Chapter 2 - The Man Outside Room 814
Dominic moved between Sofia and the door before the handle finished turning.
He did not reach for a gun.
That frightened Sofia more.
Dominic Romano was the kind of man who did not need to display a weapon to make violence feel inevitable.
“Stay behind me.”
“Who is it?”
“Quiet.”
The handle turned again.
Then stopped.
Dominic opened the door.
The hallway was empty.
A cleaning cart stood against the opposite wall.
The security guard who had been stationed near the nurses' station was gone.
Dominic stepped outside.
Sofia climbed from the bed.
Pain immediately shot through her ribs.
She grabbed the rail.
Dominic looked back.
“I said stay there.”
“And I've spent six years ignoring unreasonable instructions.”
“This isn't the office.”
“I noticed.”
He almost argued.
Instead he walked to the cleaning cart.
A black envelope rested on top.
Dominic did not touch it immediately.
“Call security,” Sofia said.
“I already did.”
“When?”
“Before I entered the hospital.”
She stared.
“You had your people checking the building before you even came upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“And someone still got here.”
Dominic looked at the envelope.
“Exactly.”
He finally picked it up.
Inside was a photograph.
An old one.
Two young men stood beside a dark sedan.
One was unmistakably Dominic at perhaps twenty-five.
The other had the same eyes but a different smile.
“Your brother?” Sofia asked.
“Anthony.”
On the back of the photograph someone had written:
ASK HIM WHO DIED AT RAVEN SEVENTEEN.
Sofia looked up.
“Who died?”
Dominic remained silent.
“Dominic.”
“My father.”
She blinked.
“You told me your father died at home.”
“He did.”
“Then what does this mean?”
“I don't know.”
For the first time, Sofia believed him.
Dominic called someone.
“Luca.”
A male voice answered immediately.
“Boss.”
“Lock down the eighth floor.”
“Already moving.”
“Find the missing guard.”
“Working on it.”
“And Luca?”
“Yes?”
“Nobody leaves.”
Dominic disconnected.
Sofia leaned against the doorway.
“You really talk like that all the time?”
“Yes.”
“No wonder people are terrified of you.”
“You aren't.”
“I called you while bleeding.”
“Exactly.”
Before she could respond, three men in dark suits appeared from the elevator.
The one in front was broad-shouldered, gray at the temples, and looked old enough to have known Dominic before Dominic became feared.
“Luca Moretti,” Dominic said. “Sofia Bennett.”
Luca looked at Sofia with obvious recognition.
“We've met.”
Sofia frowned.
“We have?”
“Company Christmas party. Three years ago. You told me to stop smoking near the fire exit.”
Sofia remembered.
“You ignored me.”
“I didn't after you threatened to report me to building management.”
Dominic looked between them.
“You threatened Luca?”
“He was violating policy.”
Luca almost smiled.
The tension broke for half a second.
Then another man approached.
“We found the guard.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“Where?”
“Stairwell.”
“Alive?”
“Yes. Drugged.”
“What about cameras?”
“Seven-minute gap.”
Dominic looked toward Sofia.
Someone had entered the hospital expecting him.
Someone knew he would come.
That realization sat between them.
Luca saw it too.
“We should move her.”
Sofia immediately said, “No.”
Both men looked at her.
She folded her arms, then regretted it because of her ribs.
“I have a concussion. The doctor wants imaging.”
“We can bring a doctor elsewhere,” Luca said.
“Are private physicians another mafia perk?”
Dominic ignored the question.
“Where can we take her?”
“My house,” Luca replied.
“No.”
“Boss—”
“No Romano properties.”
Luca understood.
“Then where?”
Dominic looked at Sofia.
“Your father's house.”
She stiffened.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if these people know enough to find me at work and follow me here, they probably know where my father lives.”
Dominic nodded.
She was right.
“Safe apartment?”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
She gave him a look.
“You just said no Romano properties.”
“One property isn't registered under Romano.”
Luca stared at him.
Dominic noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Say it.”
Luca looked at Sofia, then back to Dominic.
“You mean the Mercer place.”
“Yes.”
Luca's eyebrows rose.
“What is the Mercer place?” Sofia asked.
“Nothing,” Dominic replied.
