At 12:03 a.m., Dante Moretti received a second photograph of Elena Bennett.

This one showed her awake.

She sat against a hospital pillow, one hand lifted toward the camera. Someone had written three words on the whiteboard behind her: DO NOT TRUST.

The rest of the board was outside the frame.

Luca stood across Dante's desk, watching the color drain from his boss's face.

"The sender wants the rabbit," Luca said. "We have a location for the exchange. An abandoned ambulance depot in Queens."

"It's a trap."

"Of course."

Dante studied the photograph. Four years of searching, four years of anger, and now Elena was close enough to see the faint scar beside her eyebrow. She had gotten that scar trying to fix a kitchen cabinet in his penthouse. She had refused to let him hire a carpenter.

"We verify she's there before I move," he said. "No one approaches the depot until Marcus confirms the feed is live."

Luca nodded. "And Lily?"

Dante looked toward the hall. His daughter was asleep two rooms away, with Mr. Fluffington tucked beneath her chin.

"She stays here. Triple the guards. Nobody gets through the family wing."

"Including Victoria?"

"Especially Victoria."

A sound came from the doorway.

"Daddy?"

Lily stood in pink pajamas, rubbing one eye. Her hair stuck up like a frightened hedgehog.

Dante crossed the room immediately. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"Mr. Fluffington had a bad dream."

"Rabbits don't dream."

"He does. He's advanced."

Dante almost smiled. Then Lily noticed the photograph on his desk.

"Mommy."

He knelt. "We're trying to bring her home."

"The snake lady wants my bunny."

Dante went still. "Who told you that?"

"The bunny told me."

He had learned that this usually meant Elena had hidden another recorded message inside the toy.

"Can you show me?"

Lily squeezed the rabbit's paw. A tiny recorded voice whispered, "If somebody asks for Fluffington, Lily-Bug, don't trade him. Not even for all the cookies in New York."

Elena's voice.

Dante felt his throat tighten. "When did she tell you that?"

"Before she got sleepy." Lily hesitated. "She said the rabbit remembers things grown-ups forget."

Dante held out his hand. "May I borrow him?"

Lily hugged the rabbit. "Are you taking him to the bad lady?"

He could have lied. Instead he said, "I thought about it. But I won't."

She searched his face, then nodded. "Good. Mommy would be mad."

"Your mother was frequently mad at me."

"Because you're bossy."

"Yes," he admitted. "Probably."

He carried Lily back to bed, tucked her under the blanket, and waited until her breathing became steady. A small night-light painted stars across the ceiling. He left two guards outside and asked Marcus to keep a direct camera feed on the hall.

At 1:16 a.m., that feed froze.

Marcus called immediately. "Boss, the family-wing camera is looping. It's a clean replacement, not another total blackout. Someone inside the house is doing it."

Dante was already moving.

At the opposite end of the hall, a housekeeper's service cart rolled silently past the linen closet. Three figures in dark maintenance uniforms followed it. They wore visitor badges with names copied from an old contractor list.

The first man reached Lily's door.

A faint click sounded beneath his shoe.

The corridor lights flashed pink.

"Welcome, sneaky feet!" chirped a recorded child's voice.

The man jumped backward. A spring-loaded party streamer burst from the cart, wrapping bright paper ribbons around his arms. His companion stumbled into the wall as an alarm shrieked from a toy castle placed beside the baseboard.

"What is this?" the second man hissed.

The third tried to retreat, but a reinforced security shutter slammed down at the stairwell. Marcus had remotely sealed the corridor the instant the alarm triggered.

The first intruder pulled a knife from his pocket.

Dante came around the corner before he could take another step.

"Put it down."

The man's eyes widened. Two armed guards appeared behind Dante, their weapons trained low but ready.

"You don't understand," the intruder said. "We were told the child wasn't supposed to be hurt. We only needed the rabbit."

"Who told you?"

The man said nothing.

Dante advanced one measured step. "You entered my daughter's bedroom corridor with a knife. Choose your next words carefully."

The knife clattered to the floor.

The other two raised their hands.

Luca arrived with additional security. Within seconds, all three intruders were restrained and the corridor was clear.

Then Lily's door opened.

She stood there with her rabbit under one arm and a plastic tiara crooked on her head.

"Daddy," she announced, "my castle caught bad guys."

Dante stared at the streamers, the toy castle, and the three men on the floor.

"Did you set that up?"

"Mommy helped me make the noisy part. I put it by the door because Mr. Fluffington doesn't like sneaky feet."

"You are not setting traps in this house again," Dante said, fighting to keep his voice level. "You tell me when you're frightened. That's my job."

Lily considered this. "Can my castle still sing?"

"During daylight hours."

"Deal."

He lifted her into his arms. Her rabbit bumped his jaw. He didn't flinch.

Luca searched the intruders' phones. One contained a photograph of Lily's bedroom door. Another showed a payment from a shell company connected to Vance Holdings.

But the third held something worse: a live message thread.

One message had arrived five minutes earlier.

IF THE MEN FAIL, I WILL HANDLE THE CHILD MYSELF.

Luca looked up. "Boss."

Dante read the screen.

Then the mansion's front gate intercom rang.

A guard answered, and a woman's furious voice came through the speaker.

"Open the gate. I'm Dante's fiancée."

Victoria Vance had come to finish the job herself.