Chapter 6 - The Choice Damian Costa Had Never Made
Paul found the transmitter at 7:12 the next morning.
By 7:15, the entire estate was sealed.
Nobody left.
Not employees.
Not contractors.
Not nurses.
Damian stood in the bunker while security reviewed access logs.
The device had been installed within forty-eight hours.
That meant the threat wasn't outside the gates.
It was already inside.
Tessa refused to leave Beatrice.
Damian argued.
She ignored him.
Eventually he stationed two guards outside Room 104 and moved a third inside the adjoining sitting room.
"You're impossible," he told her.
"You hired me."
"I've reconsidered the wisdom of that decision."
"No, you haven't."
He looked at her.
"No."
She smiled.
Then his expression softened.
"Stay away from the windows."
"I will."
"Don't leave this floor."
"Okay."
"If anybody except Paul or me tells you to move, you don't."
"I understand."
"Tessa."
"What?"
"Promise."
The intensity in his voice erased her teasing.
"I promise."
Damian left.
The investigation took four hours.
The transmitter had been planted by an agency nurse named Renee Walsh.
She broke under questioning.
Sloane had paid her thirty thousand dollars.
She insisted she hadn't known anyone would be hurt.
Damian didn't believe ignorance made betrayal harmless.
Tessa walked into the room before his anger decided Renee's fate.
The nurse sat crying.
Damian turned.
"I told you to stay upstairs."
"I heard you found her."
"Tessa."
She looked at Renee.
"Why?"
"My son owes money."
Renee's voice shook.
"They said they'd forgive it."
Tessa's anger collided with recognition.
Debt.
Fear.
Desperation.
The same weapons that could have been used against her.
"You could have gotten Beatrice killed."
"I know."
"Did you tell them anything about her condition?"
Renee nodded.
"Schedules. Medication. When security changed."
Damian's face hardened.
Tessa turned to him.
"Call the police."
Everyone stared.
Damian almost laughed.
"The police?"
"Yes."
"Tessa, you understand what house you're standing in?"
"Perfectly."
"We don't call the police."
"You do today."
Renee stared at her.
"Why would you help me?"
"I'm not helping you. You committed a crime. You should face consequences."
Tessa looked at Damian.
"But she's going to face legal consequences. Not whatever you were planning."
Damian's gaze remained on her for several seconds.
Then he looked at Paul.
"Call Detective Harris."
Paul blinked.
"The actual police?"
Damian's stare answered.
"Right."
Hours later, Renee was taken away.
Word traveled quickly.
Damian Costa had turned an internal traitor over to law enforcement.
Nobody understood it.
Paul did.
"Twelve-dollar maid is changing the organization," he said that evening.
Damian gave him a warning look.
Paul shrugged.
"I'm not complaining."
"Good."
"Guys are talking."
"About?"
"Rules."
Damian looked up.
"What rules?"
"You've always had rules. No trafficking. No kids. No drugs around schools. But people figured those were business decisions."
"They were."
"Were they?"
Damian didn't answer.
Paul leaned against the desk.
"Maybe your mother was right."
"You're becoming dangerously comfortable."
Paul smiled.
"That's Tessa too."
Damian threw a pen at him.
Paul caught it.
That evening, Tessa found Damian on the terrace.
He held a glass of whiskey.
She leaned against the doorway.
"Can I ask something?"
"You usually do whether I agree or not."
"Fair."
She joined him.
"Why did you build the bunker?"
"My father."
"I mean after that."
He stared at the city.
"Because cameras don't lie."
"People do."
"Exactly."
"People also love."
His jaw tightened.
"Sometimes."
"You're still waiting for me to disappoint you, aren't you?"
Damian looked at her.
"No."
The answer surprised both of them.
"When did that change?"
"I don't know."
She smiled faintly.
"I do."
"When?"
"When your mother threw the clock."
Damian frowned.
"That was when I stopped expecting you to steal."
"Romantic."
His mouth twitched.
"Was that a joke?"
"Possibly."
She looked toward the city.
"What happens with Sloane?"
"I handle it."
"That's vague."
"Intentionally."
"No killing."
Damian laughed once.
"You don't get to negotiate everything."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
"Damian."
He turned toward her.
"Sloane has spent twenty years building an organization around fear. He steals from desperate families. He buys people. He threatens children."
"So expose him."
"This isn't a movie."
"No. In movies, men like you think shooting everybody solves the third act."
He stared at her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're smiling."
"I'm not."
"You absolutely are."
He put down the whiskey.
"Tessa."
Her smile faded when he stepped closer.
There were only inches between them.
"Do you understand what you're doing?"
"What am I doing?"
"Making me imagine alternatives."
"To killing Sloane?"
"To everything."
She stopped breathing.
Damian's voice dropped.
"I built my entire life around the assumption that everyone leaves, betrays you, dies, or becomes leverage."
"That's a terrible way to live."
"I wasn't trying to live."
The honesty hurt.
"I was trying to survive."
Tessa looked at him.
"Maybe you've survived long enough."
He touched her cheek.
Slowly.
Giving her every opportunity to move.
She didn't.
Their first kiss was nothing like either expected.
No urgency.
No conquest.
Just Damian's hand trembling almost imperceptibly against her face and Tessa realizing the most powerful man she'd ever met was terrified of wanting something he couldn't control.
She pulled back first.
"Your hand is shaking."
"No, it isn't."
"It is."
"Don't mention it again."
She smiled.
Then the terrace doors exploded inward.
Damian threw Tessa down before she understood what happened.
Security alarms screamed.
Paul's voice erupted through the radio.
"East perimeter breach!"
Damian covered Tessa with his body.
"Stay down."
A second crash came from upstairs.
Room 104.
Tessa went white.
"Beatrice."
Damian grabbed her.
"No."
"Beatrice!"
She fought him.
"Let me go!"
"Paul has her!"
But Paul's voice came through the radio again.
"Boss, they're in the east wing."
Damian's face changed.
The man Tessa had kissed disappeared.
The mafia boss returned.
He drew his weapon.
"Tessa, bunker. Now."
"I'm not leaving her."
He grabbed her shoulders.
"Listen to me. If something happens to you because you ignored me, I will burn this entire city trying to undo something I can't undo."
She stared at him.
"Go."
This time she obeyed.
Damian ran upstairs.
Tessa reached the bunker with two guards.
Monitor Four flickered.
Room 104 was empty.
The bedcovers were thrown aside.
Tessa pressed both hands against the screen.
"No."
Then she saw movement.
Beatrice appeared on Monitor Eleven.
She was walking unsteadily through a service hallway.
Alone.
Confused.
"She's out of the room!"
The guards turned.
"Where?"
"Service corridor C."
Tessa ran.
"Tessa!"
She didn't stop.
She found Beatrice near the kitchen stairs.
"Beatrice!"
The older woman turned.
Terrified.
"Who are you?"
"It's Tessa."
Beatrice backed away.
At the far end of the corridor, a masked man appeared.
Tessa saw the weapon in his hand.
She stepped between him and Beatrice.
"No."
The man raised it.
Then a gunshot cracked through the hallway.
The masked man collapsed.
Damian stood behind him.
His weapon remained raised.
His eyes found Tessa.
Then Beatrice.
Then Tessa again.
Pure fury crossed his face.
"I told you to go to the bunker."
Tessa's knees nearly gave out.
Beatrice suddenly reached around her.
"Damian?"
His expression shattered.
"Ma."
Beatrice looked at the fallen intruder.
Then at her son.
And for one terrible, lucid moment, she understood exactly what his life had become.
"My boy," she whispered.
May you like
Tears filled her eyes.
"This has to end."
