Chapter 2 - The Man With the Grocery Bags
Dominic met Claire properly forty-three minutes later because a seventy-three-year-old woman dropped three grocery bags in the resort lobby.
He had been heading toward a private elevator when a paper bag split near the concierge desk.
Oranges rolled everywhere.
A jar of pasta sauce bounced once but miraculously survived.
The woman gasped.
Dominic stopped.
Ethan walked two more steps before realizing his employer was no longer beside him.
“Dominic.”
Dominic crouched and began collecting oranges.
The elderly woman looked mortified.
“Oh, sweetheart, you don’t have to—”
“It’s all right.”
Ethan stared at him.
Not because Dominic was helping.
Dominic did things like this more often than people imagined.
The problem was the woman approaching from the lobby café.
Claire.
Dominic saw her.
Ethan saw him see her.
And immediately understood how terrible the optics were.
“Don’t,” Ethan muttered.
Dominic looked up. “What?”
“If you suddenly start carrying groceries because she’s watching, I will personally tell her.”
“I was already helping.”
“I know. Unfortunately, you now look like a man auditioning.”
Claire crouched beside them.
“Need another pair of hands?”
The elderly woman smiled. “Apparently I need six.”
Claire laughed.
Together they repacked the groceries into reusable resort bags. Dominic picked up four.
Claire took two.
The woman protested.
Dominic asked, “Which floor?”
“Seven.”
“I’ll take them.”
Claire glanced at him.
He remembered the list.
Must carry Mom’s grocery bags without being asked.
Technically not his mother.
Still, he felt judged by an imaginary scoring system.
Claire noticed the intensity with which he was staring at the bags.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You look like those groceries just challenged your honor.”
Ethan coughed to hide a laugh.
Dominic gave him a murderous glance.
Claire smiled.
“You were on the terrace.”
“So were you.”
“I noticed.”
That pleased him more than it should have.
The older woman introduced herself as Margaret Shaw. They escorted her upstairs, where Dominic discovered she was staying alone because her sister’s flight had been canceled.
Claire helped put the groceries on the counter.
Dominic noticed Margaret struggling with the cap on a medicine bottle.
He opened it without comment.
Claire noticed.
That mattered.
Downstairs again, she held out her hand.
“Claire Bennett.”
He looked at it.
This was the moment.
He could tell her.
Dominic Russo.
The name would probably trigger recognition.
He disliked lying.
But he suddenly hated the possibility of watching her expression change.
“Dominic.”
She waited.
“Just Dominic?”
“Russo.”
Nothing.
No recognition.
“You’re Italian?”
“My mother would be offended you needed to ask.”
Claire laughed.
“Does your mother call a lot?”
His phone rang.
MOM.
Claire looked at the screen.
Dominic stared toward the ceiling.
Somewhere behind him, Ethan made a choking sound.
“Answer it,” Claire said.
“I was going to.”
“Sure.”
Dominic answered.
“Hi, Ma.”
“Dominic Anthony Russo, why did you ignore me twenty minutes ago?”
Claire heard every word.
Her eyes widened with delight.
Dominic walked away.
“Because I was busy.”
“You own a telephone. Busy people answer telephones.”
“Apparently.”
“Are you eating?”
“Yes.”
“Protein?”
“Yes.”
“Vegetables?”
“Ma.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Dominic could see her shoulders shaking.
“Who is laughing?”
“Nobody.”
“There is a woman.”
“There are approximately four hundred women in this hotel.”
“This one is laughing at you.”
Dominic stopped.
Claire lost control completely.
“Call me tonight,” his mother said. “And be nice to the woman.”
She hung up.
Claire was still laughing.
Dominic slipped his phone into his pocket.
“You enjoyed that.”
“Immensely.”
“Cruel.”
“Your mother seems wonderful.”
“She is a terrorist.”
“I heard that!” came the voice from his phone.
Dominic froze.
He had failed to end the call.
Claire bent forward laughing.
Even Ethan turned away.
For the first time in years, Dominic Russo felt absurdly normal.
Then Claire asked the question.
“What do you do?”
Dominic’s amusement disappeared.
He could say hotel ownership.
It was true.
He could say real estate.
Also true.
Shipping.
Construction.
Restaurants.
All true.
But none was the truth she was actually asking for.
“I run several businesses.”
Claire raised an eyebrow.
“That sounded suspiciously like a man trying not to answer.”
“Hotels. Construction. Shipping.”
“So you’re financially secure.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Reasonably.”
Behind him Ethan made another noise.
Claire looked between them.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Dominic said.
Ethan muttered, “Reasonably.”
Claire studied Dominic.
He could see curiosity growing.
Then a resort employee hurried across the lobby.
“Mr. Russo?”
Dominic turned.
The employee’s face was pale.
“There’s a problem at the marina.”
The atmosphere changed instantly.
Ethan straightened.
Two men Claire had assumed were ordinary hotel guests rose simultaneously from chairs near the entrance.
Dominic’s expression became unreadable.
“What happened?”
“Someone got onto Pier Four.”
Ethan asked quietly, “Which boat?”
The employee swallowed.
“Yours.”
Dominic looked toward Claire.
For the first time, she was studying the men around him differently.
Not frightened yet.
But alert.
He wanted to explain.
Instead Ethan stepped closer.
“We need to go.”
Dominic nodded.
He looked at Claire.
“Dinner?”
She blinked.
“Is that seriously how you’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“You’re asking me on a date while several men are apparently preparing for a hostage rescue?”
Dominic glanced at Ethan.
“Are we?”
“No.”
“See?”
“That did not help.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Dinner. Seven?”
Claire folded her arms.
“I don’t know you.”
“That’s generally what the first dinner fixes.”
She hesitated.
Then smiled.
“Seven-thirty.”
Dominic walked away before she could reconsider.
They reached the elevator.
The doors closed.
Ethan looked at him.
“You realize you have a larger problem.”
“What?”
“The man on Pier Four.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Ethan handed him his phone.
On the screen was a security photograph from the marina.
Dominic’s expression hardened.
The intruder was not a stranger.
Victor Salerno.
A man Dominic had not seen in six years.
A man who had once promised that if Dominic ever tried to leave the old life behind, he would burn everything Dominic loved until there was nothing left.
Ethan looked toward the lobby.
“He saw you talking to Claire.”
May you like
Dominic’s stomach went cold.
And downstairs, completely unaware that her name had just entered a war she knew nothing about, Claire Bennett was giving Jenna an excited phone call.
