Chapter 2 - THE DEVICE BENEATH NERO’S FUR
I had seen men shot without making a sound.
I had watched buildings burn.
I had stood three feet from people who wanted me dead and felt nothing except irritation.
But when Elsie lifted Nero’s wet black fur and whispered, “He has a button under him,” fear moved through me so fast that I nearly reached for the child before I remembered one important thing.
Nero was calm.
Not calm for me.
For her.
The massive Cane Corso rested his head across Elsie’s tiny lap while she carefully separated the fur behind his left shoulder.
Sienna stood six feet away, pale enough to look ill.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
I crouched.
Nero opened one amber eye.
“Easy.”
His ear twitched.
Elsie pointed.
“There.”
At first I saw only fur.
Then blood.
Not much.
A thin dark line against his skin.
I moved closer.
Someone had shaved a patch beneath Nero’s coat and covered it so skillfully that the longer fur fell over the area.
Four small metal staples remained in the skin.
Between them sat a black object no larger than my thumbnail.
Not under the skin.
Attached against it.
A flat oval transmitter taped beneath waterproof surgical mesh.
A tiny green light blinked once.
Then disappeared.
My entire body went cold.
“Everybody out of the courtyard.”
My men moved immediately.
Sienna did not.
“Elsie.”
The little girl looked up.
“Sweetheart, come to Mommy.”
“No.”
Sienna’s fear sharpened.
“Elsie.”
“Nero hurts.”
She pronounced his name Neh-roh, slowly and seriously.
I looked at Sienna.
“Let her stay for ten seconds.”
She stared at me like I was insane.
Maybe I was.
But Nero’s trembling had eased beneath Elsie’s hand.
He trusted the child.
And right then, his trust mattered more than my pride.
I called Dr. Elena Reyes, the veterinarian who had treated Nero since he was a puppy.
“Estate. Now.”
She heard something in my voice.
“What happened?”
“Someone attached a device to Nero.”
Silence.
“Do not remove it.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“I’m twenty minutes away.”
She arrived in fourteen.
By then, Elsie had convinced Nero to follow her into the heated service room.
Not me.
Not my guards.
Elsie.
She walked backward holding her teddy bear.
“Come on, friend.”
Nero limped after her.
I had commanded men responsible for millions of dollars and had never felt as useless as I did watching a three-year-old girl lead my dog where I could not.
Dr. Reyes examined him on the floor.
She did not force him onto a table.
Good decision.
“What happened with the handler?”
“Bit his forearm.”
“How badly?”
“Bad enough that he left blood to the gate.”
“Name?”
“Caleb Ward.”
She looked up.
“The canine behavior specialist?”
“Yes.”
“That man has worked police dogs for twenty years.”
“He lasted twelve minutes.”
Elena’s eyes moved toward the hidden patch.
“Maybe Nero had a reason.”
She sedated him lightly only after I approved an independent medication from her sealed emergency case.
I watched every milligram.
I trusted almost nobody now.
Not after seeing that blinking light.
Elena clipped the fur.
The full injury appeared.
My jaw tightened.
The transmitter had been held against Nero’s skin with surgical adhesive and four staples.
But around it were older marks.
Tiny circular wounds.
Needle sites.
At least six.
Elena swore quietly.
“What?”
“Someone has been injecting him.”
“With what?”
“I’ll need bloodwork.”
“How long?”
“Some of these marks are healing.”
She looked at me.
“Two weeks, maybe more.”
Sienna covered Elsie’s ears instinctively.
Elsie removed her mother’s hands.
“I can hear.”
Despite everything, Elena almost smiled.
Then she removed the transmitter carefully.
The moment the final contact wire disconnected, my phone buzzed.
I looked down.
Nothing obvious.
Marco Bellini, my consigliere and head of estate security, stepped closer.
“What?”
I held up one hand.
Nobody touched anything.
The device went inside an evidence bag.
Elena drew blood.
Nero began waking twenty minutes later.
The first person he looked for was Elsie.
That settled something inside me.
I turned toward Marco.
“Lock the estate.”
His expression changed.
“All gates?”
“Yes.”
“Staff?”
“Nobody leaves until we know who did this.”
Sienna’s head snapped toward me.
“No.”
Every guard in the room looked at her.
People did not usually say that word to me.
Sienna stepped in front of Elsie.
“You are not locking my daughter inside a house where someone is hurting animals.”
Marco stared at her.
I did too.
She was frightened.
But she did not lower her eyes.
Good.
“Elsie and you leave,” I said.
Sienna blinked.
“With two outside guards I choose personally.”
“I don’t want armed men following us.”
“They won’t be visible.”
“Mr. Romano—”
“Alessio.”
She stopped.
I rarely asked staff to use my first name.
Right then, formality felt ridiculous.
“I am not keeping your daughter here.”
Sienna studied my face.
Then nodded.
“Fine.”
I looked at Marco.
“Send Thomas and Eli.”
His best two men.
Marco hesitated.
“Thomas is on east perimeter.”
“Then move him.”
“Done.”
Sienna collected Elsie’s teddy bear.
