POV: MARCO
Marco woke at five in the morning.
It wasn't something he planned, his body just did it. Thirty years of working security meant his internal clock was set to wake before the rest of the world. Before threats could materialize. Before things could go wrong.
The villa was quiet. The staff hadn't started moving yet. Dimitri and Eve would still be asleep somewhere in the master suite. The island was in that strange space between night and day..... still dark, but with the promise of light coming.
He made himself coffee in the kitchen and carried it to the small security office off the main hallway. It was a modest room with monitors on the wall showing different angles of the property. The beach. The driveway. The perimeter. The water.
Everything looked exactly as it should.
Marco settled into the chair and opened his laptop. He pulled up his secure email system and started checking messages from the team back in New York.
There were more than usual. That wasn't normal.
