The Principessa’s Mafia Trial: From A Stripped Bride To A Crimson Queen Chapter 07
The Four-Digit Lie
I pulled the encrypted phone from the pocket of Cain’s coat.
It was old and heavy, a black phone with no brand and no touchscreen.
Just a keypad and a four-digit number saved in the only contact slot.
Dominic saw it and burst out laughing.
“What the hell is that?” He snatched it out of my hand before I could dial. “A burner from 2003?”
He held it up and turned it toward the crowd. “Hey, everybody, look at this! Four-digit phone number!”
Laughter rippled through the courtyard.
“I’m serious,” Dominic said, flipping the phone around.
“Have any of you ever seen a four-digit phone number in your life?”
“That’s not even real!”
“Probably calls a pizza place!”
Dominic shoved the phone in my face.
“This is your big move, Vivian? A fake phone with a fake number?” He shook his head. “God, the Cavallos really are finished.”
Lucia giggled and leaned into Dominic’s arm. “I told you, Dom. She’s all bark.”
Dominic grinned. He punched the four-digit number and hit the call button just to mock me.
He held it to his ear, eyebrows raised, waiting for silence on the other end.
Someone picked up.
Dominic’s grin froze.
He listened for two seconds, then yanked the phone away from his ear.
His face went pale.
“Who the hell was that?” he muttered.
He stared at the phone, then back at me.
Then he dropped it on the stone and crushed it under his heel. The screen cracked. The casing split.
He ground it into the puddle until it was nothing but plastic and wire.
“Nice try,” he said, but his voice was a half-step off now. “Whoever answered, it doesn’t matter. Nobody is coming for you.”
I looked at the shattered phone on the ground.
Then I looked at Dominic.
“You think that phone was the signal?”
He didn’t answer.
“The signal went out the second you ripped the necklace off my neck.” I nodded toward Lucia. “The Cavallo Heart has a chip built into the clasp. The moment it broke, it sent a distress call to every Savino and Cavallo crew on the West Coast.”
Dominic blinked.
“That was twenty minutes ago, Dom.”
Nobody spoke.
Lucia’s hand drifted to the pendant at her throat. Her fingers trembled against the white gold.
“You’re lying,” she whispered.
“Am I?”
Dominic grabbed my arm. “You’re bluffing. That necklace is a piece of jewelry. Nothing more.”
“Then why do you look scared?”
He let go.
For the first time all night, Dominic Falcone had nothing to say.
He turned to his soldiers. “Double the perimeter. Lock down the east and west—”
The ground shook. Engines roared outside the walls.
Headlights cut through the broken side walls. Stone cracked. Dust burst into the air.
Cain got to his feet. The soldiers who had been holding him were already backing away.
He wiped the wine from his face and looked at Dominic.
“I told you,” he said. “Worst mistake of your life.”
The first truck smashed through the east wall, and the courtyard filled with the roar of engines.
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