Luca's expression said otherwise.
They moved Sofia twenty minutes later.
The hospital protested.
Dominic solved the problem with a private physician and enough legal paperwork to make the administrator stop arguing.
Sofia was placed in the back seat of a black armored SUV.
Dominic sat beside her.
Luca sat in front.
Neither man spoke for several minutes.
Sofia watched Manhattan pass through tinted glass.
“Who knows about the Mercer place?”
“Three people,” Dominic said.
“Who?”
“Me. Luca. My attorney.”
“And now me.”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“An apartment.”
“Why keep a secret apartment?”
Dominic looked out the window.
“Sometimes people need somewhere they aren't expected to be.”
That sounded lonely.
She did not say it.
They reached a quiet building in Tribeca.
No guards waited outside.
No Romano employees were visible.
The penthouse was large but strangely personal.
There were books.
Real books.
Old photographs.
A piano.
Sofia stared.
“This is yours?”
“Yes.”
“I thought your apartment looked like a hotel lobby.”
“That is where people expect me to live.”
“And this?”
“This is where I actually live.”
She turned.
“You brought me to your real home?”
Dominic seemed to realize what he had done only after she said it aloud.
Luca became extremely interested in checking the windows.
Sofia walked slowly toward a shelf.
A framed photograph showed Dominic around twenty, standing between his mother and Anthony.
Dominic was smiling.
Not the controlled half-smile she occasionally saw at the office.
A genuine smile.
She almost did not recognize him.
“Anthony looks younger.”
“Three years.”
“What happened between you?”
Dominic took off his jacket.
“He betrayed me.”
“How?”
“He disappeared.”
“That is betrayal?”
“He took money.”
“How much?”
“Eight million.”
Sofia blinked.
“Okay. That's more persuasive.”
“He also took information.”
“The ledger?”
“I thought so.”
“But now?”
“Now I'm not certain.”
Luca returned from the hallway.
“Apartment is clean.”
Dominic poured water.
“Call Dr. Hayes.”
“Already downstairs.”
Sofia sat.
She was exhausted.
The doctor examined her, confirmed there was no severe concussion, wrapped her ribs, and ordered rest.
Dominic stood nearby through all of it.
When the doctor left, Sofia looked at him.
“You don't have to stay.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
He did not answer.
She was beginning to hate that habit.
Luca's phone rang.
He stepped away.
Dominic sat opposite Sofia.
“Tell me everything you remember about the kidnapping.”
She did.
The parking garage.
The sedan.
The blindfold.
The questions.
The smell of cigarettes.
A train passing nearby.
One man with a slight limp.
Another who kept saying the word “delivery.”
Dominic listened without interruption.
Then she remembered something.
“The older man.”
“What?”
“He called one of them by name.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“What name?”
“Cal.”
Luca returned at that exact moment.
His face changed.
Dominic noticed.
“You know it.”
Luca hesitated.
“Cal Brennan.”
“Who is he?” Sofia asked.
Dominic looked at Luca.
Luca answered.
“He worked for Anthony Romano.”
Sofia felt the room tighten.
“Your brother's man kidnapped me?”
“Possibly.”
“Then Anthony is alive?”
Dominic stared at the floor.
“He was never confirmed dead.”
“You said he disappeared.”
“He did.”
“For eleven years?”
“Yes.”
Sofia laughed weakly.
“Your family has serious communication problems.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Then Luca placed his phone on the table.
“There is more.”
“What?”
“The hospital security feed came back.”
“And?”
“The person who entered the eighth floor during the blackout was captured in the elevator thirty seconds before the cameras went down.”
“Face?”
“Yes.”
Luca turned the screen.
Dominic froze.
Sofia looked.
The man was older now.
Gray at the temples.
But unmistakably the same man from the photograph.
Anthony Romano.
Sofia whispered, “He's alive.”
Dominic said nothing.
Then the penthouse intercom rang.
All three looked toward it.
Nobody was supposed to know they were there.
The intercom rang again.
Dominic crossed the room and activated the camera.
A man stood downstairs holding a small wooden box.
Anthony Romano looked directly into the lens.
May you like
Then he said:
“Tell my brother I brought back what our father died protecting.”