But Elsie resisted leaving Nero.
“He needs me.”
My chest tightened.
I crouched.
“He does.”
She looked hopeful.
“But your mother needs you more.”
Elsie turned toward Sienna.
Thought about it.
Then hugged Nero’s neck.
Every man in the room stopped breathing.
Nero closed his eyes.
No growl.
No tension.
Just leaned into her.
“Be good,” Elsie whispered.
Then she walked away holding Sienna’s hand.
After they left, the room changed.
No child.
No softness.
I looked at Marco.
“Find Caleb Ward.”
“He went to urgent care.”
“Verify.”
Marco called.
Thirty seconds later his face changed.
“What?”
“Never arrived.”
I stared.
“Car?”
“Found abandoned two miles from the estate.”
Blood inside.
Driver door open.
No Caleb.
Not good.
Elena packed Nero’s blood samples.
“I’m taking these personally.”
“No local lab.”
She understood.
“You think someone may have access?”
“I think someone inside my home stapled a transmitter to my dog.”
“Fair.”
She left with one of my external men.
Marco looked toward the device.
“Could be GPS.”
“Could be audio.”
“Could be health monitoring.”
“You believe that?”
“No.”
Good answer.
We moved to my private office.
The transmitter sat between us.
Marco called a technician who had never worked for Romano Security.
A former federal electronics specialist named Owen Blake.
He arrived after dark.
He examined the device for an hour.
Then looked at me.
“This is not a commercial pet tracker.”
“What is it?”
“Custom low-power telemetry.”
“For?”
“Location.”
He paused.
“Audio.”
Marco swore.
My eyes narrowed.
“It was listening.”
“Yes.”
“How far?”
“Depends on network.”
“Cellular?”
“Encrypted LTE fallback.”
“Storage?”
“Local buffer.”
He connected it through an isolated reader.
A folder appeared.
Audio fragments.
Hundreds.
Thirty-second samples triggered by sound.
My voice.
Marco’s.
Guards.
Staff.
Nero had followed me everywhere.
Office.
Library.
Garden.
Cars.
Whoever planted this had turned my dog into a moving bug.
I felt anger deepen into something colder.
“Where was it transmitting?”
Owen shook his head.
“Remote server masked through several relays.”
“Can you trace?”
“Maybe.”
“Do it.”
Then he clicked a metadata file.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Device was paired to an internal receiver first.”
“Internal where?”
He read.
“Romano Estate Security Hub Three.”
Marco’s face drained.
Hub Three sat inside the security command center.
His department.
I looked at him.
Marco went still.
“I did not authorize this.”
“Your system did.”
“That’s different.”
“Explain.”
“Three people can authenticate new devices.”
“Names.”
“Me.”
A pause.
“Grant Hale, surveillance director.”
Another.
“Matteo.”
My younger brother.
The room became silent.
Matteo Romano was thirty-one.
Chief financial officer of Romano Holdings.
My closest living relative.
The boy I had pulled out of boarding school after our father was killed because he could not sleep without every light on.
I looked at Marco.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
I felt nothing yet.
That was dangerous.
Owen continued searching.
Then found the pairing authorization.
Username:
M.BELLINI.
Marco’s.
He stared.
“No.”
“Biometric?”
“Required.”
“Then how?”
Marco’s expression hardened.
“Someone cloned my credentials.”
I did not answer.
People often blamed cloned credentials when caught.
Marco knew that.
He looked directly at me.
“If you think I did it, remove my weapon.”
The room went silent.
Marco Bellini had stood beside me for seventeen years.
He had been shot twice protecting my father.
He held my mother’s hand when she died.
Trust is dangerous precisely because betrayal is always statistically possible.
I held out my hand.
Marco removed his pistol.
Placed it on the desk.
Then his backup weapon.
Then his estate credentials.
“I’ll cooperate.”
I looked at him.
“Good.”
“Do you believe me?”
“Not yet.”
Pain crossed his face.
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Owen opened another audio file.
Time stamp:
2:13 a.m., three nights earlier.
Rustling.
A door.
Then a male voice.
Quiet.
Familiar.
“Hold him still.”
Nero growled.
Another man said:
“The dose isn’t working.”
First voice again.
“Then give him more.”
I knew that voice.
Not Marco.
Not Caleb.
Matteo.
My brother.
My blood went cold.
The recording continued.
Nero snarled violently.
A metallic sound.
Then Matteo spoke again.
“If Alessio notices the limp, tell him the dog is getting old.”
Silence.
Marco looked at me.
I said nothing.
The next voice changed everything.
A woman.
Soft.
Nervous.
“Matteo, this was supposed to be surveillance. You never said we’d hurt Nero.”
I knew her too.
Isabella Vance.
My family attorney.
The woman preparing changes to my estate documents the following week.
Owen stopped the recording.
Nobody spoke.
I looked toward the dark window.
Snow had begun falling again.
My dog had not attacked a handler because he had become dangerous.
May you like
He had attacked because somebody was trying to keep a secret attached to his body.
And the first clear voice inside that secret belonged to the brother I had spent half my life protecting.
