Chapter 2 - The Room With Two Keys
Dominic did not take her to his apartment.
He gave her three choices.
A hospital.
A police station.
A hotel where his security team could control access while she decided what to do.
Chloe chose the hospital first.
The decision seemed to surprise him.
Then he told Frank the address and settled back without argument.
At the emergency department, a nurse examined her wrist and spoke to her alone.
Chloe appreciated that more than she could explain.
Nobody asked whether Dominic approved.
Nobody mistook the expensive coat for proof that she belonged to him.
Afterward, she made a statement to an officer.
Dominic waited outside the room.
When she emerged, he stood immediately.
“What did they say?”
“Nothing broken.”
“And the rest?”
“I told them what happened.”
“Good.”
She studied him.
“You don’t mind?”
His expression changed.
“Chloe, I mind that someone put his hands on you. I don’t mind that you told the police.”
At the hotel, the receptionist handed Chloe two key cards.
Dominic did not take either.
His security manager, a woman named Valentina Moretti, met them upstairs.
“Call me Val,” she said. “I’ll be across the hall. Nobody comes into your room without your permission.”
Chloe looked at Dominic.
“Including you?”
“Including me.”
The door closed behind him.
Only then did she cry.
Not elegantly.
Not quietly.
She sat on the bathroom floor with his coat gathered in her lap and shook until the fear had somewhere to go.
At seven, she called her mother.
Marianne answered from her kitchen in Peoria.
“Sweetheart? What happened?”
Chloe almost said nothing.
The old instinct rose automatically.
Keep it small.
Keep it manageable.
Do not make your trouble somebody else’s morning.
Instead, she told the truth.
Her mother listened without interrupting.
When Chloe finished, Marianne said, “I’m coming.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
By nine, Chloe had showered and put on clean clothes Val purchased with her approval.
Dominic sent a message asking whether he could speak with her.
She said yes.
He arrived carrying coffee and a folder.
The coffee was hers.
The folder frightened her.
“What do you know about David’s work?”
Chloe wrapped both hands around the cup.
“He does deliveries. Security jobs sometimes.”
“For whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic sat across from her.
“Your brother has been moving packages for a man named Luca Ferraro.”
“Who is that?”
“Someone who used to work for my father.”
The room seemed to cool.
“Used to?”
“He was removed from company business three years ago.”
“Because?”
“Extortion.”
Chloe looked down.
David had promised he was finished with trouble.
After the arrest at twenty.
After their mother sold her wedding ring to help with legal expenses.
After Chloe spent a winter sending half her paycheck home.
He had promised.
Dominic opened the folder.
A photograph showed David entering a warehouse.
Beside him stood the man from the alley.
Chloe’s stomach tightened.
“When was this taken?”
“Yesterday.”
“You were following my brother?”
“My security team was following Ferraro.”
She pushed the folder away.
“Why?”
“Because money has been leaving one of our redevelopment accounts through vendors that don’t exist.”
“Then call your accountants.”
“I did.”
She looked up.
Dominic’s expression was careful now.
“You organized the invoice archive last week.”
“Yes.”
“You flagged a duplicate payment.”
“It was a normal discrepancy.”
“You emailed compliance.”
“Yes.”
“Who replied?”
Chloe remembered the message immediately.
Thank you for your diligence. No further action required.
“Elias Voss.”
Dominic’s general counsel.
The gentle, silver-haired man who kept lemon drops in his desk and called her a credit to the company.
Dominic closed the folder.
“Elias told me it was a clerical error.”
“Was it?”
“No.”
Her phone rang.
David.
She looked toward Dominic.
“Answer if you want. You can put it on speaker, or I can leave.”
She chose speaker.
“David?”
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“With Russo.”
“What happened last night?”
Her brother swore softly.
“Those idiots weren’t supposed to touch you.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Dominic became motionless.
“What were they supposed to do?”
“Talk. Scare you a little. Make you give back the files.”
“What files?”
“The ones you took.”
“I didn’t take anything.”
A long silence.
Then David said, “You don’t understand what kind of man he is.”
Chloe stared at the photograph on the table.
“Apparently, I don’t understand what kind of man you are.”
“Ask him about Dad.”
Her fingers went numb around the phone.
Their father had died in a warehouse fire when Chloe was eight.
An electrical fault.
That was what she had been told.
May you like
David’s voice dropped.
“Ask your boss whose name was on the building.”
