Chapter 1 - The Woman in the Tablet
“I found something.”
Declan Voss did not move.
For ten seconds, the only sound in the penthouse was the low hum of the city beneath the windows. Chicago glittered beyond the glass, cold and merciless, exactly the way Declan had felt since Amelia disappeared.
Gavin Roarke placed the tablet on the desk.
Declan finally looked down.
A photograph filled the screen.
A woman stood outside a rural medical clinic, wrapped in a cream coat, one hand pressed instinctively over a small but unmistakable curve beneath the fabric.
Her hair was darker.
Longer.
Her face was turned away.
But Declan knew her.
His fingers tightened against the edge of the desk.
“Where?”
“Black Mountain. Twenty minutes outside Asheville.”
Declan stared at the photograph.
“How certain?”
“Ninety-eight percent.”
“That leaves two percent.”
Gavin swallowed.
“The clinic registered her under the name Claire Mason. Cash payments. No insurance. The age matches Amelia. Her fingerprints are not in the system, but one of the nurses recognized her from a restoration magazine interview.”
Declan's jaw hardened.
“And the baby?”
Gavin hesitated.
“She's pregnant.”
Something inside Declan broke so quietly that even he almost missed it.
He looked away.
Six months earlier, he had held Amelia's hand while she laughed at a ridiculous painting of a saint missing half a face.
He remembered the paint beneath her fingernails.
The loose strands of hair that always escaped her clip.
The way she fell asleep in his passenger seat when she trusted him enough to stop being afraid.
He remembered her saying, “You look terrifying when you're angry.”
And him answering, “Only when there's something worth protecting.”
Now she was carrying his child somewhere in North Carolina, and she had vanished because of something he had said.
Resolved quietly.
He had meant protected.
But he knew how it sounded.
He had known exactly how men like his family operated.
He should have chosen his words more carefully.
“What about the engagement?” Gavin asked.
Declan's eyes returned to the screen.
“Cancel it.”
Gavin went still.
“Tonight?”
“Now.”
“That could start a war with Calloway.”
Declan stood.
“Then let it.”
Gavin did not move.
“Declan, there is another problem.”
“What?”
“The photograph was taken yesterday.”
Declan's gaze sharpened.
“So?”
“Someone else knew she was there.”
Gavin turned the tablet and zoomed into the photograph.
Across the street, half hidden behind a delivery truck, sat a black Chevrolet Suburban.
Its license plate was blurred.
But the windshield reflected a small silver emblem.
A raven.
Declan's face changed.
“The Belladonna crew.”
Gavin nodded.
“They have been following the same trail.”
Declan reached for his coat.
“How long?”
“Probably ten days.”
“And Amelia?”
“We don't know if they know she's your woman.”
Declan looked at the photograph again.
His eyes settled on Amelia's hand.
On the slight curve beneath her coat.
Their child.
His child.
A future he had never believed he deserved.
“Get the plane.”
“Private?”
“No.”
Gavin frowned.
“Then what?”
Declan picked up a gun from the drawer and checked the magazine.
“Something no one can trace.”
Two hours later, a black sedan carrying no Voss plates left Chicago.
Before sunrise, Declan Voss crossed the state line.
And somewhere outside Asheville, Amelia stood in a shower, one hand against the tile, unaware that the man she had spent fourteen weeks running from was already less than an hour away.
She turned off the water.
Silence.
Then she heard it.
A car door closing outside.
Amelia froze.
Another door.
Then another.
Three men had just arrived.
She looked toward the window.
The first thing she saw was a black SUV.
The second was the silver raven painted beneath its rear bumper.
And the third was a man standing across the street, looking directly at her window.
Her blood ran cold.
Because she recognized him.
May you like
He had been one of Declan's men.
And he was not alone.
