Chapter 2 - Five Men at the Service Door
"Rafe."
The voice came again.
Soft.
Female.
Impossible.
Tessa looked at Rafe.
The enormous man who had stood calmly while a ballroom panicked now looked as if someone had driven a blade through his chest.
Mateo reached beneath his jacket.
"Stay behind us."
Rafe ignored him.
He walked toward room 214.
Tessa followed.
"Tessa," Mateo warned.
"I'm not leaving him."
Rafe glanced back.
For half a second, that same strange disbelief returned.
Then he faced the open door.
Inside, a lamp burned beside an empty bed.
No woman waited there.
No attacker.
No movement.
Only a small recorder placed on a table.
Rafe crossed the room.
The recorder played again.
"Rafe."
He shut it off.
Tessa noticed his knuckles whitening around the device.
"You recognize the voice."
Rafe did not answer.
Mateo searched the bathroom.
"Clear."
Tessa saw a photograph on the bed.
She picked it up.
It showed Rafe several years younger, standing beside a woman with dark hair and bright eyes. She had one arm around his enormous waist and looked completely unafraid of him.
On the back were four handwritten words.
YOU LET HER DIE.
Rafe took the photo.
"Who is she?" Tessa asked.
"My sister."
Mateo closed his eyes briefly.
Tessa looked between them.
"The person you buried?"
Rafe nodded.
"Elena."
"What happened?"
"Car accident."
Mateo said, "That's enough."
Rafe looked at him.
"No. It isn't."
Mateo went quiet.
Rafe turned the photo over again.
"Her body was burned badly. Identification came from dental records."
Tessa's instincts sharpened.
"You never saw her face?"
"No."
"Who handled the identification?"
Rafe looked at Mateo.
Mateo said, "Private hospital. People we trusted."
"Do you still trust them?"
No one answered.
Tessa walked to the bedside table.
There was a second object beside the lamp.
A hotel keycard.
Different from the brass key.
Across it, someone had written:
SERVICE LEVEL B.
Mateo cursed quietly.
Rafe picked it up.
"That's below the ballroom."
Tessa looked at him.
"The armed man the waiter saw?"
"Maybe."
Mateo touched his earpiece.
His expression changed immediately.
"What?"
He listened.
Then looked at Rafe.
"Five men just entered through the service loading area."
Rafe's face returned to stone.
"Armed?"
"Security can't confirm."
"Lock it down."
"Already done."
Tessa crossed her arms.
"You told me to leave because you thought I was in danger."
Rafe looked at her.
"You are."
"Then why are we walking toward five possibly armed men?"
"We aren't."
"You are."
"Yes."
"That's not how this works."
"This isn't your war."
"You don't know that."
Rafe stared at her phone.
The messages.
Whoever had sent them had contacted Tessa, not him.
That bothered him.
"You stay here."
"No."
"Tessa."
"You've tried ordering me around three times tonight. Your success rate is terrible."
Mateo almost smiled.
Rafe didn't.
But something in his expression softened.
Then hardened again.
"Stay behind Mateo."
"I can live with that."
They took the service elevator down.
Rafe stood between Tessa and the doors.
It was instinctive.
She noticed.
"So you're allowed to protect me, but I'm not allowed to protect you?"
He kept looking forward.
"Correct."
"Convenient."
The elevator doors opened.
Concrete hallway.
Fluorescent lights.
No chandeliers.
No wealthy guests.
The building looked entirely different below ground.
Mateo's men waited near a security door.
"Five suspects," one reported. "Entered separately. No weapons visible on cameras. They haven't attempted to leave."
"Where are they?" Rafe asked.
"Kitchen storage."
Rafe frowned.
"They walked into a locked storage room?"
"Voluntarily."
That felt wrong.
Tessa said it aloud.
"It's a trap."
Rafe looked at her.
"I know."
"Then don't walk into it."
"I need to know who sent that recording."
"Walking into traps is generally considered bad investigative technique."
"I didn't say I was an investigator."
"No. You're the terrifying mafia boss everyone is too scared to argue with."
Mateo coughed into his fist.
Rafe gave him a look.
Tessa continued, "Unfortunately, I didn't get the memo."
Rafe stared at her for several seconds.
Then he said, "You stay at the door."
That was apparently his compromise.
They reached storage.
Five men stood inside.
No guns.
No knives.
All five had their hands visible.
One was bleeding from the forearm.
Tessa immediately noticed.
The blood matched the smear she'd seen on Rafe's cuff.
Rafe did too.
"You touched me upstairs."
The injured man nodded.
"Yes."
Mateo stepped forward.
"Why?"
"To get your attention."
"Congratulations," Rafe said. "You have it."
The man looked toward Tessa.
That made every guard tense.
Rafe moved slightly in front of her.
The man raised both hands.
"We're not here to hurt anyone."
"Then explain why you're trespassing in my building."
"We were sent to warn you."
"By whom?"
"Your sister."
Silence.
Rafe's face did not move.
