Chapter 3 - A Seventy-Million-Dollar TargetCole entered already talking.
“I can freeze financing on three of Marcelli’s legitimate companies by Tuesday.”
“Cole.”
“I know two banks carrying exposure on his commercial real estate.”
“Cole.”
“And if I make one call to—”
“Stop.”
He did.
Claire shut the door.
“Before either of you declares economic war on my husband, I need information.”
Ethan removed his coat.
“What kind?”
Claire told them everything.
The ultrasound.
Luca’s behavioral change.
Her security officer being replaced.
Vanessa’s perfume.
Luca refusing to deny the affair.
The dinner.
The question.
The answer.
The sedan.
Neither brother interrupted.
When Claire finished, Ethan sat very still.
Then he said, “Your old security officer was Daniel Russo?”
“Daniel Ross.”
“He’s in a hospital.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Two weeks ago. Multiple fractures. Officially, he fell from a fire escape.”
Claire stared at him.
“He was removed from my detail three weeks ago.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“That’s what we’ve been trying to determine.”
Cole walked toward the window.
“We started seeing strange movement inside Marcelli-controlled companies about four months ago. Security contracts changing. Money routed through new vendors. A few executives suddenly loyal to Dominic instead of Luca.”
Claire frowned.
“Dominic?”
Ethan nodded.
“Luca’s uncle has been building a faction.”
“For what?”
“We didn’t know.”
Ethan glanced at Claire’s stomach.
“Until you got pregnant.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Claire whispered, “My baby.”
“There’s an old Marcelli family trust,” Ethan said. “Legitimate holdings. Commercial property. Warehouses. Two technology investments. A large block of private equity. The controlling interest transfers through Luca’s direct line.”
Claire understood before he finished.
“If Luca dies without a child…”
“Dominic’s side inherits.”
“And if my daughter is born?”
“Dominic gets almost nothing.”
Cole turned from the window.
“About seventy million dollars of nothing.”
Claire put a hand on her stomach.
Vanessa.
The changed security.
Daniel Ross lying broken in a hospital.
Luca’s cold face at dinner.
Yes.
Something did not fit.
“If Luca wanted me gone,” Claire said slowly, “why monitor me?”
Ethan looked at her.
“We don’t know whether that car belongs to him.”
“Find out.”
Cole folded his arms.
“And while we’re finding out, what are you planning to do?”
Claire looked at both brothers.
“Nothing.”
Cole actually laughed.
“Absolutely not.”
“Nothing publicly.”
“That is a very different sentence.”
“Good. Then listen carefully.”
Claire moved to the desk.
“No one attacks Luca. No accounts get frozen. No lenders get called. No one gets threatened.”
Cole opened his mouth.
“No one.”
His jaw clenched.
Ethan asked, “For how long?”
“Until I understand why my husband cheated on me before my pregnancy and only threw me out after he learned our baby was a girl.”
Cole stared.
“Those are two separate betrayals.”
“I know.”
“Claire, he chose her.”
“Yes.”
“He said it.”
“I heard him.”
“Then why are you protecting him?”
Claire looked directly at her younger brother.
“I’m not protecting Luca.”
Her voice hardened.
“I’m protecting my right to know the truth before powerful men start making decisions about my life again.”
Cole went silent.
That landed where she intended.
Eight years ago she had left both brothers for exactly that reason.
Too much protection.
Too many decisions made “for her own good.”
Ethan lowered his eyes.
Then nodded.
“What do you need?”
“Everything you have.”
Claire turned back toward the curtained window.
“And protection I can’t see.”
Cole let out a long breath.
“You really did come back just to make our lives difficult.”
Claire looked at him.
“No.”
For the first time that night, something almost like warmth entered her voice.
“I came back because I finally needed my brothers.”
Cole’s anger disappeared for one second.
That second told her everything.
Then Ethan’s phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
“What?”
He showed Claire.
A photograph.
Taken twenty minutes earlier.
From across the street.
Claire entering the hotel.
Underneath it was a message from one of Ethan’s security analysts.
Unknown surveillance team. Not ours. Not Marcelli’s known personnel.
Cole’s voice became very quiet.
“So somebody else found her.”
Claire stared at the image of herself.
One hand on her pregnant belly.
Walking unknowingly into danger.
May you like
Then she looked at her brothers.
“Now,” she said, “we find out who.”
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