Chapter 5
Nico did not sleep.
Neither did I.
By dawn, Wes had two guards outside his apartment and one outside his hospital room, even though his surgery was still a week away.
My little brother called me at six in the morning.
“Addie, why is there a giant man outside the door?”
I closed my eyes.
“He’s security.”
“Did you make a mafia friend?”
I almost laughed.
Almost.
“No.”
A pause.
“Did a mafia friend make you?”
“Wes.”
“What? I’m seven, not stupid.”
My throat tightened.
“Just stay with Mrs. Patel until I get there.”
“Are you in trouble?”
I looked across the library at Nico.
He sat by the window, face pale with exhaustion, reading his father’s files like each page cut him.
“No,” I said. “I’m trying to get out of it.”
Wes lowered his voice.
“Worry after dinner.”
I smiled through tears.
“I remember.”
After I hung up, Nico looked at me.
“He sounds brave.”
“He sounds brave because he’s scared.”
Nico nodded.
“As most brave people are.”
The words sat between us.
Too honest.
Too intimate.
I looked away first.
Detective Wells returned with more evidence by noon.
Dominic Ashcroft had entered Chicago under a private flight record two days before Nico’s crash.
Marco Bell, the mechanic, had withdrawn ten thousand dollars the next morning.
Then vanished.
His daughter, Sophia Bell, had been transferred from a public school to an expensive private boarding academy under an anonymous scholarship.
Camille’s family paid the scholarship through a shell fund.
“Find Marco,” Nico said.
Luca answered, “Already working.”
But Marco found us first.
At three that afternoon, Edna received a text from an unknown number.
Stop digging. I did what I had to do. Tell Nico I’m sorry.
Attached was a photo of a pier.
Luca recognized it.
“South Harbor.”
Nico moved toward the door.
I blocked his chair without thinking.
“No.”
His eyes lifted.
“Move.”
“You are exhausted, under-medicated properly for the first time in weeks, and still recovering from a fall.”
“I said move.”
“And I said no.”
Luca coughed once.
Nico glared at him.
Luca suddenly found the ceiling interesting.
I leaned closer.
“You hired me to keep you alive, not impressed.”
Nico stared at me.
Then, unbelievably, he smiled a little.
“You are irritating.”
“So I’ve heard.”
He looked past me.
“Fine. We go with medical support.”
“That means me.”
“I assumed.”
We found Marco Bell at the end of the pier with his hands in his pockets and despair on his face.
He was thinner than his employee photo.
His beard had grown wild.
When he saw Nico, he started crying.
“Boss.”
Nico stopped his chair ten feet away.
“Why?”
Marco dropped to his knees.
“I didn’t know it would fail while you were driving. I swear. Dominic said it would just scare you. Force you to delay a meeting.”
Luca stepped forward.
“You cut the brake line.”
Marco sobbed.
“My daughter. They had Sophia. They sent me pictures from outside her school.”
Nico’s face tightened.
I saw the war inside him.
Rage.
Betrayal.
And recognition.
Because Camille had used Wes the same way.
Marco pulled a flash drive from his coat.
“I kept proof. Calls. Payments. Dominic’s voice.”
“Why now?” Nico asked.
Marco looked at me.
“Because I saw the news clip from last night. The nurse stopped Camille.”
My chest tightened.
“They’ll come for Sophia,” Marco whispered.
Nico looked at Luca.
“Get her.”
Luca moved instantly.
But before he reached the car, a gunshot cracked.
Marco collapsed sideways.
I screamed.
Nico’s chair jerked forward.
Luca shouted, “Down!”
Another shot hit the pier railing.
I dropped behind Nico’s wheelchair and pressed the brake with one hand, my other hand reaching for Marco.
Blood spread under him.
Not much.
Shoulder.
He was alive.
Nico grabbed my wrist.
“Stay down.”
I looked at him.
“He’s bleeding.”
“So are we if you move.”
His voice was iron.
For the first time, I understood why men feared him before the accident.
Not because he was cruel.
Because he could become completely still inside danger.
Luca and his men moved like shadows.
A black sedan tore from the lot.
One guard fired at the tires.
The sedan fishtailed, then vanished into traffic.
I crawled to Marco.
“Pressure,” I said.
My hands knew what to do even while my heart panicked.
Marco gasped.
“Dominic.”
“I know.”
“No,” he choked. “Dominic isn’t in charge.”
Nico rolled closer.
“What?”
Marco gripped my sleeve with bloody fingers.
“Camille works for someone else.”
His eyes fluttered.
May you like
“Someone inside your house.”
Then he passed out.
