Chapter 1
“STOP! DON’T GET IN THAT CAR!” MY 3-YEAR-OLD SCREAMED AT THE MAFIA BOSS. THEN SHE POINTED UNDER HIS SUV.
My three-year-old daughter suddenly ran in front of the most feared man in the house and screamed, “Stop! Don’t get in that car!” Everyone thought she was having a tantrum, until she pointed beneath his SUV and told him what she had seen a stranger attach to it in the middle of the night.
I swear I forgot how to breathe.
“Mia!”
She ignored me.
Vincent Marchetti stood at the front door in his black overcoat, staring down at my little girl.
I’d worked as a maid on his Lake Forest estate for eight months. I knew enough about Vincent to understand one thing.
People did not stop him.
People did not question him.
And they certainly didn’t block his path.
But Mia planted both tiny feet between him and the black SUV waiting outside.
“Don’t go,” she whispered.
His security chief, Dominic, immediately looked toward the driveway.
Vincent crouched in front of her.
“Why not?”
Mia pointed outside.
“The man.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“What man?” Vincent asked.
“The man under the car.”
Nobody moved.
One of Vincent’s men, Frank, gave an awkward laugh.
“She’s three, boss. Kids dream.”
Vincent didn’t even look at him.
“When did you see him, Mia?”
“At dark.”
She struggled for the words, then pointed toward the carriage house where Mia and I lived.
Suddenly, I remembered something.
Three nights earlier, during a violent rainstorm, I’d woken up and found Mia standing at her bedroom window.
I thought she was watching the rain.
“What was the man doing?” Vincent asked.
Mia dropped to her knees.
She crawled forward a few inches, showing us.
Then she reached beneath an imaginary car.
“He had a little light.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Vincent’s voice became almost unnaturally calm.
“And then?”
Mia pinched her fingers together.
“He put a black thing under it.”
My blood went cold.
Frank stopped smiling.
I grabbed Mia and pulled her against me.
“Vincent…”
He stood so quickly I flinched.
For one terrible second, nobody spoke.
The SUV was still idling outside.
Waiting for him.
The same SUV he was supposed to take downtown in less than a minute.
Then Vincent turned toward his security chief.
“Dominic.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Get everyone away from that vehicle.”
Dominic reached for his radio.
But Vincent kept staring at the SUV.
May you like
Then he asked one question that made Frank’s face suddenly lose all its color.
“Who had access to my garage three nights ago?”
