Chapter 4 - THE MAN INSIDE SERVINO HOLDINGS
Joanna reached the bathroom first.
Not because she planned to hide.
Because the bathroom had a second door connecting to the neighboring suite.
The hotel security manager had mentioned it during check-in.
Katarina grabbed her phone.
The handle moved again.
Someone was testing the lock.
Joanna whispered, “Come.”
Katarina did.
They entered the adjoining empty room and locked both connecting doors behind them.
Katarina called 911.
Joanna called hotel security.
The stranger never entered their room.
By the time guards reached the hallway, whoever had touched the handle was gone.
Cameras captured one figure.
Male.
Baseball cap.
Maintenance jacket.
Face angled down.
He entered a stairwell before officers arrived.
The maintenance jacket did not belong to the hotel.
Neither did the badge.
At 1:08 a.m., Vittorio appeared downstairs.
Katarina discovered this only because Joanna looked through the peephole after security moved them to another floor.
“He’s here.”
Katarina’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Servino.”
“I didn’t ask him to come.”
“He’s not coming upstairs.”
Joanna looked again.
“He’s in the lobby talking to police.”
Katarina did not know whether that relieved or disappointed her.
She hated the second feeling.
At 2:00, Nathan joined them.
He brought a laptop and coffee.
“Katarina, I need your help.”
“With what?”
“Recognizing communication patterns.”
“Whose?”
“Chase’s.”
Nathan opened emails recovered from Stonebridge.
Most were coded vaguely.
Vendor numbers.
Initials.
Meeting locations disguised as maintenance references.
One recurring signature appeared.
R.
Katarina frowned.
“Chase used that letter?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say about it?”
“Nothing.”
She scanned dates.
One email occurred on March 11.
Another April 2.
May 16.
Something tugged at her memory.
She opened her calendar.
On each date Chase had taken her to dinner.
Not coincidence.
He rarely planned dinners.
The restaurants were all in Center City.
“What?”
Nathan leaned closer.
Katarina whispered, “He met someone before seeing me.”
“How do you know?”
“Look.”
March 11 dinner at nine.
Chase arrived thirty minutes late claiming work.
April 2 dinner at eight thirty.
Same.
May 16.
Same.
Nathan mapped the restaurants.
All three were within five blocks of Servino Holdings.
“R worked here,” Katarina said.
“Likely.”
She thought about executives.
Richard Baines, finance.
Rachel Donovan, compliance.
Ronald Meyers, procurement.
Then her mind stopped.
“Rafael.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Who?”
“Rafael DeLuca.”
Servino Holdings chief operating officer.
Vittorio’s cousin.
Nathan became completely still.
“What makes you think that?”
“He hates texts.”
“What?”
“Rafael never texts anything sensitive. He says messages are permanent.”
Nathan’s expression changed.
Katarina continued.
“He signs paper routing slips with just R.”
“That is not evidence.”
“I know.”
“But?”
“Chase knew his schedule.”
Nathan stared.
Katarina remembered conversations.
Chase asking whether Rafael would attend certain meetings.
Whether Rafael traveled with Vittorio.
Whether the board approved procurement directly or through operations.
She had thought Chase was curious about her workplace.
Maybe jealous of powerful men around her.
Now every question sounded different.
Nathan closed the laptop.
“I need to speak with Vittorio.”
Katarina caught his arm.
“Don’t accuse Rafael because of me.”
“I won’t.”
“He’s family.”
Nathan looked at her carefully.
“That is exactly why Vittorio needs facts before assumptions.”
By sunrise, company investigators quietly froze Rafael’s administrative credentials.
He noticed within twelve minutes.
At 7:14, Rafael called Vittorio.
At 7:21, he arrived at headquarters demanding an explanation.
Vittorio met him alone.
Katarina was not there.
She learned details later.
Rafael denied everything.
He called the audit insulting.
He reminded Vittorio they had grown up like brothers.
He demanded his access restored.
Vittorio refused.
Then Rafael made one mistake.
He asked:
“Is this because of Katarina?”
Vittorio had never mentioned her.
That was enough to deepen the investigation.
Not enough to prove anything.
By noon, Nathan had discovered that Rafael approved the addition of Stonebridge Facilities to the vendor list eighteen months earlier.
He also personally overrode two rejected invoices.
Rafael claimed operational necessity.
Then investigators found $740,000 moving from Stonebridge-linked companies into a trust benefiting Rafael’s former wife.
At 2:30, Rafael disappeared.
His phone turned off near the airport.
He never boarded a flight.
Vittorio called Katarina.
“You were right.”
She sat inside the hotel room wrapped in a blanket.
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“It shouldn’t.”
“Is Rafael dangerous?”
“Yes.”
The direct answer chilled her.
“More dangerous than Chase?”
“Different.”
“What does that mean?”
“Chase needs control.”
Vittorio paused.
“Rafael needs survival.”
Katarina understood.
Cornered men did unpredictable things.
“Why steal from you?”
