Chapter 3 - The Name He Never Told Her
Tessa read the message until the letters blurred.
“My father?”
Roman said nothing.
That silence answered too much.
“You know something.”
“Tessa—”
“You know something about my father.”
Her father, Patrick Quinn, had died when she was fourteen.
A highway accident.
Rain.
A truck crossing the center line.
That was the story she had carried for half her life.
Roman looked toward Carmine.
“Take us to the house.”
Tessa grabbed Roman’s wrist.
“No.”
He looked at her hand.
She released him.
“You are not putting me inside some mansion until you decide what I’m allowed to know.”
“I’m putting you somewhere defensible.”
“And then?”
“Then I tell you everything I know.”
Roman kept that promise.
His home stood beyond iron gates north of Baltimore, all dark stone, security cameras, and old trees.
Walter arrived twenty minutes later inside a carrier, furious but unharmed.
Tessa immediately dropped to the floor.
The orange cat marched into her arms and began complaining loudly.
Roman watched from several feet away.
“You risked men for my cat.”
“I risk men for less important things every day.”
Tessa looked up.
“Was that supposed to comfort me?”
“No.”
Walter hissed at Roman.
For the first time that night, Tessa smiled.
Roman frowned at the cat.
“He lacks judgment.”
“He has excellent judgment.”
Roman poured two glasses of water.
Then he opened a safe hidden behind a painting.
Inside were ledgers, cash, passports, and an old photograph.
He handed the photograph to her.
Patrick Quinn stood beside a much younger Roman.
Tessa forgot how to breathe.
Her father was smiling.
Roman was perhaps twenty-three.
Behind them stood shipping containers marked with Valorie Logistics insignia.
“You knew him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He saved my life.”
Roman explained.
Patrick Quinn had been a customs investigator.
Twelve years earlier, he discovered that Roman’s father, Vittorio Valorie, was being betrayed by members of his own organization.
Patrick could have arrested them all.
Instead, he discovered something worse.
A rival syndicate had begun moving trafficked women through legitimate cargo routes while bribing port officials.
Patrick secretly gave Roman evidence.
Together they shut down the route.
“And my father died afterward.”
Roman’s voice lowered.
“Six months afterward.”
“You told me it was an accident.”
“I never told you anything.”
“You let me believe it.”
“Yes.”
“Was it?”
Roman met her eyes.
“No.”
The room tilted.
Tessa sat down.
“Who killed him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I spent twelve years trying to find out.”
Tessa laughed bitterly.
“And conveniently hired his daughter?”
Roman’s expression changed.
That was another answer.
“You knew who I was when you hired me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel Harper found your application.”
Tessa stared.
Roman continued.
“Daniel worked for me. Not merely accounting. Internal investigations.”
“He was your spy.”
“He was my auditor.”
“And he died.”
Roman nodded.
“Three years ago. Two weeks after you started.”
“How?”
“Car bomb.”
Tessa closed her eyes.
Everything ordinary in her life seemed suddenly staged.
Her job.
Her salary.
Roman’s unusual patience with her.
The emergency telephone.
“Did you hire me because of my father?”
“At first.”
Her eyes opened.
“At first?”
Roman looked away.
That hurt more than she expected.
“What changed?”
“You did.”
Silence.
Roman’s voice became quieter.
“You became the first person in that office who spoke to me as though I were simply a difficult employer.”
“You are a difficult employer.”
“I know.”
“You schedule meetings during lunch.”
“I stopped.”
“Because I complained.”
“Repeatedly.”
Despite herself, she almost smiled.
Then Roman’s phone rang.
Matteo.
Roman answered on speaker.
“We questioned Hodges.”
“And?”
“He wasn’t stealing from you.”
Roman frowned.
“What was he doing?”
“Following orders.”
“Whose?”
A pause.
“Mine.”
Roman went still.
Matteo continued quickly.
“Not literally mine. Someone accessed my encrypted account and sent instructions using my credentials. Hodges believed I ordered the crates moved.”
Roman walked toward the window.
“What was inside them?”
“We opened one.”
Matteo’s voice changed.
“Documents.”
“What documents?”
“Financial records. Photographs. Copies of police files.”
Tessa felt Roman’s attention sharpen.
Matteo added, “Boss, somebody has built an archive on the Valorie organization.”
“How long?”
“Years.”
“And the crates?”
“They were being removed before we could discover them.”
Roman looked at Tessa.
Someone had known she would visit Pier 41.
Someone had known Roman’s internal procedures.
Someone had known about Patrick Quinn.
The enemy was not outside the organization.
It was inside.
Tessa’s phone vibrated again.
Roman reached for it.
She stopped him.
“My phone.”
“Tessa.”
“My life.”
She opened the message herself.
No photograph this time.
Only text.
YOUR FATHER LEFT YOU SOMETHING.
A second message followed.
ROMAN HAS HAD IT FOR TWELVE YEARS.
Tessa slowly raised her eyes.
Roman had gone pale.
That was all the confirmation she needed.
“What did my father leave me?”
Roman did not answer.
She stood.
“What did he leave me?”
Finally Roman walked back toward the safe.
He removed a small black envelope hidden beneath the bottom shelf.
Across the front, in handwriting Tessa had not seen since childhood, were two words.
For Tess.
Her knees almost failed.
Roman held it out.
“I promised your father I would give this to you when it was safe.”
Tessa took it with shaking fingers.
“And when exactly was that supposed to be?”
Roman’s answer was barely audible.
“I kept telling myself not yet.”
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a brass key.
And a note.
Tessa unfolded it.
Her father had written one sentence.
If Roman gives you this, it means the man who betrayed me has finally come back.
Tessa looked up.
A security alarm began screaming throughout the mansion.
Roman drew his weapon.
Carmine’s voice erupted through the intercom.
“Boss, we have a breach.”
Roman moved in front of Tessa.
“How many?”
Carmine answered.
“Just one.”
May you like
A beat.
“And you’re going to want to see who it is.”
