Chapter 2 - Don’t Bring Her Back
Dante had frightened senators, judges, businessmen, and men who carried guns for a living.
Isabella Conti had known him since childhood.
She had seen him break a man's jaw without raising his pulse.
Yet she had never seen him look at anyone the way he looked at her now.
“Get dressed.”
Isabella folded her arms.
“You invited me here.”
“I allowed you here.”
“For protection.”
Dante closed his fist around Sophia's key.
“You have ten minutes.”
Isabella's face hardened. “Because your maid became emotional?”
The temperature in the hallway seemed to fall.
Marco quietly moved between Isabella and the staircase—not to protect Dante, but because he understood that Dante was one sentence away from doing something politically disastrous.
Dante approached Isabella.
“She had a name.”
Isabella blinked.
“You knew it.”
“Dante—”
“And you asked for her room because you knew exactly what it meant.”
For the first time, Isabella looked uncertain.
Then she smiled again.
That was her mistake.
“You're in love with her.”
Dante said nothing.
Isabella's expression changed.
“Oh my God.”
Her amusement disappeared.
“You actually are.”
Dante turned away.
“Eight minutes.”
Downstairs, the mansion exploded into activity.
Dante ordered Marco to locate Sophia without approaching her. Every station, airport, taxi company, and private transportation contact associated with the Romano organization was checked.
Nothing.
At 7:02, they found the first clue.
A cab had picked Sophia up two miles from the estate.
At 7:48, the driver was located.
“She asked for Beacon,” Marco reported.
Dante was already reaching for his coat.
Marco blocked him.
“She also gave the driver a message.”
Dante stopped.
“What message?”
Marco hesitated.
“She said if anyone named Romano came asking, tell him she didn't want to be found.”
The words hit harder than any bullet Dante had taken.
“Where did she go after Beacon?”
“We don't know.”
“Then find out.”
“We will.”
“No.” Dante looked at him. “You will find out where she is. You will make sure she's safe. You will not touch her. You will not bring her back.”
Marco stared.
That order surprised everyone.
Especially Dante.
For most of his life, wanting something and taking it had been the same act.
Sophia had changed the equation.
If he dragged her home, he would prove that her question to Paulie had been justified.
Am I a prisoner?
“No one approaches her without my permission,” Dante said. “Including me.”
At 8:15, Isabella descended the staircase in yesterday's burgundy dress.
Her luggage followed.
She stopped before Dante.
“My father will hear about this.”
“I expect him to.”
“You're throwing away an alliance over a servant.”
“No.”
Dante finally looked at her.
“I'm throwing you out because you deliberately humiliated someone under my protection.”
Isabella laughed bitterly. “Protection? You were the one who took her room.”
That silenced him.
Because she was right.
Isabella stepped closer.
“I only asked, Dante. You were the one who said yes.”
Then she walked outside.
The front doors closed.
Dante remained motionless.
Mrs. Gable stood near the dining room.
“You should eat.”
“I'm not hungry.”
“Sophia would tell you to eat.”
His head snapped toward her.
Mrs. Gable didn't retreat.
She had changed his diapers thirty-eight years ago. Fear had limits.
“You want to know why she left?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Then stop searching security footage and start looking at what was in front of you.”
She walked toward the servants' staircase.
Dante followed.
In the laundry room, Mrs. Gable opened a cabinet.
Inside were neatly labeled jars, sewing kits, stain removers, and household lists written in Sophia's handwriting.
“Three months ago,” Mrs. Gable said, “you bought Miss Bennett a winter coat.”
Dante remembered.
“She needed one.”
“You bought a three-thousand-dollar Italian coat.”
“So?”
“She returned it.”
Dante frowned.
“I never received a refund.”
“She exchanged it for twelve winter coats for the kitchen and grounds staff.”
He stared at her.
Mrs. Gable opened another drawer.
Inside lay envelopes.
Each contained money.
“What is this?”
“Christmas bonuses.”
“I pay bonuses.”
“These were from Sophia.”
Dante picked up one envelope.
Paulie's name was written across it.
“She saved part of every paycheck.”
“Why?”
“Because Paulie's daughter needed braces. Because Maria's husband lost his job. Because the gardener's son wanted community college.”
Dante looked around the room.
He had lived twenty yards away.
He had known none of it.
“She never told me.”
Mrs. Gable gave him a sad look.
“She didn't do kindness for applause.”
His phone rang.
Marco.
“We found her.”
Dante's heart slammed once.
“Where?”
“A bus station in Albany. She bought a ticket under her own name.”
“To where?”
“Boston.”
Dante closed his eyes.
“When?”
“Bus left forty minutes ago.”
“Put someone on it.”
“Already did. Plainclothes. She won't see him.”
Dante exhaled.
Then Marco continued.
“Boss, there's something else.”
“What?”
“Someone else searched for that ticket seventeen minutes after we did.”
Dante's expression changed.
“Who?”
“We traced the terminal.”
A pause.
“Conti security.”
Dante went perfectly still.
Sophia hadn't merely left his protection.
Someone was following her.
“Get Isabella back here.”
“She crossed the gate five minutes ago.”
“Then turn the car around.”
Dante moved toward the armory.
Marco's voice came through the phone.
“Dante, there's more.”
He stopped.
“Our guy checked Sophia's seat.”
“And?”
“She isn't on the bus.”
Dante's blood ran cold.
“What do you mean she isn't on the bus?”
“She bought the ticket.”
“Where is she?”
“We don't know.”
Dante looked down at the iron key in his hand.
For the first time, he noticed something engraved beneath the rust.
Three tiny characters.
B-17.
It wasn't a bedroom key.
May you like
It belonged to something else.
And Sophia had left it behind because she wanted him to find it.
