Chapter 176 Hand Signals
Serena’s POV
My heart skipped a beat as everything in me went cold.
No, how could it be? Wait? When?
For a second, nothing made sense, not even the reason I was standing outside the car.
My mind went blank. Then I pulled my brows together as I stared at the tech guy with my heartbeat picking up slightly.
“How?” I asked with my voice lower than I expected.
Dante was barely standing the last time I saw him. He was as good as a bashed up statue.
So how the hell was he sending messages?
The tech guy shifted slightly, adjusting the tablet in his hand.
“We had a surveillance camera running around the area to help pin down Luc’s men,” he explained.
Nico’s gaze sharpened. “And?”
“And even though it didn't work as planned, Dante must have noticed one of them,” the guy continued. “Because at some point… he looked directly at it.”
Something in my chest tightened.
“He knew where it was,” he added. “And he started signaling to it.”
Nico frowned. “Signaling?”
The guy nodded. “Hand signs. We know them cause they are the same ones he’s used before in the battle.”
My chest tightened painfully as all I could do was stare back. No words found their way out.
Not like I had any inside.
“We recorded everything,” the tech guy continued. “Ran it through a pattern system. It took a bit of time… but we were able to piece it together.”
Nico didn’t hesitate. “Play it.”
The guy didn’t move after that. Instead, his grip on the tablet tightened slightly.
“There’s… one problem,” he quietly muttered while rubbing his arm.
I narrowed my eyes down at him. “What problem?”
He hesitated, glancing briefly between both of us.
Then—
“He specified,” he said slowly, “that she should be the one to hear it.”
Nico’s expression darkened immediately. “What?”
“He made it clear,” the guy added quickly. “The message… is for her alone.”
I felt Nico step closer behind me.
“That’s not how this works,” Nico said flatly. “Anything he has to say, I need to hear.”
“It might be personal,” the guy replied shakily. “Or sensitive. He was very deliberate with the signals.”
Nico let out a quiet, irritated breath, running a hand through his hair.
“We don’t have time for this,” he muttered. “We listen. Now.”
I stepped between them fully now.
“If that’s what he wanted” I said with my voice calm, “then we should respect it.”
Nico’s eyes snapped to mine, and for a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then he exhaled sharply. “Fine,” he said. “Make it quick.”
That was all I needed and the tech guy nodded immediately as well. “This way.”
He led me away from the others, further out and past the cars. To a quieter corner behind one of the buildings.
No one else around was in sight. Just us.
He turned to me, lowering his voice. “Whatever you see… whatever you hear,” he said carefully, “you shouldn’t tell Nico.”
My chest tightened slightly at that. “Why?” I asked.
He hesitated before replying. “Just… watch first.”
That didn’t sit right, but I didn’t argue.
“Play it,” I said, and he nodded, tapping the screen.
The video brightened up on the screen, starting out distant but clear enough.
My breath caught at the sight of Dante again. He was standing just outside the cars, barely able to move with his battered shirt.
My fingers curled slightly at my sides as I watched. He wasn’t looking at the camera directly.
Not at first.
He stood near a car, then slowly turned his back to it, positioning himself.
Then carefully, his hands moved. His fingers fake together to form signs.
Signs I had no idea about.
My heart raced harder as the system picked it up and words began to form on the screen.
One… after the other.
“Don’t. Trust. Nico.”
I choked on the air immediately and instinctively looked around.
“He. Is. The. Mole.”
Everything in me froze at this point.
No. No. That didn’t make sense. It couldn’t.
Nico? The man that had been standing beside me this whole time?
The one helping us? The one holding everything together?
My head shook slightly.
No. That had to be wrong.
“There's more,” the guys said and I turned back around as the video kept playing.
Dante didn’t stop there, his hands moved again in a different sequence this time.
Faster, more urgent as the people around him began moving.
The system struggled slightly… then caught up.
“Take. Off. What. Is. On. You.”
I frowned immediately at that.
What? But it continued.
“They. Are. Using. It.”
At this point, I was more confused than before I heard these.
“What did I just watch?” I whispered.
The video continued with Luca's men pushing Dante away forcefully and the tech guy cut it immediately.
“What does that last message even mean?” I asked immediately, looking up at the tech guy.
He shook his head slightly. “We weren’t sure either.”
“Play that last message again,” I instructed, and he did.