“Money.”
“Three million dollars?”
“More.”
“How much?”
“We found thirteen million.”
Katarina stared.
Stonebridge had been only one channel.
Rafael had apparently created fraudulent vendor networks across five Servino companies.
Chase’s job was access.
Information.
Credentials.
Identifying employees whose accounts could disguise approvals.
Employees like Katarina.
“Did Chase choose me for him?”
“We don’t know.”
“Vittorio.”
“I won’t lie to make you feel better.”
Her eyes closed.
“No. I suppose you won’t.”
Another memory came.
The restaurant where she first met Chase.
Leone’s.
A popular place three blocks from headquarters.
Katarina had been alone after Joanna canceled.
Chase approached because her company badge was still clipped to her purse.
He joked that she worked for “the infamous Servino.”
She thought he was charming.
“What if he did choose me?”
Vittorio answered quietly.
“Then that tells you who he is.”
“It also tells me who I was.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I should have noticed.”
Vittorio’s voice sharpened.
“Stop.”
Katarina froze.
He rarely interrupted her.
“You did notice things.”
“What?”
“You hid a second phone.”
Silence.
“You deleted messages because you knew he searched them.”
Her throat tightened.
“You learned how to leave rooms without waking him.”
Katarina said nothing.
“You noticed enough to survive.”
She wiped her eyes.
“That doesn’t feel very heroic.”
“I didn’t say it was heroic.”
His voice softened.
“I said it was real.”
Katarina leaned back.
“Where are you?”
“My office.”
“It’s almost six.”
“Yes.”
“Have you slept?”
“No.”
“That seems unhealthy.”
“Probably.”
For the first time in days, she smiled.
Then someone knocked.
Katarina stiffened.
Joanna was downstairs getting food.
No one else should know the room number.
Vittorio heard the silence.
“What?”
“Someone’s at the door.”
“Don’t open it.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
A voice came through the door.
“Room service.”
Katarina had ordered nothing.
Vittorio said, “Move away.”
She did.
Hotel security arrived minutes later.
No one stood outside.
But a paper bag had been left.
Inside was Katarina’s missing work badge.
And her apartment key.
No note.
No photograph.
Just both objects.
Vittorio said, “Rafael is cleaning loose ends.”
Katarina stared at the key.
“Or warning me.”
“Yes.”
Joanna returned and immediately called the hotel room inadequate.
“We’re moving.”
Katarina looked at her.
“To where?”
Joanna smiled without humor.
“Somewhere with enough security to annoy Batman.”
Katarina knew before she said it.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Vittorio owns a residential property outside the city.”
“I am not moving into the mafia boss’s house.”
Joanna raised an eyebrow.
“Technically his company describes him as a diversified private-equity executive.”
Katarina stared.
“Everyone knows what his family is.”
“Everyone also knows he has walls.”
Katarina did not want walls.
She wanted freedom.
But she also wanted Joanna safe.
Nathan offered another option.
A confidential corporate residence used for protected witnesses and executives facing threats.
Not Vittorio’s home.
No direct connection to him in public records.
Two bedrooms.
Security.
Private entrance.
Katarina agreed.
That night, she slept six uninterrupted hours for the first time in months.
The following morning, she woke without an alarm.
Sunlight filled the room.
Nobody had unplugged anything.
For several seconds Katarina did not know where she was.
Then she remembered.
Chase.
Rafael.
The investigation.
Her ankle.
Everything.
Her phone displayed three messages.
One from Joanna:
Coffee downstairs.
One from Nathan:
No developments overnight.
And one from Chase.
Katarina stared.
He had been released pending further investigation on the domestic allegations while corporate charges were still being prepared.
His message contained only one sentence.
Rafael says Servino will let you take the fall.
Katarina’s blood ran cold.
She called Vittorio immediately.
He answered.
“Tell me.”
“Chase texted.”
“What?”
She read it.
Silence.
Then Vittorio said, “Do not reply.”
“I know.”
“Katarina.”
“What?”
“Rafael shouldn’t have any contact with Chase.”
“But he does.”
“Yes.”
Another message arrived.
This time from an unknown number.
A file attachment.
Spreadsheet.
Katarina opened it.
Hundreds of fraudulent transactions.
And beside dozens of them—
her name.
Her electronic signature.
Her employee ID.
Her authorization codes.
The final column carried a note.
PRIMARY APPROVER: K. AIELLO
Katarina stopped breathing.
“They framed me.”
Vittorio answered quietly.
“Yes.”
The next message appeared.
If I go down, you go down too.
Then another.
Come home tonight and we fix it together.
Katarina stared at the words.
Six months earlier she might have gone.
Three months earlier she probably would have.
A week earlier she might have convinced herself it was the safest choice.
Today she took a screenshot.
Forwarded it to Nathan.
Then blocked Chase’s number.
Her hand trembled after she did it.
May you like
But she did it.
And for the first time in two years, Chase Mercer could no longer reach her simply because he wanted to.
