Nico didn't say where they were going.
He just kept moving; his grip on her arm was firm enough that she had to keep up or risk stumbling. They turned left at the main foyer and passed the grand staircase, heading away from the east wing and the stairs to the sub-level.
"Nico, where…"
"Quiet."
She went quiet.
They walked past two of Luca's men at the corridor junction. Nico didn't stop or give any orders. He kept walking forward, through the flickering emergency lights that was still struggling to stay lit along the west corridor.
Then he finally stopped at a door she recognized… Don Gio's private study.
Nico reached into the inside pocket of his ruined jacket and produced a thick, old-fashioned brass key, the kind that predated the estate's entire digital security system by decades. He turned it twice and pushed the door open.
"Inside," he said.
Mara walked in.
The room still smelled faintly like him… old paper, wood polish, something faintly medicinal underneath.
