Chapter 3 - They Came for Hazel
Damian read the message twice.
His arm tightened around Hazel before he consciously decided to move.
They came for the girl.
Frankie Sullivan had sent armed men onto Romano property for a maid who owed sixty thousand dollars?
It made no sense.
Men like Sullivan did not risk a war over sixty thousand dollars.
Especially not with Damian Romano.
Hazel stirred.
“Five more minutes,” she murmured.
Damian stared down at her.
Under different circumstances, he might have found it funny.
Then her eyes opened.
She realized where she was.
Hazel became perfectly still.
Her cheek was against his chest.
One hand was curled into his black shirt.
His arm was around her waist.
“Oh my God.”
“Good morning.”
She practically launched herself away.
“I fell asleep on you.”
“Yes.”
“You should have moved me.”
“You looked tired.”
“That has never stopped anyone from waking me before.”
Something about that sentence bothered him.
Damian stood.
Pain tore through his ribs, but he ignored it.
Hazel noticed.
“You reopened the wound.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“That doesn’t mean you should collect injuries like trophies.”
He looked at her.
“You become argumentative after sleeping.”
“I’m humiliated.”
“You slept for forty-three minutes.”
“On my boss.”
“I survived.”
“You hate being touched.”
Damian’s expression changed.
“I used to.”
Hazel did not know what to say to that.
The steel shutters began rising at dawn.
Damian’s security chief, Luca Moretti, entered with three armed men.
Luca stopped when he saw Hazel.
His gaze moved from her to Damian.
Something clearly did not fit with what he knew about his employer.
“We need to talk.”
“Speak.”
“Privately.”
“She stays.”
Hazel looked at Damian.
Luca hesitated.
“The man we caught claims Sullivan ordered them to extract Miss Brooks alive.”
Hazel went white.
“Why?”
“That’s what we’d like to know.”
“I owe him money.”
Luca shook his head.
“Frankie Sullivan lost two men tonight. He knew attacking this estate could start a war. Nobody does that over sixty grand.”
Damian studied Hazel.
“Your ex-boyfriend. Full name.”
“Evan Cole.”
Luca’s face changed.
Damian noticed.
“You know it.”
“I know a Cole.”
Hazel gripped the edge of the sofa.
“What does that mean?”
Luca looked toward Damian.
“Evan Cole worked logistics for Sullivan.”
Hazel stared at him.
“No. Evan sold medical equipment.”
“Apparently not exclusively.”
Damian’s voice remained calm.
“When did he disappear?”
“Six months ago.”
“And what did he leave behind?”
“Nothing.”
“Think.”
Hazel became frustrated.
“Clothes. Bills. Half a bottle of shampoo. Normal things.”
“Computers?”
“He took his laptop.”
“Phones?”
“His old phone.”
Damian’s attention sharpened.
“Where is it?”
“In a box at my apartment.”
“Luca.”
“Already moving.”
Hazel stood.
“No.”
Both men looked at her.
“You are not sending armed strangers into my apartment.”
“They work for me.”
“That does not make the sentence better.”
Damian almost smiled.
“You’ll go with them.”
“I’m going alone.”
“No.”
“You don’t own me.”
“No. But Sullivan wants you alive badly enough to attack my home. Until I know why, you don’t travel anywhere alone.”
Hazel crossed her arms.
“I can take care of myself.”
Damian looked pointedly at the sofa.
“You fell asleep while trapped with an armed crime boss.”
“I was tired.”
“You’re proving my argument.”
Two hours later, Hazel entered her tiny apartment accompanied by Luca and four men who looked wildly out of place beside her thrift-store furniture.
Damian had insisted on coming.
Hazel suspected he trusted no one else with whatever they might discover.
She pulled a cardboard box from the closet.
Inside lay Evan’s old phone.
Dead.
Luca connected it to a portable charger.
The screen illuminated.
No password.
“That’s strange,” Hazel whispered. “He always had one.”
The phone contained almost nothing.
No messages.
No photos.
No contacts.
But Damian noticed a calculator application that required a passcode.
“Vault app,” he said.
Hazel stared.
“What password would Evan use?”
She tried his birthday.
Wrong.
Their anniversary.
Wrong.
Then she remembered something.
“The day we met.”
The vault opened.
Dozens of photographs appeared.
Ledgers.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Politicians.
Police officers.
Businesses.
And photographs of men Hazel recognized from newspapers.
Luca swore quietly.
Damian scrolled.
“This is Sullivan’s entire laundering network.”
Hazel felt sick.
“Evan stole it?”
“Looks that way.”
“Why leave it with me?”
“Insurance,” Damian said.
Then another folder appeared.
It contained photographs of Hazel.
Walking to work.
Buying groceries.
Entering Damian’s estate.
Sleeping on a bus.
She covered her mouth.
“These aren’t Evan’s.”
“No,” Damian said.
They had timestamps from the last three months.
Someone had been following her.
A final document was labeled:
IF I DISAPPEAR.
Damian opened it.
Evan had written only four lines.
Hazel knows nothing.
Sullivan will never believe that.
The evidence is useless without the second key.
I hid it where Frankie will never look.
Hazel whispered, “What second key?”
Nobody answered.
Then glass exploded.
Damian moved instantly.
He grabbed Hazel and drove her behind the kitchen counter as a bullet tore through the wall.
His body covered hers.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Luca shouted orders.
Hazel heard men running.
Damian held her against the floor.
“Stay down.”
Another shot.
Then silence.
Luca returned minutes later.
“Shooter escaped.”
Damian looked furious.
Hazel was shaking.
“This is because of me.”
“No.”
“They attacked your house. Now my apartment.”
“Hazel.”
“People could die.”
Damian caught her chin gently.
She froze.
So did he.
His thumb rested against her cheek.
Four years.
No woman.
Yet touching Hazel felt frighteningly natural.
“You’re coming back with me,” he said.
“I can’t.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“I have work.”
“You’re being hunted.”
“I need money.”
“Your debt is no longer the problem.”
“You don’t understand.”
Her eyes filled.
“Friday isn’t just about money.”
Damian’s gaze sharpened.
“What happens Friday?”
Hazel looked away.
“Frankie said if I didn’t pay…”
She struggled to speak.
“He said he’d collect something else.”
“What?”
“My younger brother.”
Damian went absolutely still.
Hazel whispered, “He’s seventeen.”
Something cold entered Damian Romano’s eyes.
“Where is he?”
“At boarding school in Wisconsin.”
Damian looked at Luca.
“Get a team there now.”
Luca immediately reached for his phone.
Hazel grabbed Damian’s sleeve.
“Please.”
He looked down at her hand.
She started to release him.
Damian covered it with his own.
“Sullivan made one mistake,” he said quietly.
“What?”
“He threatened someone under my protection.”
Hazel’s heart skipped.
“Since when am I under your protection?”
May you like
Damian looked at her for a long moment.
“Since you fell asleep in my arms.”
