Before Nico could speak, the phone resting on the mahogany table vibrated against the polished wood.
Mara reached for it. The display showed an encrypted line from the southern district. She swiped the screen and brought the phone to her ear.
"Mara," Marco Vitale's deep voice came through the speaker. "I'm calling because something flagged in my terminal's logs this morning, and I wanted to explain it to you directly before it raised any alarms."
Nico stepped closer to Mara, his gaze fixing on the phone. "What did you find, Marco?" Mara asked calmly.
"A couple of days ago, after Castellano pulled his trucks back from the southern ridge, his remaining lieutenants started poking around old regional archives looking for dirt on your family," Marco explained. "My analysts just caught them running an inquiry on old municipal records in Como linked to Caterina Ferrante."
Mara glanced at Nico, whose jaw tightened instantly.
