Chapter 5 - The Man From Before
Claire recognized the car in the background.
A silver BMW.
Ryan’s.
Her ex.
Dominic saw the recognition immediately.
“You know something.”
Claire sat down.
“My ex-boyfriend drove that car.”
“Name?”
“Ryan Mercer.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Not jealousy.
Calculation.
“When did you break up?”
“Eight months ago.”
“Badly?”
“There is no good way to leave someone who believes your decisions require his approval.”
Dominic crouched in front of her but did not touch her.
“What did he do?”
Claire hated the question because the answer sounded smaller when spoken aloud.
“He monitored things.”
“What things?”
“My location. My spending. Who I talked to.”
“How?”
“He said we should share passwords because couples shouldn’t have secrets.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“He convinced me to put location sharing on my phone. He knew when I left work. If I took too long at the grocery store, he asked why.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“Never physically.”
Dominic looked away.
Claire recognized anger.
“Don’t do anything.”
His eyes returned to hers.
“I haven’t.”
“Your face is doing something.”
“What?”
“The face Ethan warned me about.”
Ethan, standing near the door, said, “Excellent observation.”
Dominic glared at him.
Claire almost laughed.
Then Ethan’s phone rang.
Within an hour they knew more.
Ryan Mercer worked for a Philadelphia investment firm.
Three years earlier, his firm had helped finance a waterfront development connected to a Russo competitor.
Victor Salerno.
Ryan had met Victor repeatedly.
The coincidence was impossible.
“Ryan used me?” Claire whispered.
Dominic stood beside the window.
“We don’t know.”
She looked at the old photograph.
Her relationship replayed differently now.
Ryan’s strange interest in her family.
His questions about her vacations.
His insistence that they visit South Carolina the previous year.
His fury when she ended the relationship.
Then Claire remembered something.
“He knew Jenna booked this resort.”
Dominic turned.
“How?”
“He still followed her online.”
Ethan swore softly.
Claire stood.
“I want to call him.”
“No.”
Dominic said it instantly.
The room changed.
Claire looked at him.
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
Then corrected himself.
“I don’t think you should.”
“Better.”
“It is a terrible idea.”
“Still better.”
“I strongly recommend you don’t call him.”
“Excellent.”
Ethan stared between them.
“This may be the strangest hostage negotiation I’ve witnessed.”
Claire called Ryan.
Dominic looked ready to chew through concrete.
Ryan answered on the second ring.
“Claire?”
Too eager.
Her skin crawled.
“Were you watching me?”
Silence.
“Claire, what are you talking about?”
“I found a photograph.”
Another pause.
“Where are you?”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Claire noticed.
“Why?”
“I’m worried about you.”
“You always say that before avoiding a question.”
“Claire—”
“Did you photograph me outside my school?”
“No.”
“Did Victor Salerno?”
Silence.
Dominic’s head snapped toward the phone.
Then Ryan whispered, “You need to leave that resort.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
“You know where I am.”
“Listen to me. Dominic Russo is dangerous.”
“How do you know I’m with Dominic?”
Ryan breathed heavily.
“I was trying to protect you.”
There it was.
The sentence she hated most.
“By stalking me?”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
Ryan’s voice broke.
“Victor wanted information about Russo’s businesses. I owed money. A lot. I gave him access to financial records through work. Then he wanted more.”
“And me?”
“He saw your picture.”
Claire went cold.
“He asked who you were. I told him.”
Dominic’s hands curled into fists.
Ryan continued.
“I didn’t know what he planned. Then you booked the resort. He thought it was perfect.”
“For what?”
Ryan started crying.
That frightened Claire more than shouting would have.
“To get close to Russo.”
The line went dead.
Thirty seconds later Ethan received an alert.
A vehicle had exploded outside Ryan’s Philadelphia apartment.
Claire stared at the phone.
Dominic moved toward her, then stopped.
He waited.
Claire crossed the distance herself.
She pressed her forehead against his chest.
Only then did his arms close around her.
Gentle.
Careful.
No ownership.
No assumption.
Just warmth.
“I hate this,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“I hate being scared.”
“I know.”
“And I hate that the safest person in this situation is apparently the man who failed rule seven.”
Dominic’s chest moved beneath her cheek.
“Technically, I never claimed to pass.”
She laughed through tears.
Then Ethan interrupted.
“We have another problem.”
Dominic looked up.
“What?”
“Victor isn’t targeting you for revenge.”
Ethan held up a tablet showing shipping manifests.
“He’s moving something through Russo-controlled docks tomorrow night.”
Dominic read the documents.
His face changed.
“What?”
Claire asked.
Dominic looked at her.
“People.”
She understood.
Human trafficking.
And suddenly this was no longer about Victor threatening Dominic.
It was about people who might disappear forever if nobody stopped him.
Claire stepped away.
“Call the police.”
“We are.”
Dominic took his phone out.
But Ethan caught his arm.
“Before you do, look at the authorization signature.”
Dominic did.
His face went white.
Claire had never seen him look frightened before.
“Whose is it?”
May you like
Dominic stared at the signature.
“My brother’s.”
