Four Dangerous Strangers

Isabella's POV

I grabbed Dante's wrist before he could stand up.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what's really happening." My voice came out stronger than I felt. "My best friend is trapped in my apartment with dangerous people, and you're sitting here talking in riddles."

Dante looked down at my hand on his arm, then back at my face. "You're braver than I thought you'd be."

"I'm terrified. There's a difference."

"Good. Being scared will keep you alive." Dante gently pulled his arm free. "But we need to move. Now."

Through the diner window, I watched the man in the expensive suit end his phone call. He walked toward the door, his steps calm and measured like he had all the time in the world.

"Is he coming in here?" I whispered.

"Yes. And he's not alone."

As if Dante had called it into being, a black car pulled up next to the first one. Three more men got out, all wearing dark suits that probably cost more than my rent. They moved like soldiers, spreading out to cover different angles of the diner.

My phone buzzed with a text from Elena: They found me. Help.

"We have to do something," I said, jumping up from my stool.

Dante caught my arm. "Sit down. Running will only make this worse."

"Worse? How could this possibly get worse?"

The bell above the diner door chimed as the first man walked in. Up close, he was even more intimidating than he'd seemed from across the room. Tall, broad shoulders, and those cold gray eyes that seemed to see everything.

"Isabella Cross," he said, his voice carrying easily across the small space. "We need to talk."

Rita looked up from wiping down tables, her face confused. "Sir, we're about to close for—"

"This doesn't concern you," the man said without looking at her. "Isabella, please join me."

I stayed on my stool. "I don't even know your name."

"Luca Romano." He said it like I should recognize it. Like it should mean something important.

"Well, Mr. Romano, I'm working. If you want to talk, you can wait until my shift ends."

Luca's mouth almost smiled. "I'm afraid that's not possible."

The other three men entered the diner, the bell chiming three more times. They didn't look around or check the menu. They just took positions by the windows and the back door.

We were surrounded.

Rita dropped her cleaning cloth. "I'm calling the police."

"No," said one of the new arrivals. This one had a charming smile that made me think of movie stars and politicians. "That won't be necessary. We're just here for a friendly conversation."

"Doesn't look very friendly to me," Rita said, but she didn't reach for the phone.

Dante leaned closer to me. "The one talking is Marco. Next to him is Nico. The younger one by the door is—"

"Dante," Luca said sharply. "That's enough."

I looked back and forth between them. "You know each other."

"We're brothers," Dante said simply.

My heart sank. Brothers. Which meant Dante hadn't been trying to help me at all. He'd been working with them from the beginning.

"You lied to me."

"I never lied," Dante said. "I told you I wanted to help you survive. That's still true."

"By working with them?"

"By being the only one who gives a damn what happens to you after we get what we need."

Luca moved closer to the counter. "Isabella, your father worked for our family. Among others. When he died, he left behind certain... obligations."

"My father was an accountant. He helped people with their taxes."

"He did much more than that." Luca pulled out his phone and showed me a photo. It was my father, but he looked different. Younger. He was sitting at a table with several men I didn't recognize, all of them holding drinks and smiling.

"That was taken five years ago," Luca said. "Your father was handling financial records for multiple crime families in the city. Very sensitive information."

"You're lying."

"I wish I was." The voice came from Marco, the charming one. "Vincent was a good man. He helped a lot of people clean their money, hide their assets, keep their families safe from the law."

"My father would never do anything illegal."

"He did it to pay for your mother's cancer treatments," Nico said quietly. It was the first time he'd spoken, and his voice was soft but somehow more frightening than his brothers' louder words.

The truth hit me like a punch to the stomach. Mom had been sick for two years before she died. The treatments, the experimental drugs, the private hospital room - it had all been so expensive. Dad said his insurance covered most of it, but I'd been too young to question how we could afford the best care money could buy.

"He did it for you," Dante said gently. "For your family."

"That doesn't make it right."

"No," Luca agreed. "But it makes it understandable."

My phone rang. Elena's name flashed on the screen.

"Answer it," Marco said. "Put it on speaker."

With shaking hands, I accepted the call and pressed the speaker button.

"Izzy?" Elena's voice was thick with tears. "Are you there?"

"I'm here. Are you okay?"

"They have me in the living room. They say they won't hurt me if you cooperate with the people you're with right now."

I looked up at Luca. "How do they know—"

"We're all connected," he said simply. "The men at your apartment work for a different family. A family we're not friends with."

"What do they want?"

"The same thing we want. Information your father took when he stopped working for us."

Elena's voice crackled through the phone: "Izzy, they're asking about a box. They say your dad had a special box with important papers."

My blood turned to ice. The wooden box hidden in my closet. The one Dad made me promise to keep safe.

"I don't know about any box," I lied.

Luca watched my face carefully. "Elena, tell Isabella what the men said would happen if she doesn't cooperate."

"They said..." Elena's voice broke. "They said they'd hurt me. And then they'd find you and hurt you worse."

"But that's not going to happen," Marco said smoothly. "Because Isabella is going to come with us, and we're going to sort this whole thing out like civilized people."

"What if I refuse?"

"Then Elena dies," Nico said simply. "And eventually, so do you."

"But if I go with you?"

"Elena goes free," Luca said. "And you stay alive long enough to help us find what your father hid."

Rita had backed up against the coffee machine, her face pale. "Izzy, honey, don't go with them."

"It's okay, Rita." I tried to sound calmer than I felt. "Everything will be fine."

But I knew I was lying. Nothing would ever be fine again.

Dante stood up and held out his hand. "Come on. Let's go get your friend."

I looked at his outstretched hand, then at his brothers, then at Rita's terrified face.

"If I go with you, you promise Elena will be safe?"

"You have my word," Luca said.

"The word of a criminal."

"The word of a Romano. That still means something in this city."

I thought about Elena trapped in my apartment with men who had guns. I thought about my father keeping secrets to pay for Mom's treatments. I thought about the wooden box I'd been hiding like it was just a keepsake instead of something that could get people killed.

"Elena," I said into the phone. "I'm going to fix this."

"Don't do anything stupid," she whispered.

"Too late for that."

I hung up the phone and looked at Dante's hand again.

"If you're lying to me about keeping her safe—"

"We're not," he said.

I took his hand and let him help me up from the stool. His fingers were warm and callused, and for just a second, I felt like maybe I wasn't completely alone in this nightmare.

Then Luca stepped forward, and his cold gray eyes reminded me exactly who these people really were.

"There's just one more thing you need to know, Isabella," he said.

"What?"

"Your father didn't just take information when

he stopped working for us. He stole money too. A lot of money."

"How much money?"

Luca's smile was sharp as a knife.

"Two million dollars. And now that debt belongs to you.”