Savage Honor: Blood Oath

005: The Devil You Know

A storm always leaves something behind.

Broken glass. Silence. Blood in the gutters.

This one left her in my bed.

I didn’t sleep. Couldn’t. Not with Isabella lying beside me, the silk of her nightgown like a weapon drawn between us. She didn’t touch me. She didn’t have to. Her presence was enough to set every nerve in my body on edge.

She was poison wrapped in lace.

And I was the idiot drinking straight from the bottle.

By morning, she was gone. A ghost in her own house.

But she’d left behind something worse than her absence: questions.

Why had she come to me?

Why now?

And what the hell was she hiding?

I headed downstairs, sharp and silent, like the devil himself was on my heels.

Nico was waiting in the dining room, eyes dark with urgency.

“There’s been movement,” he said without preamble. “Someone’s trying to stir Ricci’s men. We picked up chatter—new supplier. Outside our network. Big money. Bigger reach.”

“Ricci doesn’t have the balls to move without warning,” I muttered. “Not unless someone’s backing him.”

“He might have found someone who is.”

That stopped me cold.

Power shifts in the mafia aren’t slow. They’re volcanic. One crack in the foundation and everything explodes. Someone was trying to light the match.

And that someone wasn’t Ricci.

It was bigger than him.

Smarter.

More dangerous.

“Put eyes on his crew. I want to know who he talks to, what he eats, when he pisses. And tighten security. No one comes in or out without my say.”

Nico nodded, already pulling out his phone.

Before he left, he hesitated. “Boss… you should know. Your wife—she was in the garage last night. Near the surveillance files.”

My chest went still.

“Doing what?”

“Didn’t ask. Figured you’d want to.”

He left, and the fire in my veins reignited. She was digging again.

The question now wasn’t if Isabella was playing a game—it was what the hell her end move looked like.

I found her in the garden, barefoot on the stone path, her face turned to the sun like a sinner pretending to be holy.

“You have a habit of slipping into rooms you don’t belong in,” I said.

She didn’t flinch. “And you have a habit of locking doors that shouldn’t be locked.”

“You went through the surveillance.”

“Just one file.”

I stepped closer. “Why?”

“Because there’s a camera feed you didn’t show your men. One that looks into your office. And last night, at 2:17 a.m., someone entered.”

My blood turned to ice.

She held out a small flash drive. “I took a copy.”

I yanked it from her hand, stormed back into the house, and shoved it into my laptop.

The footage clicked to life.

A shadow moved across my office. Tall. Broad. Familiar.

Then the face turned toward the camera.

Nico.

My most trusted man.

My brother in all but blood.

“No.” The word came out like a snarl.

Behind me, Isabella stood still. “You said loyalty is everything. But you never asked who he was loyal to.”

I couldn’t breathe.

I’d trusted Nico with my life. And now he was on tape going through my safe.

Pulling something out.

A sealed envelope with my father’s crest.

And that… that was something no one should’ve known even existed.

I went cold.

I didn’t shout. Didn’t break anything.

I turned slowly to Isabella.

“You knew this would break me.”

“I knew it would make you see.”

“What game are you playing?”

She stepped forward, slow. Careful. “Not a game. A warning.”

I laughed, bitter. “You think I needed you to play guardian angel?”

“No. I think you needed someone who wasn’t blinded by history.” She paused. “You don’t see what people hide behind loyalty. But I do. I always have.”

My hands curled into fists. “Why give me this?”

“Because I need you strong, Luca. Not sentimental. And not dead.”

There was something in her eyes. Something real.

Not cold. Not cruel.

Desperate.

And afraid.

“You think he’s working for Ricci?” I asked.

“I think he’s working for someone bigger. Someone who knows where your skeletons are buried.”

I stared down at the screen again, the video paused on Nico’s face.

My brother. My betrayer.

“I made him,” I said. “Taught him everything he knows.”

“Then you know exactly how dangerous he is.”

That night, I sat alone in my office, staring at the family crest burned into the envelope Nico had taken.

I had hidden it years ago.

Locked it away to keep my father’s sins buried.

If someone had it now, it meant only one thing.

Someone was trying to resurrect the past.

And the last time that happened… men died.

A knock echoed through the room. I didn’t look up.

“Come in.”

Isabella entered, eyes scanning the shattered calm of the room.

“I know what’s in the letter,” she said quietly.

I looked at her.

“You don’t.”

“I do.” She met my stare. “It’s about your brother.”

I stood, fists clenched.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She didn’t flinch.

“He’s alive, isn’t he?”

The room went dead.

Time stopped.

And for the first time since our wedding night…

I feared her knowing the truth.

Because yes.

He was alive.

And he wanted everything I’d built.