Chapter 2 - The Bride Who Vanished
Cassian did not answer immediately.
Silence had always been one of his most effective weapons.
Men who feared him filled silence with information.
Men who challenged him filled it with mistakes.
Gabriel Serrano did neither.
He waited.
Cassian folded Elena’s photograph and slipped it into his desk drawer.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
Gabriel entered wearing a charcoal suit and an expression calm enough to be threatening.
He was forty, handsome in a colder way than Cassian, with dark hair brushed neatly back and a narrow scar running beneath one ear.
Two men remained outside.
Gabriel glanced at the blood near Cassian’s bandage.
“Bad night?”
“I’ve had worse.”
“So have I.”
Cassian gestured toward a chair.
Gabriel remained standing.
“You have someone working for you.”
“I have many people working for me.”
“Nico Vale.”
Cassian’s face revealed nothing.
“What about him?”
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“Still pretending.”
“Pretending what?”
“That your investigator didn’t finally figure it out.”
Cassian leaned against his desk.
“You’ve come a long way to discuss an auto mechanic.”
“I came for Elena.”
Cassian said nothing.
Gabriel took a photograph from his jacket.
It showed Elena at a wedding fitting.
Long dark hair.
White gown.
A woman beside her adjusted the veil.
Gabriel placed it on the desk.
“She disappeared three days before our wedding.”
“She seems to have made her preference clear.”
Gabriel’s eyes cooled.
“You don’t know what happened.”
“I know she ran.”
“She was confused.”
“She crossed multiple states, changed her identity, cut her hair and spent seven months hiding under mechanic coveralls. That seems unusually organized for confusion.”
For the first time, Gabriel’s expression cracked.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Cassian.”
“That wasn’t negotiation.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“She belongs with me.”
Cassian’s stare sharpened.
“People don’t belong to people.”
“Careful.”
“You’re in my building.”
Gabriel smiled without warmth.
“And she’s in my life.”
“She left your life.”
“She made a mistake.”
A heavy silence filled the office.
Gabriel finally buttoned his jacket.
“I want her returned.”
“No.”
“You don’t even know her.”
“Neither do you, apparently.”
Gabriel studied him.
Then something amused him.
“The rumors are true.”
Cassian frowned.
“What rumors?”
“You’re attached to the mechanic.”
Cassian’s jaw flexed.
Gabriel laughed quietly.
“That must be confusing.”
“Get out.”
Gabriel walked toward the door.
He stopped.
“One more thing.”
Cassian waited.
“Elena didn’t run because she stopped loving me.”
Gabriel turned his head.
“She ran because she saw something she wasn’t supposed to see.”
Then he left.
Cassian stood alone.
That sentence bothered him more than the threat.
At 6:15 the next morning, Elena boarded a bus leaving Boston.
At least she tried.
She wore a hooded sweatshirt beneath a long coat. The mechanic cap was gone. A backpack rested between her shoes.
She had purchased a ticket to Portland, Maine.
From there she planned to keep moving.
Maybe Canada.
Maybe somewhere nobody connected to Serrano or Rizzo would think to look.
The bus doors opened.
Passengers began boarding.
Elena stepped forward.
A black sedan stopped across the street.
Her stomach dropped.
The rear passenger door opened.
Luca emerged.
Elena turned.
Cassian stood directly behind her.
She nearly collided with him.
“You’re difficult to find.”
Her face hardened.
“You followed me.”
“I had someone watching the station.”
“That’s not better.”
“No.”
She tightened her grip on the backpack.
“Move.”
“We need to talk.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
Hearing her real name from Cassian made her visibly flinch.
“Don’t call me that.”
“It is your name.”
“Not anymore.”
“Gabriel Serrano came to my garage last night.”
The color drained from her face.
Cassian saw it.
Not guilt.
Terror.
“He knows?”
“He knows you’re in Boston.”
Elena looked toward the sedan.
Then the street.
Then behind Cassian.
Always searching for exits.
“Did you tell him where I was?”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Why?”
Cassian seemed almost offended.
“You work for me.”
“That doesn’t mean anything to men like you.”
“Apparently it means more than you expected.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“You think because you gave me a job you know me?”
“No.”
“You ordered four investigations.”
“Yes.”
“You invaded my life.”
“You didn’t have a life to invade. Nico Vale was paperwork.”
She stepped closer.
“You had no right.”
“And Serrano does?”
Her anger disappeared.
Cassian saw the answer immediately.
Fear again.
“Elena.”
“Stop.”
“What did you see?”
She looked away.
“What did Gabriel do?”
“I said stop.”
“He said you witnessed something.”
She grabbed her backpack.
“I’m leaving.”
Cassian caught the strap.
Elena spun.
“Let go.”
“If you walk out of this station alone, Serrano will find you before lunch.”
“I survived seven months.”
