Chapter 5 - Send Her Away
Victor doubled security around Chloe without telling her.
That mistake lasted seven hours.
She noticed the gray sedan outside her apartment first.
Then the man reading the same newspaper in the lobby for forty-five minutes.
When she arrived at the estate and saw Anthony speaking with two unfamiliar guards, Chloe walked directly into Victor’s study.
“You’re having me followed.”
Victor did not look up.
“Protected.”
“Without telling me.”
“Correct.”
“That is following.”
“That is semantics.”
“That is creepy.”
Victor finally raised his eyes.
“Someone was watching you at the hospital.”
“I know. I was there.”
“He may work for Matteo Bellini.”
“Who?”
Victor leaned back.
“A competitor.”
“Competitors don’t normally stalk housekeepers.”
“My competitors do.”
Chloe stared at him.
The consequences of Victor’s world suddenly felt closer.
“What does he want?”
“Leverage.”
“Against you?”
“Yes.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Why would I be leverage?”
Neither spoke.
Chloe realized the answer first.
Victor’s face became colder.
“Because Bellini is wrong.”
“About what?”
“That you matter to me.”
The words were sharp.
Defensive.
Chloe’s expression changed.
Victor knew instantly he had phrased it badly.
“I mean—”
“No.”
“Chloe.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s clearly not.”
“You just said I don’t matter to you.”
“I said Bellini is wrong to believe you can be used against me.”
“Those are not remotely the same sentence.”
Victor stood.
“I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“And apparently protect yourself from admitting why.”
“That is not—”
The study door opened.
Anthony entered.
“Sir.”
Victor turned.
“What?”
“We found a tracker under Ms. Bennett’s car.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Chloe’s anger disappeared.
Victor’s face changed into something she had never seen directed away from a business meeting.
Pure fury.
“Who touched the vehicle?”
“We’re checking cameras.”
“Destroy the tracker.”
“No,” Chloe said.
Both men looked at her.
She swallowed.
“Can’t you use it?”
Victor stared.
“To make whoever planted it think I’m still driving normally?”
Anthony glanced at Victor.
“She’s right.”
Victor did not enjoy that.
“We can put it on another car,” Anthony continued. “Run the normal route while she stays elsewhere.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Do it.”
Chloe crossed her arms.
“Where am I staying?”
Victor looked at her.
“Here.”
“No.”
“It wasn’t a request.”
“We’ve already discussed that particular problem.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
“Because there is someone actively tracking you.”
“Because of you.”
The sentence landed harder than she intended.
Victor went silent.
Chloe immediately regretted it.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Yes, you did.”
Victor walked toward the windows.
“And you’re right.”
His voice had changed.
He was no longer angry.
That frightened her more.
“I brought this to your door.”
“Victor.”
“You’re staying at the estate tonight.”
“And after that?”
He turned.
“After that, you’re leaving.”
Chloe stared.
“What?”
“I’ll pay six months of salary.”
Her chest tightened.
“You’re firing me.”
“I’m removing you from the situation.”
“That is firing me with expensive vocabulary.”
“You can take Tommy somewhere secure.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.”
“My brother is in transplant evaluation here.”
“I can arrange specialists elsewhere.”
“You keep arranging my life!”
Victor’s voice rose for the first time.
“Because I can’t put a guard beside you every second!”
Chloe froze.
So did Victor.
The room became completely silent.
He lowered his voice.
“You don’t understand what Bellini is capable of.”
“Then tell me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because once you know enough, you become part of this.”
“I became part of it when someone put a tracker under my car!”
Victor slammed his palm against the desk.
Chloe flinched.
He saw it.
Regret flashed through his face.
He stepped back.
“I’m sorry.”
Chloe breathed slowly.
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be.”
“I’m afraid of the things you won’t tell me.”
Victor looked at her for a long time.
Then he crossed to a locked cabinet.
He removed a folder.
Photographs.
Shipping manifests.
Pictures of warehouses.
A man leaving a restaurant.
Matteo Bellini.
“Bellini’s organization has been trying to take control of freight routes through two of my companies. Three months ago, he sabotaged one of our facilities. Two men were injured.”
Chloe looked down.
“Police?”
“Couldn’t prove it.”
“Could you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why isn’t he in prison?”
Victor gave her a look.
She understood.
“This is what people mean when they say you handle things yourself.”
“Yes.”
“Have you killed people?”
The question came quietly.
Victor’s face became unreadable.
He could have lied.
“No innocent people.”
Chloe stepped backward.
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled with something worse than fear.
Disappointment.
Victor had not expected it to hurt.
“I never told you I was a good man.”
“No.”
“I warned you.”
“You also sat with my brother at the hospital.”
“That doesn’t erase anything.”
“I know.”
Victor watched her.
“I need you to leave because I cannot guarantee Bellini won’t try again.”
Chloe looked down at the folder.
“If I leave, he’ll still know Tommy exists.”
Victor said nothing.
“And he’ll still know where we lived.”
“I’ll move you.”
“You can’t relocate us like furniture.”
“I can protect you.”
“Then let me decide how.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Chloe stepped closer.
“You asked me how to help correctly.”
He remembered.
Ask.
Not command.
He hated how much harder it was.
“What do you want?”
“I want Tommy to continue treatment here.”
“Fine.”
“I want security I know about.”
“Fine.”
“I want to keep my job.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You were doing well.”
“Keeping you inside my house makes you more visible.”
“Or safer.”
“Chloe.”
“And if I leave, Bellini learns he can control you through me.”
Victor stopped.
Anthony, still near the door, very wisely remained silent.
Chloe continued.
“He puts a tracker on my car. You panic and send me away. What happens the next time someone you care about becomes inconvenient?”
Victor’s gaze sharpened.
“Someone I care about?”
Chloe realized what she had said.
Neither looked away.
Victor’s voice lowered.
“You think that is what this is?”
“I think you sleep when I’m near.”
His face changed.
“I think you call to ask about my brother and pretend it’s about transportation.”
“Chloe.”
“I think you raised everybody’s wages because you didn’t want to embarrass me.”
“That was inflation.”
She almost laughed.
“You’re impossible.”
“And you’re reckless.”
“Maybe.”
Victor stepped closer.
Now only a few feet separated them.
“You have no idea what you are asking.”
“I’m asking not to be discarded because you’re scared.”
Victor’s eyes darkened.
“I am not scared.”
Chloe whispered, “You’re terrified.”
It was the bravest thing she had ever said.
Victor Russo could have destroyed men for less.
Instead, he looked at her as if she had reached beneath his ribs and placed a hand around the one thing he kept hidden.
Finally he said, “Stay.”
One word.
Different from an order.
Chloe heard it.
So did he.
“I’ll stay.”
Victor nodded.
Then Anthony’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“The decoy vehicle.”
Victor turned.
Anthony’s voice hardened.
“It was hit twenty minutes ago.”
Chloe went pale.
“How?”
“Another vehicle forced it off the road.”
Victor looked at Chloe.
She would have been inside that car.
They both understood.
The disagreement ended.
Victor crossed the room and took Chloe’s face gently between his hands.
The movement shocked both of them.
“From now on, you do exactly what security tells you.”
Chloe’s breath caught.
“For how long?”
Victor’s eyes held hers.
“Until Bellini understands you are not something he gets to touch.”
Outside, sirens screamed somewhere beyond the estate walls.
May you like
And for the first time in six years, Victor Russo had found something stronger than his fear of attachment.
The fear of losing her.
