Chapter 2 - The Mafia Boss Waiting at the Gates
Luca Romano was waiting there.
No security team.
No car.
Just Luca, standing beneath the yellow gate lights with his tie gone and the sleeves of his white shirt rolled to his elbows.
Grace tightened her grip on the suitcase.
“If you're worried I stole the silverware too, someone can check my bag.”
Luca didn't react.
“If you walk through those gates tonight,” he said, “I need you to understand that I never wanted you to leave.”
She almost laughed.
“You had an interesting way of showing it.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
He took one step closer.
Grace stepped back.
Luca immediately stopped.
That surprised her.
He was a man accustomed to people moving when he moved.
Tonight he gave her space.
“Victoria had no authority to fire you,” he said.
“Then why didn't you stop her?”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
Grace continued.
“You stood there. She humiliated me in front of sixty people, and you stood there.”
“I was told someone inside my house intended to hurt you.”
Grace stared at him.
“What?”
Luca reached into his pocket and removed an envelope.
There was no name on it.
Only one sentence written across the front.
THE MAID LEAVES TONIGHT.
Grace felt cold despite the coat she wore.
“What is that?”
“It was delivered to my office during dinner.”
“By who?”
“We’re still identifying him.”
Luca removed three photographs.
The first showed Grace’s mother’s apartment building in Queens.
The second showed a dark sedan parked across the street.
The third showed Grace’s mother, Helen, walking toward the building carrying groceries while a man watched from beside a newspaper stand.
Grace stopped breathing.
“Where did you get those?”
“My team photographed the car after we realized it had been following you.”
She looked at him.
“You knew someone was following me?”
“Not until tonight.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
The answer caught her off guard.
Luca looked exhausted.
“I expect you to question everything I say after what happened in that dining room.”
“Good.”
“You should.”
The iron gates stood open behind him.
He stepped aside.
“I won’t stop you from leaving. Aaron will drive you anywhere you choose. But I will not let you walk into the street alone while someone is watching your mother.”
Grace looked from the gates to the photographs.
“Why would anyone care about me?”
“I don’t know.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
“You’re Luca Romano. You’re supposed to know everything.”
A faint, humorless smile touched his face.
“That rumor has caused me considerable inconvenience.”
Despite herself, Grace almost smiled.
Then headlights appeared behind them.
A black SUV stopped.
Aaron Cole climbed out.
“Mrs. Bennett is safe,” he told Grace. “Two people are outside the building. She hasn’t been approached.”
Grace’s knees nearly weakened.
“You sent people to my mother?”
Luca answered.
“To the building, not inside her home. She wasn’t contacted until Aaron called to confirm she was safe.”
Aaron held out a phone.
“She’s asking for you.”
Grace grabbed it.
“Mom?”
“Grace? Honey, what’s going on?”
Her mother’s voice nearly broke her.
“Nothing I can explain tonight. Lock your door. Please.”
“Are you safe?”
Grace looked at Luca.
He was watching her, but there was something strangely restrained in his expression.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I think so.”
After the call, she handed the phone back.
Luca took off his jacket.
“You’re freezing.”
“I don’t need your jacket.”
“Your teeth are chattering.”
“My teeth can handle themselves.”
For the first time, Luca actually smiled.
It transformed him.
Not completely.
But enough to remind her there was a human being beneath the reputation.
He offered the jacket again.
Grace took it.
It smelled faintly of cedar and cold night air.
“Why do you care?” she asked.
The smile disappeared.
Luca looked toward the mansion.
“Six months ago, a delivery driver collapsed outside the kitchen entrance.”
Grace remembered.
“He was diabetic.”
“You stayed with him until paramedics came.”
“Anyone would have.”
“Eight people walked past him.”
Grace said nothing.
“Last month,” Luca continued, “Mrs. Callahan broke a sculpture in the east hall.”
“She didn’t break it. The base was unstable.”
“You offered to pay for it.”
“She thought she’d lose her job.”
“You earn less in a year than that sculpture cost.”
“So?”
“So you keep behaving as though kindness is ordinary.”
“It should be.”
Luca stared at her.
“You think nobody in that house notices you.”
Grace’s throat tightened.
“I notice you.”
For one dangerous second, the world became very quiet.
Then Aaron’s phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
His expression changed.
“Luca.”
“What?”
“We recovered the security footage from the service corridor.”
“And?”
Aaron looked at Grace.
“The bracelet was planted. Victoria put it beside the staff entrance herself.”
Grace closed her eyes.
She should have felt vindicated.
Instead, she felt tired.
Luca’s voice went cold.
“She’ll answer for it.”
Grace opened her eyes.
“Then why is she still inside?”
“Because the man who delivered that envelope arrived tonight using credentials from Hale Capital.”
Grace stared at him.
Victoria’s father’s company.
The company Luca had been negotiating an enormous infrastructure deal with for months.
“You think they’re connected?”
“I think someone wants me to think they are.”
“And you let me walk upstairs believing everyone thought I was a thief.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
The single word contained no excuse.
“I made the wrong decision.”
Grace blinked.
Men like Luca Romano did not apologize.
“I thought keeping the investigation quiet would protect you,” he continued. “Instead, I left you alone when you needed someone to speak.”
Grace looked away.
“That doesn’t disappear because you admit it.”
“I know.”
Aaron checked another message.
Then he looked at Grace’s suitcase.
“We have another problem.”
Grace’s stomach dropped.
“What now?”
“The camera outside your room shows Mrs. Callahan entering after you started packing.”
Grace frowned.
“So?”
“She was carrying something wrapped in a towel.”
Grace suddenly remembered the notebook.
She dropped to one knee and opened the suitcase.
The front pocket was unzipped.
Empty.
“My father’s book.”
Luca crouched beside her.
“What’s in it?”
“Recipes.”
Aaron and Luca exchanged a glance.
Grace noticed.
“What?”
Aaron looked at her carefully.
“Someone threatened your mother, planted evidence against you and removed an old notebook from your luggage.”
Luca stood.
“I don’t think they’re interested in recipes.”
Grace stared back toward the glowing mansion.
For the first time that night, leaving no longer felt like escape.
It felt like walking away from the only place containing answers.
May you like
She closed the suitcase.
“Take me back inside.”
