Chapter 3 - THE MAN BEHIND THE DOG
They escaped in the back of a delivery van that smelled like coffee grounds and bleach.
Mia spent the first five minutes pointing Doyle's gun at Tomas.
Tomas spent those five minutes driving like traffic laws had personally offended him.
Roman spent them staring through the rear windows at the vehicles disappearing behind them.
"Where are we going?" Mia demanded.
"Somewhere Matteo doesn't own."
"Does that place exist?"
"Smaller every year."
Mia tightened her hands around the gun.
"I want answers."
"You'll get them."
"Now."
Tomas glanced at her in the mirror.
"You really don't scare easily."
"I was scared when three men cornered me tonight. I was scared when my landlord shot at my dog. I'm currently terrified."
"You don't look terrified."
"That's because I also haven't slept properly since 2022."
Roman made a sound that might have been amusement.
Mia glared at him.
"You don't get to laugh."
He looked away.
Tomas almost smiled.
Twenty minutes later they entered an industrial district near the river.
The van stopped outside an abandoned print shop.
Tomas knocked four times.
Pause.
Twice.
A steel door opened.
An older woman with white hair pointed a shotgun directly at Mia.
"Who's she?"
"The reason he's alive."
The woman looked down.
Her shotgun lowered.
"Madonna."
Roman approached.
The woman's face crumpled.
She dropped to her knees.
"Roman."
He touched his nose to her hand.
Mia looked away.
Something about the gesture felt private.
The woman buried both hands in his fur.
"I told Tomas you weren't dead."
Roman's eyes closed.
"I told him."
She kissed the top of his head and stood.
Then looked at Mia.
"I'm Rosa."
"Mia."
"You saved him?"
"I found him."
"Sometimes that's the same thing."
The building had been converted into a safehouse.
Two small bedrooms.
A kitchen.
Medical supplies.
Weapons Mia tried not to look at.
Tomas locked the door behind them.
"Sit."
Mia remained standing.
"I've been ordered around enough tonight."
Tomas sighed.
"Fair."
Roman settled beside her chair anyway.
Rosa brought coffee.
Mia drank half the cup before she asked the question again.
"How does a man become a dog?"
Nobody laughed.
That somehow made it worse.
Tomas leaned against the counter.
"Roman's family is old."
"How old?"
"Older than their legitimate businesses. Older than most of the grudges attached to their name."
Roman watched him.
"The Vescari family came from southern Italy. There was a story generations ago about a man named Vittorio Vescari who betrayed his own brother for land."
Mia rubbed her forehead.
"Please don't tell me this involves witches."
Rosa placed a bowl of water in front of Roman.
"It involves a woman whose family had every reason to hate his."
"That's a yes."
"Call her what you like."
Tomas continued.
"Vittorio had his brother killed. The brother's widow cursed Vittorio's bloodline. The story said any Vescari who betrayed blood for power would wear the skin of the animal on the family crest until the betrayal was answered."
Mia stared at the wolf medallion.
"The wolf."
Tomas nodded.
"For generations it was just a story."
"Until Roman?"
"Until Matteo."
Roman's jaw tightened.
Tomas pulled out a chair.
"Eight months ago Roman called me. Midnight. He said Matteo wanted a meeting at Saint Agnes, an abandoned chapel their father used for private gatherings."
"Why did he go?"
"Because Matteo was his younger brother."
Roman looked toward the floor.
Tomas's voice softened.
"That mattered to Roman more than it should have."
Mia recognized the kind of sentence that carried an entire history inside it.
"What happened?"
"We don't know everything."
Roman rose.
He walked toward a desk.
On it sat a notebook and pen.
He looked at Mia.
Then at the pen.
"You can write?"
Roman put one paw on the desk.
Mia stared.
"Right. No thumbs."
Rosa opened a drawer.
She removed a large children's magnetic alphabet board.
Mia blinked.
"You've done this before?"
"We hoped we'd need it."
Roman approached.
Slowly, awkwardly, he used his paw to move letters.
Mia crouched beside him.
S.
A.
I.
N.
T.
Saint.
Then:
A.
G.
N.
E.
S.
Tomas leaned forward.
"You remember."
Roman moved another set.
M.
A.
T.
T.
E.
O.
Then:
E.
L.
I.
A.
S.
Tomas went pale.
"Elias?"
Roman struck the board once.
Yes.
Rosa crossed herself.
Mia looked between them.
"Who's Elias?"
Tomas didn't answer immediately.
Finally he said, "Elias Vane was Roman's consigliere."
