Chapter 1 - The Woman in His Trunk
Sophia Reed grabbed the edge of the open trunk and whispered,
"Please don't tell him I'm here."
Adrian Moretti stopped beside his black sedan and noticed the canvas bag pressed against her chest.
A courthouse evidence sticker was stuck beneath one of the folders.
The date printed on it was tomorrow.
Adrian knew she hadn't climbed into his car by accident.
For three seconds, neither of them moved.
Sophia lay half-curled inside the trunk, her knees drawn against her chest, one hand clutching the edge of a beige canvas bag swollen with papers. Rainwater dripped from her dark hair onto her cheeks. Her trench coat was soaked through. Mud streaked one sleeve.
She looked like someone who had been running for a long time.
Not someone stealing.
Not someone waiting to attack him.
Someone terrified.
Adrian Moretti had spent most of his adult life learning the difference.
Footsteps echoed through the underground garage.
Sophia's eyes widened.
"Please," she whispered again. "He's coming."
Adrian did not ask who.
He lowered his gaze to the papers jutting from her bag. Court forms. A flash drive in a plastic evidence sleeve. Copies of bank statements. A photograph with the corner torn off.
Then he heard a man's voice.
"Sophia!"
She flinched so violently that Adrian's expression changed.
That reaction told him more than a long explanation could have.
A man in a navy raincoat appeared between two concrete columns.
He was in his early thirties, well built, clean-cut, and furious in the polished way men sometimes were when they believed anger was authority.
His name, Adrian would later learn, was Daniel Mercer.
At that moment he was simply a stranger walking too fast toward Adrian's car.
Daniel stopped when he noticed Adrian.
His eyes traveled from Adrian's face to the open trunk.
Sophia pressed herself deeper into the darkness.
Adrian shifted half a step.
It was barely noticeable.
But his body now blocked Daniel's view.
"Did you see a woman come through here?" Daniel asked.
Adrian studied him.
"No."
Daniel frowned.
"Dark hair. Beige coat. She might be carrying a bag."
Adrian glanced toward the garage exit as though thinking.
"No."
Daniel took another step.
"You sure?"
Adrian's eyes returned to him.
There were few things more dangerous than a powerful man who didn't need to announce that he was powerful.
Adrian was one of them.
"I tend to remember people who climb into my parking garage at midnight," he said.
Daniel stopped.
Something in Adrian's voice finally registered.
"Right." Daniel forced a laugh. "Sorry. She's my girlfriend. We had an argument."
From inside the trunk came the faintest sharp breath.
Adrian heard it.
Daniel didn't.
"Girlfriend?" Adrian asked.
"Yeah."
"Then she'll call you."
Daniel's mouth tightened.
"It's complicated."
"It usually is."
Another man entered the garage from the elevators behind them.
Marco Bellini.
Adrian's security chief.
Marco was forty-one, broad-shouldered, and dressed in a dark overcoat. He slowed when he saw Daniel standing near Adrian's vehicle.
"Problem?" Marco asked.
Daniel looked between them.
"No."
"Good," Adrian said.
Daniel stood there for another second.
Then he walked away.
Not toward the exit.
Toward the opposite row of cars.
Still searching.
Adrian waited until the footsteps faded.
Then he turned back toward the trunk.
Sophia looked up at him.
Her lips were trembling.
"You lied."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Adrian looked at the courthouse label again.
"You're scared of him."
"That doesn't mean you should get involved."
"No."
"Then why did you?"
Adrian's gaze settled on the faint bruise beneath her left wrist.
"Because he said you were his girlfriend like it meant he owned you."
Sophia stared at him.
For one strange moment, the fear in her face gave way to confusion.
Marco stepped closer and finally saw her.
He froze.
There were very few things capable of surprising Marco Bellini.
A soaked young woman hiding in Adrian Moretti's trunk was apparently one of them.
"Boss?"
Sophia's eyes shot toward Adrian.
Boss.
The word hung there.
Adrian ignored it.
"Can you get out?"
Sophia hesitated.
"Is he gone?"
"For the moment."
She pushed herself upright, wincing when she moved her right shoulder.
Adrian noticed.
"You're hurt."
"I'm fine."
"That wasn't what I said."
She climbed from the trunk with difficulty.
The canvas bag nearly slipped from her hands.
Adrian caught it before it hit the wet floor.
Sophia lunged for it.
"Don't."
He released it immediately.
That seemed to surprise her too.
"Sorry," she said, pulling the bag close. "I can't lose this."
Adrian looked toward the direction Daniel had disappeared.
"Then standing in the garage isn't ideal."
"I'll leave."
"You'll walk into the street?"
"I have somewhere to go."
"Where?"
She didn't answer.
That answer was enough.
Marco glanced at Adrian.
"We should move."
Adrian nodded.
Sophia stepped backward.
"I don't know who you are."
"Adrian."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Just Adrian?"
"For now."
Marco almost smiled.
Sophia didn't notice.
"I'm not getting into a car with another strange man."
Adrian looked at the trunk.
"You already did."
For the first time, something almost like disbelief crossed her face.
Under different circumstances, it might have been funny.
Tonight it wasn't.
"I had no choice."
"You still have one."
He reached inside his coat and removed a key card.
He held it out without moving closer.
"The service elevator behind us goes to the twenty-third floor. There are cameras, security, and six employees working upstairs. You can stay there until he leaves."
Sophia stared at the card.
"What is upstairs?"
"My office."
She didn't take it.
"Why would you help me?"
Adrian gave her the simplest answer.
"Because you asked."
That was what finally broke something in her expression.
Not tears.
Something quieter.
