think I"ll ever forget. I wish I had a polaroid camera, really, to immortalize this. It"s like all my childhood dreams come true, but a little bit bloodier. Remembering the small camera embedded in my purse, I slightly angle it to capture the mess on the floor.

I"ll print this later.

As I focus on the scene before me, the first thing I notice is the bodiless heart, lying a few steps away. A trail of blood leads from the heart to the corpse.

The body had been put in a sitting position on the floor and propped against the study. The shirt is gaping, revealing a big hole in his chest where the heart used to be. Higher still is the centerpiece. A big T is carved on the forehead of the man.

My eyes quickly scan the body for other signs of injury, curious about the cause of death. Adrian"s nudge makes me realize that Enzo had closed the door behind us and is looking at me expectantly.

He probably wants me to burst into tears or hysterics.

"Can"t say I"m surprised my father died a traitor"s death," I add drily, and both men frown at me.

"Are you all right?" Enzo finally asks me, and I wave away his concern.

"Bianca?"

"Do you know who did it?" I ask as I go towards the body and crouch next to it.

"No. I called the tech guy, and the cameras were out all evening in this wing." Yeah, probably because of us, I mentally add.

"He"s still hot to the touch; it couldn"t have been too long since it happened."

"Yeah. I gathered that when I saw the heart still leaking blood when I came here."

"Who found him?"

"One of my staff. She said she saw a shadow in the hallway and wanted to check. She found the door to the study half-open and then, you know. Poor woman, she"s likely traumatized for life…" he says and regards me. "But you"re not," he adds curiously, and I stand to give him an honest look.

"How well did you know Martin?"

"Not that well, he was mostly acquainted with my father… and my wife."

"Don"t worry, you didn"t miss much. To be honest, anyone could have done this to him." I point towards the T on his forehead. "He"s always been involved in shady dealings. They finally bit him in the ass."

"Whoever did this, however, wanted an audience. Likely to make an example of him."

"You"re right. Which means… Martin wasn"t the only one involved with whoever branded him."

"It"s a long shot to draw that conclusion," Adrian counters Enzo"s argument, but he isn"t deterred.

"Maybe, but why my house to send a message? When there are so many people present involved in my dealings. We won"t know, though, until we find who killed Martin."

"Did your wife hear?" I ask, curious about how tight her relationship with my father was.

"Not yet. I"ll take care of her later."

"What are you going to do with the body?" I hope he doesn"t say I"ll have to deal with it.

"I already sent for a crew. They"ll clean everything nicely, and I"ll forward you the details for the funeral home," Enzo says, his eyes still on the corpse. "You"re going to have a funeral, no?" He raises his head towards me to ask.

I turn towards Adrian and see the same understanding in his eyes. We need to.

"Yes. Thank you for doing this."

"Don"t worry about it."

I take one last look at the scene, and with a sigh, I head towards the door. Just as I open it, I see a hysterical Allegra rushing towards the study. The other people who"d been waiting around for the spectacle had likely dissipated thanks to Enzo"s security. But now, there"s no one to stop Allegra from seeing Martin in the study. Well, technically, I could. But I don"t want to. Instead, I kick the door wide open with my foot so she can make her way inside.

She stops in the doorway, her wild eyes assessing. A moment passes before she screams. I look back and see Enzo casually shake his head as if this were the last thing he would have liked to deal with.

Allegra collapses to her knees, still focused on Martin"s lifeless body. Slowly, she crawls towards his heart and cradles it to her chest, murmuring some crazy shit.

I quickly look up to see both Adrian and Enzo"s shocked expressions.

"Allegra…" Enzo starts, almost exasperated. "You need to put that down."

"No." She shakes her head vehemently, her hands holding the heart reverently.

"Now we can be together forever," she whispers to the heart as she holds it next to her face, smearing blood on her skin.

Enzo rolls his eyes and takes his phone out to dial his security. Soon, a few men step forward and try to take the heart out of Allegra"s hands without doing much damage. She holds onto it even tighter, her fingers digging into the organ"s muscles and denting it a little.

Well, if this isn"t a spectacle.

They finally manage to get Allegra to drop the heart, and they quickly restrain her.

"Take her to her room and call for her maid," Enzo orders before turning to us.

"Sorry for that… she"s probably just shocked," Enzo adds, a little embarrassed. I don"t say anything in return, merely nodding. There was more than shock to that performance. Not my business, though, as long as she stays away from Adrian.

I look up and beckon him to go—too much excitement for one night.