Chapter 1 - The Blood on the Marble
“What do you want me to do, Boss?”
Marco’s voice was calm.
Too calm.
I looked at Emma lying on my marble floor.
Blood had collected beneath her cheek.
Rainwater dripped from the ends of her hair and formed a thin trail across the white stone. Her uniform was torn at the shoulder, the gold-and-black Castellano crest hanging by two threads.
I pointed toward the medical room.
“First, make sure she survives.”
Marco nodded.
“And after that?”
I turned toward him.
“Find the men who did this.”
He hesitated.
“Alive?”
I stared at him until he understood the question was unnecessary.
“Yes.”
Marco gave a single nod and walked away.
Lucia remained beside Emma.
She had stopped crying, but her face was pale.
“Dominic,” she whispered, “she’s awake.”
I looked down.
Emma’s eyes fluttered.
“Can you hear me?”
Her lips trembled.
“Mrs. Castellano?”
“Lucia.”
A weak smile appeared.
“Sorry.”
Lucia immediately shook her head.
“Don’t apologize.”
Emma tried to sit up.
The doctor stopped her.
“You have several broken ribs. You need to remain still.”
Emma looked confused.
Then her eyes found me.
Fear entered them.
Not fear of me.
Fear for me.
“They wanted you to know,” she whispered.
“Who?”
“The men.”
“What did they say?”
Emma swallowed.
“They said…”
Her voice disappeared.
I leaned closer.
“They said you should stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Whatever you’re doing.”
I almost laughed.
I had spent twenty years hearing threats.
People had threatened to kill me.
Threatened my family.
Burned warehouses.
Shot at my cars.
Sent heads in boxes.
But this was different.
They had found a woman who had nothing to do with my world.
A woman who barely knew how much money I had.
A woman who had never asked me for anything.
And they had nearly killed her because she worked under my roof.
That meant this was no longer business.
It was personal.
I reached toward Emma’s torn uniform.
The crest was still there.
“Why did they care about this?”
Emma closed her eyes.
“One man saw it.”
“What did he say?”
She breathed carefully through the pain.
“He said… ‘Kolov will enjoy this.’”
Lucia looked at me.
I said nothing.
The Kolov name had been quiet for seven months.
Quiet did not mean gone.
Viktor Kolov had disappeared after losing three major shipments to me. His organization had retreated from Manhattan and pushed operations toward Brooklyn and Newark.
At least, that was what my people believed.
I had never trusted silence.
Marco returned less than ten minutes later.
He placed a plastic evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a phone.
Emma’s phone.
Another bag contained her wallet.
“Found three blocks from where we picked her up,” he said.
“And the attackers?”
“Gone.”
“Cameras?”
“Two cameras caught them. Both went offline seventeen minutes before the attack.”
I stared at him.
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
“What else?”
Marco pulled out a photograph.
A surveillance still.
Two men.
One tall.
One broad.
The taller man had his right wrist exposed.
A snake tattoo curled around it.
Emma had been right.
I took the photograph.
“Who are they?”
“We’re working on it.”
I looked at Marco.
“You have ten minutes.”
He gave me a faint smile.
“You always were generous.”
He walked out.
Lucia glanced at me.
“You’re going to kill them.”
“No.”
She looked surprised.
“I’m going to find out who sent them.”
“And then?”
I folded the photograph.
“Then they get the answer they were asking for.”
That night, I stayed beside Emma’s hospital bed.
She slept under heavy medication.
Near four in the morning, she suddenly grabbed my wrist.
I woke immediately.
Her eyes were still closed.
“Don’t…”
“Emma.”
“They’ll kill him.”
“Who?”
“My brother.”
Her grip tightened.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“Daniel?”
She nodded weakly.
“The man with the snake tattoo…”
She opened her eyes.
“He knew my brother’s name.”
The room went silent.
I stood.
“Why would a man attacking a housekeeper know your brother’s name?”
Emma stared at me.
“I don’t know.”
I called Marco.
He answered immediately.
“Boss?”
“Forget the attackers.”
A pause.
“What?”
“Find Daniel Carter.”
“I thought he was staying at the rehabilitation center.”
“So did I.”
I looked at Emma.
She was staring at me with sudden terror.
“Marco,” I said quietly, “find out where Daniel is right now.”
Because if Kolov knew Emma’s brother’s name…
May you like
Then someone had been watching her long before tonight.
And someone had been watching my house too.