"Was?"
"He disappeared the same night Roman did."
Roman moved letters.
T.
R.
A.
I.
T.
O.
R.
Tomas closed his eyes.
"I figured."
Roman growled.
"I didn't know, Roman."
Another growl.
"Believe whatever you want."
Mia stepped between them.
"Could we postpone the centuries-old macho betrayal argument until I understand why there's a human being trapped in a dog?"
Roman looked at her.
Tomas almost smiled again.
"According to the story, the curse needs three things."
"Of course it does."
"Blood freely given by family."
"Matteo."
"A betrayal spoken aloud."
"Elias?"
"Possibly."
"And the medallion."
Mia touched the silver disk.
Roman immediately backed away.
"What?"
Tomas's expression sharpened.
"Don't remove it."
"Why?"
"Because the last person who tried nearly killed him."
Mia's fingers froze.
Rosa set down her cup.
"We found Roman three months ago."
Mia stared.
"You found him?"
"For forty-seven minutes."
Roman lowered his head.
"He was outside a warehouse near Cicero. Starving. Hurt. Tomas recognized the medallion."
"We tried cutting it off," Tomas said.
"What happened?"
"Roman stopped breathing."
Mia looked at him.
Roman's eyes held hers.
"We put it back. His heart started again."
"So it's keeping him alive."
"And keeping him trapped."
Mia sat.
For the first time all night, exhaustion hit her hard.
"This is insane."
"Yes."
"Magic isn't real."
Roman looked at her.
"Don't."
Mia pointed at him.
"Do not give me that look."
He raised one eyebrow.
Or did something extremely close to it.
She hated that.
Tomas crossed his arms.
"You don't have to believe in magic. Believe what you've seen."
Mia thought of Roman saying Vescari.
She thought of the photograph.
She thought of one blink for yes.
"What breaks it?"
Rosa answered.
"The story says the betrayed must be recognized by the betrayer beneath his true name."
Mia frowned.
"Meaning?"
"Matteo has to admit what he did."
"That's it?"
"No."
Tomas looked grim.
"While Roman wears the medallion."
"And?"
"Before the ninth moon after the curse."
Silence.
Mia's coffee stopped halfway to her mouth.
"When's that?"
Tomas checked his watch.
"Eight days."
Mia laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
"Wonderful."
Roman moved to the board again.
He spelled:
M.
I.
A.
She looked at him.
Then:
G.
O.
Mia's chest tightened.
"No."
He tapped the letters harder.
GO.
"You want me to leave?"
One blink.
Tomas said nothing.
Mia stood.
"Okay."
Roman looked away.
"Fine."
She picked up her coat.
Roman's ears lowered.
"You know what? You don't get to decide that."
Roman turned.
"I didn't ask for any of this either. I had a terrible apartment, two terrible jobs, a terrible landlord, and somehow that was still simpler than finding out the dog sleeping on my towel is a cursed crime lord."
Roman remained still.
"But you saved me tonight."
His eyes changed.
"You could've run."
He didn't look away.
"You didn't."
Mia's voice softened.
"So I'm not walking away because your brother might hurt me. If he was going to hurt me, Doyle already told him who I am."
Tomas nodded.
"She's right."
Roman growled at him.
"Don't growl at people when they're right."
Roman stared at Mia.
Rosa hid a smile.
Then Tomas's phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
Every trace of humor disappeared.
"What?"
Tomas turned the phone toward them.
A security photograph showed Mia's apartment building.
Police cars.
Fire trucks.
Smoke.
Mia stood.
"No."
Her apartment window glowed orange.
"They burned it," Tomas said.
Mia couldn't breathe.
Everything she owned.
Her mother's photographs.
The green coffee mug from college.
The sweater she'd kept because it still smelled faintly like her mother if she imagined hard enough.
Gone.
Roman came beside her.
Mia stared at the photograph.
Then a second message arrived.
Tomas read it.
His face hardened.
"What?"
He hesitated.
"Tomas."
He gave her the phone.
Unknown number.
One sentence.
Bring Roman Vescari to Saint Agnes before midnight tomorrow, or the girl loses more than an apartment.
Mia read it twice.
Then looked at Roman.
His body was trembling.
Not with fear.
Rage.
Under the message was a photograph.
Mia's diner.
And standing outside the window was her closest friend and coworker, Lucy.
Unaware someone was photographing her.
Mia's stomach dropped.
May you like
Matteo hadn't just found Roman.
He had found everyone Mia loved.
