Chapter 2 - The Dangerous Secrets Behind the Moretti Empire
Then someone left an envelope on Evelyn’s desk.
No one had seen who delivered it.
Inside was a photograph of her leaving Lucien’s building.
On the back were six words.
Ask him what happened to Brennan.
She called Lucien.
He arrived nineteen minutes later.
He examined the photograph without touching it.
“Ray Brennan is a former city official,” he said.
“And?”
“He accepted money from companies tied to my father.”
“Your companies?”
“Not anymore.”
“Lucien.”
His jaw tightened.
“You asked for enough truth.”
“Yes.”
“So give me enough.”
For the first time since she had met him, he looked tired.
“Brennan helped my father steer contracts. I found the payments three years ago. Instead of exposing him immediately, I’ve been using his cooperation to identify other accounts.”
“You protected him.”
“For a time.”
“Why?”
“Because if I cut one wire without knowing what it was connected to, the entire structure could disappear before I could document it.”
Evelyn stared at the photograph.
“Someone knows I’m with you.”
“Yes.”
“And they want me frightened.”
“Yes.”
“Are they succeeding?”
Lucien looked directly at her.
“Are they?”
Evelyn considered lying.
Instead she said, “A little.”
He nodded.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Fear is information. Panic is the problem.”
“I don’t panic.”
“I noticed.”
There was something almost tender in his voice.
It angered her because she wanted it.
Because she wanted him.
And wanting had become dangerous again.
“Tell me something else,” she said.
“What?”
“Something true.”
Lucien’s eyes did not leave hers.
“I have not wanted anything for myself in a very long time.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“I want you.”
No charm.
No practiced seduction.
Just truth.
Evelyn’s heart beat painfully.
“That may be the least reassuring romantic statement I’ve ever heard.”
“I can try flowers.”
“Don’t.”
“Noted.”
She stepped closer.
This time when she kissed him, she asked first.
And this time, Lucien kissed her back.
Three months after Evelyn kissed Lucien Moretti to escape one man, another dangerous man came looking for her.
Victor D’Angelo was sixty-two, silver-haired, immaculately dressed, and polite in a way that made Evelyn immediately suspicious.
He requested ten minutes.
She gave him eight.
They met in a crowded coffee shop three blocks from her office.
Victor placed a photograph on the table.
Evelyn and Lucien outside the restaurant after their first dinner.
“You have been watched from the beginning,” Victor said.
“I already knew that.”
“Not by me.”
That got her attention.
Victor slid a folded document across the table.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
One name had been circled.
Connor Hale.
Lucien’s longtime financial director.
“I don’t know him.”
“He has worked beside Moretti for eleven years.”
“What do you want?”
“To survive what Lucien is preparing to do.”
“And what is that?”
“Burn down the house his father built.”
Evelyn did not touch the document.
Victor leaned forward.
“The problem is not that Lucien wants out. The problem is that he believes he can choose the manner of departure.”
“And you disagree.”
“The dead rarely choose the music at their funeral.”
Evelyn’s expression remained still.
Victor smiled faintly.
“You understand why he likes you.”
“Mr. D’Angelo.”
“Connor has been copying internal ledgers.”
“Why tell me?”
“Because Lucien will assume I took them.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
The answer reminded her of Lucien.
She hated that.
Victor stood.
“Ask your boyfriend who has access to the secondary accounts.”
“He isn’t my boyfriend.”
Victor glanced at her.
“No?”
Evelyn said nothing.
His smile returned.
“There are several dangerous lies in this city, Ms. Vale. That might be the smallest.”
He left.
Evelyn called Lucien from the sidewalk.
“I’m coming over.”
“What happened?”
“Victor D’Angelo.”
Silence.
Then Lucien’s voice changed.
“Where are you?”
“Outside my office.”
“Marcus is across the street. Stay where you are.”
“I’m coming to you.”
“Evelyn—”
“Do not manage me.”
Another silence.
Then, “Marcus will drive.”
“Fine.”
When she entered Lucien’s Tribeca apartment, he was standing beside the windows.
She placed Victor’s document on the table.
Lucien read the name.
For the first time, Evelyn saw fear.
Not for himself.
For everything.
Connor Hale disappeared before sunrise.
His apartment had been cleared.
His financial access showed months of copied files.
Worse, several copied ledgers contained the names of people Lucien had been quietly preparing to expose to a fictional state Special Prosecutions Office.
If the records reached the wrong people first, Lucien’s plan would collapse.
Witnesses could disappear.
Accounts could be emptied.
People could die.
“Go somewhere safe,” Lucien told Evelyn.
“No.”
“Evelyn.”
“No.”
“I need you somewhere I don’t have to think about.”
She stood.
“So I’m a problem now?”
His head snapped toward her.
“That is not what I said.”
“It’s what you meant.”
“No.”
For once, his voice rose.
“I mean I cannot dismantle twenty years of my father’s alliances while wondering whether someone followed you home.”
Evelyn went silent.
Lucien ran a hand over his face.
“I need you safe because when I think about you being hurt, I stop thinking clearly.”
There it was.
Not ownership.
Fear.
Human, ugly fear.
“I’ll leave the city for forty-eight hours,” she said.
“Seventy-two.”
“Forty-eight.”
“Sixty.”
“Fine.”
“And you call me every twelve hours.”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t make any irreversible decisions without telling me.”
Lucien hesitated.
She saw it.
“Lucien.”
“Some decisions may require speed.”
“Then call faster.”
His jaw tightened.
“You told me you would give me enough truth. I am not a package you move out of the building while the adults handle the fire.”
His face changed.
“I know.”
“Promise.”
A long moment passed.
“I promise.”
Evelyn spent the next two days at a quiet house in Connecticut with Megan and two security men.
At 6:14 the second morning, her phone rang.
Not Lucien.
A woman named Helen Mercer from the Special Prosecutions Office.
“Mr. Moretti asked that you be informed before the decision became irreversible.”
Evelyn sat upright.
“What decision?”
“He intends to surrender his complete records and formally cooperate with our investigation.”
Her throat tightened.
“All of them?”
“All of them.”
“Even if they implicate him?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
He had remembered.
He had promised.
And he had told her before he jumped.
“Tell him I understand.”
“There is something else.”
Evelyn opened her eyes.
“Connor Hale approached our office late last night.”
“Connor is alive?”
“Yes.”
“He wants immunity?”
“Partial protection in exchange for evidence.”
Evelyn stood.
“And?”
“Hale provided the identity of another confidential source inside the Moretti organization.”
The silence on the line stretched.
“Who?”
Helen hesitated.
“Daniel Moretti.”
Lucien’s brother.
The doctor.
May you like
The one person Lucien trusted without qualification.
Evelyn felt the room tilt.
