Chapter 3 - The Name Hidden Under the FloorSomeone Had Been Waiting for Leo

Roman's driver took us to my apartment in a black SUV.

I spent the entire ride staring out the window.

Nothing about Chicago looked normal anymore.

Every parked car seemed suspicious.

Every pedestrian seemed to be watching us.

When we stopped outside my building, two men got out first.

They checked the entrance.

Then the stairwell.

Then Roman nodded.

We went inside.

The apartment door was unlocked.

I knew I had locked it.

I stopped.

Roman immediately stepped in front of me.

His men moved silently.

One room.

Then another.

Then the kitchen.

Nothing appeared disturbed.

Except Leo's bedroom.

His toy dinosaur collection was scattered across the carpet.

I rushed inside.

Leo was sitting on the floor with his babysitter, Mrs. Alvarez.

"Mama!"

He ran into my arms.

I held him so tightly he complained.

"You're squeezing me."

"Sorry."

I kissed his forehead.

He was hot.

Too hot.

Roman stood in the doorway.

Leo stared at him.

Then frowned.

"You're the hurt man."

Roman looked almost surprised.

"Yes."

"I told Mama not to help you."

My heart skipped.

"What?"

Leo shrugged.

"He looked scary."

Roman gave the smallest smile.

"Smart kid."

Mrs. Alvarez stood up.

"Megan, who is this?"

"I'll explain later."

Roman's attention moved to a shelf beside Leo's bed.

There was a small wooden box.

He froze.

"What is that?"

"Leo's."

"Where did he get it?"

"I gave it to him."

Roman walked over.

He touched the lid.

His expression changed.

"Where did you get this?"

"I bought it at a flea market years ago."

Roman turned it over.

There was a symbol carved into the bottom.

A circle split by three vertical lines.

Roman's men exchanged looks.

"Do you recognize it?"

Roman nodded.

"My family used it."

My skin prickled.

"Why would a box from your family be in a flea market?"

"Because it wasn't supposed to leave the Vale estate."

He opened it.

Inside was nothing.

Just dust.

He lifted the false bottom.

A tiny metal key dropped into his palm.

My mouth opened.

"What's that?"

Roman didn't answer.

His phone rang.

"Yes?"

He listened.

Then looked at me.

"We need to leave."

"Why?"

"Because whoever searched your apartment came back."

One of his men moved to the window.

"There."

Across the street, the same dark sedan sat beneath a broken streetlamp.

David Kesler wasn't inside this time.

A different man was.

He was staring directly at Leo's bedroom.

Roman gave an order.

"Take the back exit."

I grabbed Leo.

"Where are we going?"

"My place."

"I can't go to a stranger's house."

Roman looked at me.

"You trusted me when I was bleeding to death."

"And now?"

"Now you need to trust me while I'm not."

We made it out through the alley.

An SUV waited.

But as we reached it, a black motorcycle sped toward us.

A man fired once.

Glass exploded beside my head.

I screamed.

Roman shoved me and Leo down.

His men returned fire.

The motorcycle disappeared around the corner.

Roman rose slowly.

His face had become terrifyingly calm.

One of his men ran toward the direction of the shooter.

Another picked up something from the pavement.

A small brass object.

Roman looked at it.

Then looked at me.

"What is it?"

He handed it to me.

It was a pendant.

I'd seen it before.

Around David's neck.

I suddenly remembered something.

Six months earlier, David had leaned over the office counter while I filled out paperwork.

His pendant had fallen from beneath his shirt.

The same symbol.

The circle.

Three vertical lines.

"You know this man," Roman said.

"I've seen that."

"On David?"

I nodded.

Roman stared toward the street.

"Then David isn't just your manager."

"What is he?"

Roman's voice was low.

"Someone who has been inside my family's organization for years."

He looked at Leo.

"Possibly someone who knows who his father really was."

My heart began pounding.

"You said Ethan was murdered."

"Yes."

"And my son..."

Roman stopped.

"There's something else you need to know."

"What?"

"Ethan had a child."

The world went silent.

Roman looked directly at Leo.

"We believed that child died the night Ethan was killed."

I couldn't speak.

Roman stepped closer.

"Now I don't think that baby ever died."

Leo's small hand slipped into mine.

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