Chapter 5 - The Kiss
Evan’s call transformed the Romano estate into a war room.
Damian ordered every gate sealed.
Luca doubled guards around Noah.
Hazel sat at the dining table while a technician carefully removed the silver pendant from her necklace.
Inside the tiny piece of jewelry was a micro-storage device.
“Clever,” Luca muttered.
Hazel did not answer.
She was thinking about the gunshot.
Was Evan dead?
Did she care?
She hated herself for not knowing.
Damian stood behind her.
“You should sleep.”
“I’m never sleeping again.”
“You said that yesterday.”
“Yesterday my necklace wasn’t evidence against half of Chicago.”
The technician inserted the key.
Files began decrypting.
Transaction records appeared.
Bribes.
Extortion.
Murders disguised as accidents.
Sullivan had documented everything.
Including payments made to someone inside Damian’s organization.
Damian leaned forward.
“Stop.”
A name appeared.
Anthony Romano.
Damian’s uncle.
Hazel looked at him.
“That’s family?”
“Yes.”
Anthony had helped raise Damian after his father died.
He had been sitting at Damian’s table for twenty years.
And he had been selling information to Sullivan.
Damian’s expression became stone.
“Luca, find him.”
“He left the estate forty minutes ago.”
Damian swore.
The betrayal reopened something Hazel could see but could not touch.
Elena.
Now Anthony.
Everyone Damian trusted eventually proved him right for refusing to trust anyone.
Hazel followed him into the hallway.
“Damian.”
He stopped.
It was the first time she had used his first name.
“You don’t need to say anything.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Yes, you were.”
She stepped closer.
“This doesn’t prove you were right.”
His laugh held no humor.
“My uncle sold my security routes.”
“That proves Anthony betrayed you.”
“And Elena.”
“Was Elena everyone?”
“No.”
“Is Anthony everyone?”
“No.”
“Then stop making other people pay for what they did.”
His eyes flashed.
“You think you understand me?”
“No.”
Hazel’s voice softened.
“But I think you’ve spent four years trying to make sure nobody can hurt you again.”
“And what would you suggest?”
“Let somebody.”
Damian stared at her.
“That may be the worst advice I’ve ever received.”
“Probably.”
“Hazel.”
“You asked.”
He moved closer.
She did not retreat.
“Do you know what happens to people close to me?”
“Yes.”
“They become targets.”
“I was already a target.”
“Then they become leverage.”
“I’ve been leverage for six months.”
“You could die.”
“So could you.”
“That’s different.”
“Only to you.”
Something broke through his restraint.
Damian kissed her.
It was not smooth or practiced.
It was almost hesitant.
Four years of walls met one exhausted maid who had somehow walked through all of them without trying.
Hazel froze for half a heartbeat.
Then kissed him back.
His hand cupped her face.
Her fingers curled against his shirt.
Damian pulled away first.
Their foreheads remained together.
“That was a mistake.”
Hazel’s heart sank.
Then he added, “Because now I want to do it again.”
She laughed softly.
“So do it again.”
He did.
The second kiss was slower.
Then an alarm screamed.
Damian instantly turned.
Luca’s voice came through his radio.
“Breach! East service corridor!”
Damian pulled Hazel behind him.
Gunfire erupted downstairs.
Sullivan had not waited until Friday.
He had come early.
The estate plunged into darkness.
Emergency lights glowed red.
Damian guided Hazel toward a concealed door.
“Safe room.”
“Noah?”
“Already being moved.”
“I’m not leaving without him.”
“He’ll meet you there.”
They reached the underground safe room five minutes later.
Noah was inside.
Hazel grabbed him.
Damian prepared to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“To end this.”
Hazel caught his hand.
“Don’t.”
Damian looked down.
She was holding him.
He squeezed her fingers.
“I’ll come back.”
The door closed behind him.
For twenty minutes, Hazel heard nothing except distant gunfire.
Then silence.
The safe-room phone rang.
Hazel answered.
“Damian?”
A man laughed.
Frankie Sullivan.
“No, sweetheart.”
Hazel went cold.
“How did you get this number?”
“Ask Damian’s uncle.”
Hazel looked at Noah.
Frankie continued.
“You have something belonging to me.”
“Not anymore.”
“I know.”
His voice became cheerful.
“That’s why I took something belonging to Damian.”
Hazel stopped breathing.
“What?”
A photograph arrived on the secure monitor.
Luca was on his knees inside a warehouse.
Blood covered his face.
Beside him stood Anthony Romano.
Frankie’s voice returned.
“Bring me the original drive tomorrow night.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Damian does.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Luca dies first.”
A pause.
“Then your brother.”
Hazel looked at Noah.
“How?”
Frankie laughed.
“You think the boy beside you is Noah?”
Hazel slowly turned.
Noah frowned.
Then she noticed blood on his sleeve.
Not his blood.
A guard’s radio protruded from his pocket.
Noah pulled it free.
“I took this off the guy who brought me here. He wasn’t one of Damian’s regular guards.”
Hazel’s stomach dropped.
Someone had gotten close enough to Noah to escort him through Damian’s own security.
The phone crackled.
Frankie whispered, “You still don’t understand, Hazel.”
“What?”
“I don’t need to break into Romano’s fortress.”
“Why?”
“Because half the people inside already belong to me.”
The line went dead.
May you like
And for the first time, Hazel realized Damian’s greatest weakness was not that he trusted too little.
It was that he had trusted the wrong people.