This time, I watched closer, but not at the words. But at his hands.
At the pattern they formed.
Then I watched the way his hands moved. The way one finger went round the top of another finger.
I watched it on repeat till something began building in me slowly.
Something… on me, something I was carrying.
My hand instinctively moved to my neck. And then I froze as it came to me.
The necklace.
My fingers slowly pulled it out from beneath my shirt and I held out the pendant.
“Could it be this?” I asked quietly.
The tech guy stepped closer. “Let me see.”
I handed it over and he examined it as my mind drifted off to the first message.
“Don’t. Trust. Nico.”
My chest tightened as memories flashed by, memories of our conversation long ago when I first came.
How he had threatened me in the car that time. Could that have been a sign?
The thought alone made my stomach twist.
“Serena,” the techie called and I looked up.
His expression had gone hard now.
“T-There’s something here.”
My heart skipped a beat as I stepped closer. “What is it?”
He turned the pendant slightly, pressing into a tiny groove I had never noticed before.
As he pressed into it, a tiny compartment shifted open.
And inside laid a small device.
My breath stopped. “No way,” I gasped.
“It’s a tracker,” he said quietly, and everything suddenly began to make sense.
Every move.
Every location.
Every time Luca had been one step ahead. At the safe house. At the routes. Even the ambush.
All of it.
My fingers curled into fists.
“They’ve been tracking us all along,” I whispered.
“Exactly,” he confirmed, and a sharp wave of pain washed over me.
I instantly felt guilty. I had been carrying it with us the whole time.
“I…” I exhaled slowly, shaking my head. “I brought them to us.”
“No,” he said quickly. “You didn’t know.”
But that didn’t change anything. The damage was already done.
I took the necklace back, staring at it for a second before closing my fist around it.
“Don’t tell anyone about this,” I said firmly.
He blinked. “Not even—”
“Especially not Nico.”
He nodded immediately. “Understood.”
I took a breath, steadying myself and pushing everything down before handing over the necklace to him.
“Ensure this gets burnt immediately and properly destroyed,” I instructed and he nodded.
“On it,” he replied as he took it from me.
“Let’s go.”
By the time we got back, my expression was already back in place.
Nico, who had his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back on the car, looked up immediately as I approached. “What did he say?”
I didn’t wait a second. “He was trying to encourage me,” I said smoothly. “Nothing tactical.”
Nico studied me carefully, and I forced myself not to react.
“He did mention something useful though,” I added, lifting a hand briefly to my neck. “This.”
I rubbed my neck where the necklace had been. “The necklace was a tracker all along,” I said. “Luca’s been using it.”
Nico’s expression darkened instantly. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, but I’ve already dealt with it,” I said, placing my hand back down.
“That explains a lot,” he muttered.
Yes. It did.
I held his gaze for a second longer than necessary, watching him, studying his look, searching for anything that would show it.
But his expression didn’t change. Not even a flicker.
“We should move,” he said finally. “If they’ve been tracking us, we don’t know how much time we have left.”
I nodded. “Agreed.”
The drive went by quietly as I sat beside him, keeping my gaze forward with my mind anything but that.
Every word Dante had sent echoed in my head.
Don’t trust Nico.
I didn’t look at him. I didn’t speak unless when necessary.
And by the time we arrived, the sun had practically gone home.
The location was isolated. An old worn down building.
The perfect hiding spot.
We stepped out immediately and the men began moving fast.
“Surround the perimeter,” Nico ordered. “No one gets in or out.”
The men split instantly, moving around the structure as they should be used to.
I moved beside Nico towards the front, keeping my pulse steady and my mind sharp.
Focus. Just focus.
“On my mark,” he said.
I nodded.
The seconds stretched.
Then—
He lifted his hand, then dropped it.
“Move!” He yelled and everything exploded at once.
The front door burst open with a hard kick from one of the men and we fired inside immediately.
When we got no return fire, we moved in fast, clearing corners, checking angles and dropping bodies immediately they showed up.
I didn’t hesitate, didn’t think. I just moved on instinct as my hand tightened around the gun with every step I took inside.
Room by room. Step by step, we cleared everywhere till more men suddenly flooded the building and opened fire on us.
I hid immediately as everything blew up.
But behind everything, beyond the shooting. I heard a loud cry I knew all too well.
“Serena!”