Chapter 2 - Darkness swallowed the apartment.
Someone screamed.
I wasn't sure whether it was me.
A heavy impact struck the front door.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Alessandro's hand found mine.
“Stay behind me.”
“Who is that?”
“No idea.”
Liam whispered, “There are stairs in the back.”
Another impact.
The lock cracked.
Alessandro raised his gun.
“Liam, rear exit.”
“No.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“That's not a suggestion.”
Liam grabbed my arm.
I stumbled after him.
We reached the narrow kitchen.
Another crash shook the apartment.
The door was coming down.
I turned.
Alessandro stood in the darkness, weapon raised.
He looked terrifying.
Calm.
Still.
Like violence was another language he spoke fluently.
“Go.”
I hated leaving him.
That realization scared me more than the gunshots.
I followed Liam through the back door.
Cold night air struck my face.
We ran down the fire escape.
My lungs burned.
My hand instinctively went to my stomach.
“Careful,” Liam whispered.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying you're fine like that changes things.”
We reached the alley.
A black SUV waited at the curb.
Liam stopped.
“That wasn't there before.”
I froze.
The driver's door opened.
A man stepped out.
He wore a baseball cap and dark jacket.
Liam grabbed me and pulled me backward.
The man raised both hands.
“I'm not here to hurt you.”
“Then leave,” Liam said.
The man looked directly at me.
“Elizabeth Mercer?”
My body went cold.
He knew.
Of course he knew.
“How do you know that name?”
“I worked for your father.”
Liam's grip tightened.
“What?”
The man reached into his pocket slowly.
He pulled out a small silver pendant.
I recognized it instantly.
My mother had worn it every day.
She gave it to me when I was sixteen.
After her death, it vanished.
I had assumed it was buried with her.
I stepped forward.
“Where did you get that?”
“Your father gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Three days before he died.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“He said if anything happened, I was to find you.”
“Why didn't you?”
His face tightened.
“Because I was being watched too.”
I could barely breathe.
“What’s your name?”
“Daniel Cross.”
Liam stared at him.
“That name means nothing to me.”
“It should.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Your father knew Victor Sloane was planning something bigger than money laundering.”
My heart pounded.
“What?”
“He wasn't stealing for himself.”
“Then who?”
Daniel opened his mouth.
A gunshot cracked through the alley.
He jerked backward.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“RUN!”
He collapsed.
Liam dragged me behind the SUV.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Alessandro appeared from the alley behind us.
He fired twice.
The shooter disappeared across the street.
Alessandro reached us.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Daniel.”
He looked at the wounded man.
“Can he live?”
“Call an ambulance.”
Liam was already dialing.
Alessandro crouched beside Daniel.
“Who shot you?”
Daniel coughed.
“The woman.”
“What woman?”
“She's inside.”
Alessandro's eyes narrowed.
“Inside where?”
Daniel pointed weakly toward the road.
“The hotel.”
Then he grabbed my wrist.
“Your father wasn't killed because he knew too much.”
His eyes searched mine.
“He was killed because he found out who was paying Sloane.”
I swallowed.
“Who?”
Daniel's lips moved.
But before he could answer, his body went limp.
“Daniel!”
Nothing.
Dead.
I stared at him in horror.
Alessandro rose.
“We're going to the Obsidian.”
My voice shook.
“Why?”
“Because whoever is doing this wants you there.”
“That sounds like a trap.”
“It is.”
“Then why go?”
His eyes locked onto mine.
“Because now I want to know why.”
We reached the hotel twenty minutes later.
The Obsidian looked exactly as I remembered.
Elegant.
Dark.
Expensive.
The place where I had walked in as a waitress.
The place where I had walked out carrying Alessandro's secret in my heart.
As soon as we entered, every conversation in the lobby seemed to stop.
A security officer approached.
“Mr. Vitali.”
Alessandro nodded.
“What did you find?”
The man looked at me.
Then at Liam.
Then back to Alessandro.
“Your office.”
We took the private elevator.
My pulse wouldn't settle.
When the doors opened, I smelled something metallic.
Blood.
Alessandro stepped in front of me.
His office was empty.
Except for one thing.
A laptop sat open on his desk.
The screen displayed a security recording.
I saw myself.
Walking through the Obsidian six weeks ago.
Then Alessandro.
Then the hallway outside his suite.
Then the door closing.
My face burned.
Someone had recorded that night.
But the video continued.
The timestamp jumped.
Three hours later.
A man entered the hallway.
I didn't recognize him.
He was carrying a small black case.
He stopped outside Alessandro's room.
Then he turned toward the camera.
His face became visible.
I stared.
Liam whispered, “No.”
Alessandro's expression hardened.
Because we both knew him.
Victor Sloane.
The man who had supposedly been nowhere near the Obsidian that night.
The man my father had accused.
The man who was supposed to be protected by half the city's richest families.
But Victor wasn't alone.
A woman stepped into frame behind him.
Long dark hair.
Black dress.
Silver pendant around her neck.
The same pendant Daniel had carried.
My breath vanished.
I knew that pendant.
But I knew something else.
I knew the woman.
Because I had seen her before.
At my father's funeral.
Standing in the back.
Crying.
My mother.
The woman who had been declared dead twelve years ago.
I whispered the only word I could manage.
“Mom?”
May you like
Alessandro turned sharply toward me.
And then the office door locked from the outside.