She looked away.
Marco's phone buzzed.
He answered.
Listened.
His face hardened.
"Adrian."
"What?"
"Our west camera picked up the guy she was running from."
Sophia looked up.
Marco continued.
"He isn't alone."
Adrian's eyes sharpened.
"How many?"
"Two more entered through the loading entrance."
Sophia went pale.
"No."
"You know them?" Adrian asked.
She backed away.
"No. No, he wasn't supposed to—"
"Supposed to what?"
Her fingers tightened around the bag.
"Find me tonight."
Marco and Adrian exchanged a look.
That sentence changed everything.
Adrian stepped closer, but not enough to corner her.
"Sophia."
She stared at him.
He hadn't been told her name.
Daniel had shouted it.
She realized that a second later.
"What's in the bag?"
"Nothing you want."
"That's not what I asked."
"I can't tell you."
"Then tell me why three men are searching a private garage for you."
Sophia swallowed.
"My hearing is tomorrow."
"What hearing?"
She remained silent.
Then a noise cracked through the garage.
A car alarm.
Sophia jumped.
Marco touched the earpiece beneath his collar.
"Someone just forced the east security door."
Adrian's demeanor changed.
The calm remained.
But the softness disappeared.
"Upstairs. Now."
Sophia didn't argue this time.
They moved toward the service elevator.
Marco went first.
Sophia followed.
Adrian walked behind her.
The elevator doors opened.
She stepped inside.
Then Daniel's voice echoed from behind them.
"There!"
Sophia spun.
Daniel emerged between two parked SUVs.
Another man was beside him.
Daniel pointed directly at her.
"Sophia, get away from him!"
She backed into the elevator.
Adrian stepped between them.
Daniel charged forward.
Marco moved.
Fast.
He intercepted Daniel before Daniel reached them, catching his arm and forcing him against the hood of a parked car.
The second man stopped immediately.
"Get off me!" Daniel shouted. "She's unstable!"
Sophia went rigid.
Adrian looked at her.
Daniel continued.
"She stole confidential documents! She's having some kind of breakdown!"
Sophia's face drained of color.
Adrian didn't look away from her.
"Did you steal them?"
"No."
"Sophia," Daniel shouted. "You don't know who these people are!"
She looked at Adrian.
"Do you?"
Adrian said nothing.
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"Of course she doesn't."
Adrian's eyes shifted toward him.
Daniel's confidence returned.
He twisted slightly beneath Marco's grip.
"Ask him his last name, Sophia."
The elevator remained open.
The garage seemed suddenly silent.
Sophia turned toward Adrian.
"What's your last name?"
Adrian held her gaze.
"Moretti."
Her face changed.
She knew it.
Everyone in Chicago knew it.
Maybe not from newspapers.
Maybe not from court filings.
But they knew.
Moretti.
Hotels.
Nightclubs.
Construction.
Private security.
Restaurants.
And, according to rumors whispered behind closed doors, far more.
Sophia stepped backward until her shoulders touched the elevator wall.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Daniel smiled.
"See?"
Adrian remained still.
"You can leave if you want."
Daniel spoke over him.
"Come home, Sophia."
Her eyes snapped toward Daniel.
He softened his voice.
"We can fix this."
She looked at him for several seconds.
Then she whispered, "You said that the last time you broke my phone."
Daniel's face tightened.
Marco's grip became firmer.
Adrian looked at Sophia.
"Do you want to go with him?"
"No."
One word.
Immediate.
Certain.
Adrian nodded.
"Then you aren't going."
Daniel stopped pretending.
"You have no idea what she's carrying."
Adrian looked toward the canvas bag.
"No."
Daniel's smile turned ugly.
"But I do."
Sophia clutched it tighter.
Adrian saw genuine panic.
Daniel lowered his voice.
"That bag contains files belonging to people you don't want involved in your business, Moretti."
Adrian's gaze sharpened.
"What people?"
Daniel looked at Sophia.
"Tell him."
She didn't.
"Tell him whose money you found."
Adrian slowly turned toward her.
Sophia's breathing changed.
She had wanted to escape Daniel.
But whatever was inside the bag frightened her almost as much as he did.
She whispered, "I worked for a forensic accounting firm."
Adrian waited.
"Daniel's company was one of our clients."
"And?"
"I found payments that weren't supposed to exist."
Daniel shouted, "Stop talking."
Sophia flinched.
Adrian noticed.
Then she forced herself to continue.
"Shell corporations. Cash transfers. Fake vendors. Millions of dollars."
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"Whose money?"
Sophia looked down at the bag.
"I don't know."
Daniel laughed.
"Yes, you do."
Sophia stared at him.
He smiled.
Then he said a name.
A name that erased every trace of calm from Adrian Moretti's face.
"Vittorio Moretti."
Sophia looked from Daniel to Adrian.
"Who is Vittorio?"
Adrian did not answer.
Marco did.
"His uncle."
The elevator chimed.
No one moved.
Sophia slowly looked at the papers inside her bag.
Then back at Adrian.
And for the first time that night, Adrian looked genuinely disturbed.
Because Vittorio Moretti had been dead for eleven years.
Or at least that was what Adrian had buried.
The elevator doors began to close.
Before they met, Marco's phone buzzed again.
He looked at the screen.
Then at Adrian.
"Boss."
"What?"
Marco turned the phone around.
A security camera image showed a black SUV entering the garage.
The driver had lowered his window.
Adrian stared at the man's face.
Impossible.
Sophia whispered, "Who is that?"
Adrian didn't answer.
May you like
The elevator doors closed.
Because the man behind the wheel was Vittorio Moretti.
