Chapter 1 - THE BOY UNDER THE FIREThe first thing I did after clawing my way back from death wasn't ask who tried to burn me alive.
I didn't ask how many of my men survived.
I didn't ask how much territory we'd lost.
I opened my eyes and saw a security guard dragging a nurse out of my hospital room.
“Grace.”
My voice was barely a whisper.
But the room froze.
The guard released her wrist.
Grace stumbled forward, her pale blue scrubs wrinkled, dark circles beneath her eyes. What caught my attention wasn't her exhaustion.
It was the bruise around her wrist.
Someone had hurt her.
I looked past her.
Vanessa Bellini stood at the foot of my bed in an ivory designer suit, diamonds glittering at her throat.
My future wife.
She'd been smiling seconds earlier.
Now she looked terrified.
“Dominic,” she whispered.
I ignored her.
“Come here, Grace.”
She approached immediately.
“Don't move too much. You'll reopen your wound.”
Even after being dragged from my room, her first instinct was protecting me.
That told me everything.
I took her hand.
“Why was she being removed?”
Vanessa answered.
“She violated hospital protocol.”
I looked at Grace.
“That's not what happened.”
Grace hesitated.
Then Vanessa mentioned something that made my blood run cold.
“She was asking about the child who came in with you.”
My fingers tightened.
“The boy?”
Grace nodded.
“He's alive.”
Relief hit me.
Then suspicion followed.
“Who knows about him?”
Grace looked at Vanessa.
That tiny glance was enough.
Vanessa smiled.
“I know because he arrived with you.”
Too calm.
Too quick.
I turned back to Grace.
“Tell me what happened.”
“You were barely conscious when they brought you in,” she whispered. “You kept asking about the boy.”
“What else?”
Grace swallowed.
“You grabbed my wrist and said, ‘Nobody knows.’”
“Nobody knows what?”
“You lost consciousness before you could explain.”
I closed my eyes.
Then the memories came back.
Fire.
Gunshots.
Peter screaming.
A child hiding beneath a loading platform.
A broken black cross around his neck.
And a voice calling through the smoke.
Someone had tried to kill me.
But they had also been trying to find that boy.
The door burst open.
Marco DeLuca entered.
“Boss. There's a problem.”
“What?”
“Someone tried entering the boy's ICU room with a forged physician badge.”
My heart monitor accelerated.
“Did he get inside?”
“No. But the security cameras went offline for six minutes.”
Six minutes.
Long enough to kill someone.
Long enough to erase the evidence.
“Move the boy,” I ordered.
“Where?”
“Somewhere the Bellinis can't reach.”
Grace stared at me.
“You think Vanessa is involved?”
I didn't answer.
She already knew.
Then she leaned closer.
“Dominic, there's something else.”
“What?”
“When Vanessa arrived at the ER, she saw the boy.”
My eyes narrowed.
“And?”
“She didn't look confused.”
Grace's voice dropped.
“She recognized him.”
The room went silent.
“Are you sure?”
“I've seen people recognize family after accidents. I've seen shock. Grief. Confusion.”
She looked directly into my eyes.
“What Vanessa showed wasn't surprise.”
“What was it?”
“Fear.”
My jaw tightened.
For twenty years, I'd believed dangerous people announced themselves with guns.
I was beginning to understand that some arrived wearing diamonds.
“Marco.”
“Yes?”
“Find the boy.”
He turned to leave.
Then something inside my memory snapped into place.
The child's voice.
A name.
I whispered it.
“Uncle Nico.”
Marco stopped.
Grace frowned.
I repeated it.
“Uncle Nico.”
Marco's face went pale.
Because there had only been one Nico in my life.
Nicholas Moretti.
My younger brother.
Dead for seven years.
Or so I'd been told.
I stared at the rain sliding down the hospital window.
Suddenly, the explosion made sense.
The boy wasn't a witness.
He was a secret.
And if he had been calling for Nicholas...
then my brother might not be dead.
The explosion hadn't been meant to erase a crime.
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It had been meant to erase the past.
And now the past had come looking for me.
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