Tessa watched his hand curl.
"Elena is dead."
The man swallowed.
"That's what she needed you to believe."
Mateo grabbed him by the shirt.
"Careful."
"Mateo," Rafe said.
Mateo released him.
The man took a breath.
"Three years ago, Elena discovered someone inside your organization was selling information. Not drugs. Not weapons. Names."
Rafe's eyes narrowed.
"What names?"
"Police informants. Witnesses. Judges. Families."
Tessa's stomach tightened.
"She tried to expose them," the man continued. "Then someone arranged the crash."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
Rafe's patience disappeared.
"You came into my building, touched me with blood on your hand, left a key, planted my dead sister's voice in a hotel room, and now you're telling me you don't know?"
The man held his ground.
"We know Elena survived."
Rafe stopped.
Tessa saw the tiniest break in his expression.
Hope.
Pain.
Anger.
All fighting at once.
"Where is she?"
"We were supposed to bring you to her."
"Were?"
The man looked at the other four.
"Until we realized someone followed us."
Mateo turned toward the hallway.
At that exact moment, the lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the service level.
Tessa heard weapons being drawn.
"Nobody move!" Mateo shouted.
A crash came from behind them.
Rafe's arm wrapped around Tessa and pulled her against the wall.
She felt his body shield hers.
Footsteps.
Fast.
A gunshot cracked somewhere down the corridor.
Then another.
Tessa dropped low automatically.
"Rafe!"
"I'm here."
Emergency lights flickered red.
One of Mateo's men was down.
Tessa crawled toward him.
Rafe grabbed her shoulder.
"No."
"He's hit."
"Tessa—"
"Move."
Something in her voice worked.
Rafe let go.
She reached the guard.
Shoulder wound.
Heavy bleeding.
She tore open her medical pouch.
"Pressure here."
The wounded man obeyed.
Another shot struck metal nearby.
Rafe fired toward the source.
Tessa didn't look.
She worked.
That was what combat medicine had taught her.
Chaos could happen around you.
Your hands still had to remain steady.
The guard groaned.
"Stay with me."
Rafe crouched beside her.
"What do you need?"
She looked at him.
"Your belt."
He removed it immediately.
She used it to secure pressure.
Rafe watched her work.
Not with admiration.
With recognition.
He finally understood what she had meant upstairs.
She really had done this while bullets hit walls.
The shooting stopped.
Mateo shouted, "Clear!"
Lights returned.
One attacker lay unconscious near the exit.
Another had escaped.
The five men were still in storage.
Four looked terrified.
The injured one did not.
He stared at Rafe.
"They know you have the key."
Rafe stood.
"Who?"
"Whoever tried to kill Elena."
"Tell me a name."
"I don't have one."
"Then give me something."
The man reached into his jacket slowly.
Mateo aimed.
"Easy."
The man removed an envelope.
He handed it to Rafe.
Inside was a piece of paper.
A medical record.
Tessa saw the hospital logo.
Saint Catherine's.
Rafe read it.
Then looked at Tessa.
"What?"
He gave her the page.
Patient: Elena Calder.
Admission date: three years ago.
Discharge: transferred.
Attending physician: Dr. Thomas Ward.
Tessa stared at the last name.
Ward.
Her last name.
Rafe saw the recognition.
"You know him."
Tessa's mouth went dry.
"Yes."
"Who is he?"
She looked up.
"My father."
No one spoke.
Tessa read the document again.
Her father had been an emergency surgeon before his death two years earlier.
He had never mentioned Elena Calder.
Never mentioned treating a woman officially declared dead.
Never mentioned Rafe.
"This has to be forged."
The injured man shook his head.
"It isn't."
"How do you know?"
"Because your father helped Elena disappear."
Tessa felt the floor shift under her.
"My father was not involved with organized crime."
"He wasn't."
Rafe's voice was quiet.
"Then why help my sister?"
The man looked at Tessa.
"Because Elena wasn't the only person he was hiding."
Tessa stopped.
"What does that mean?"
The man opened his mouth.
A phone rang.
Not Rafe's.
Not Mateo's.
Tessa's.
Unknown number again.
She answered.
No one spoke.
Then a woman whispered:
"Tessa?"
Tessa's skin went cold.
"Who is this?"
A breath.
Then:
"Your father saved my life."
Rafe stepped closer.
Tessa put the call on speaker.
The woman continued.
"But he died because of it."
Tessa gripped the phone.
"My father died of a heart attack."
"No."
The woman sounded frightened now.
"He was murdered."
Rafe's eyes locked on Tessa's.
The voice whispered one final sentence.
"And the person who ordered it is standing in that building with you."
The call ended.
Everyone looked at everyone else.
Then Mateo's radio crackled.
A security guard upstairs spoke rapidly.
Mateo's face changed.
"What is it?" Rafe asked.
Mateo lowered the radio.
"The ballroom cameras just caught someone entering your private office."
"Who?"
May you like
Mateo stared at him.
"Elena Calder."