“He wasn’t looking in the right place.”
“He is now.”
Her eyes filled, but she blinked the emotion away.
Cassian lowered his voice.
“Come back to the garage.”
“Why?”
“Because my property is secure.”
“I’m not your property.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
She stared at him.
He released the backpack.
“Come voluntarily.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’ll let you go.”
That surprised her.
Cassian stepped aside.
The bus driver called for final boarding.
Elena looked at the open door.
Freedom.
Or what looked like freedom.
Then she looked at Cassian.
“What happens if I come back?”
“You tell me enough to keep you alive.”
“Nothing else?”
“Nothing you don’t choose.”
Elena hesitated.
Then the bus doors closed.
She had missed it.
Cassian did not smile.
“Car’s outside.”
Sophia was waiting in Cassian’s office when they returned.
The moment Elena entered without the mechanic cap, Sophia stood.
For several seconds she simply stared.
“Oh.”
Elena folded her arms.
Sophia looked at Cassian.
“Oh.”
Cassian frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Sophia covered her mouth.
“Nothing.”
“It means something.”
“It means I owe several people apologies.”
Elena looked confused.
Sophia winced.
“There were rumors.”
“What rumors?”
Cassian said, “Sophia.”
She ignored him.
“People thought Cassian was interested in Nico.”
Elena’s eyes widened.
Sophia continued.
“Because he watches you.”
Cassian’s expression turned lethal.
“Sophia.”
“And eats lunch downstairs.”
“Sophia.”
“And almost broke Marco’s hand because he shoved you.”
Elena slowly looked at Cassian.
Sophia smiled awkwardly.
“I’m going to stop talking.”
“Excellent.”
Sophia picked up her handbag.
As she passed Elena, she paused.
“For what it’s worth, you’re safer here than you think.”
Elena looked at her.
Sophia’s smile faded.
“But only if you tell him the truth.”
When she left, Cassian closed the office door.
Elena remained standing.
“Start anywhere.”
She looked toward the windows.
For a long time, she said nothing.
Then:
“I met Gabriel when I was twenty-four.”
Cassian waited.
“My father’s company was collapsing. Gabriel invested. He was charming. Generous. Everyone loved him.”
“What changed?”
“Nothing at first.”
She sat.
“Then he started deciding who I could see. Where I could go. What I wore. He called it protection.”
Cassian’s face tightened.
“I told myself he was intense because of the life he lived.”
She rubbed her fingers together.
“Then the wedding got closer.”
“What did you see?”
“Three nights before I ran, I went to Gabriel’s warehouse because I thought he was cheating.”
Cassian said nothing.
“I heard voices.”
Her breathing became shallow.
“Gabriel was meeting a man from my father’s company.”
“Who?”
“Our CFO.”
Cassian leaned forward.
“They were discussing shipping manifests.”
“Illegal cargo?”
Elena shook her head.
“People.”
Cassian went still.
“Women.”
Her voice cracked.
“Passports taken. Documents changed. Routes through legitimate freight.”
Cassian’s expression became dangerous.
“I recorded part of the conversation.”
Gabriel had not been chasing a bride.
He had been chasing evidence.
“Where’s the recording?”
Elena looked at him.
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
“No.”
“If Serrano knows it exists—”
“He doesn’t know where it is.”
“But he thinks you do.”
“He’s right.”
Cassian stood.
“You need to give it to me.”
Elena stood too.
“I don’t trust you.”
“You work in my garage while hiding from a trafficker and somehow I’m still the larger concern?”
“You’re mafia.”
Cassian did not deny it.
“Exactly.”
“You think that means I’m him?”
“I think powerful men always believe their reasons make them different.”
That landed harder than Cassian expected.
He stepped back.
“Fair.”
Elena blinked.
She had expected anger.
Cassian continued.
“But if Serrano is moving people through freight routes, I need proof.”
“Why?”
“Because some lines matter.”
“To criminals?”
“To me.”
Elena studied him.
Before she could answer, someone knocked.
Luca entered.
His expression was grim.
“We found the man who attacked you last night.”
“Alive?”
“For now.”
“Who sent him?”
Luca looked toward Elena.
Then back to Cassian.
“That’s the problem.”
Cassian waited.
“He wasn’t sent by Serrano.”
Elena felt something cold move through her.
“Who?”
Luca placed a phone on the desk.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
A man leaving Elena’s rented building.
Elena stopped breathing.
Cassian looked at her.
“You know him.”
She backed away.
“No.”
“Elena.”
Her lips parted.
“My father.”
Cassian’s eyes narrowed.
Elena stared at the image.
“My father told Gabriel I was dead to him.”
Luca swiped to the next photograph.
Elena’s father was shaking hands with Gabriel Serrano.
The timestamp was from three hours earlier.
Then another image appeared.
A document.
Her father’s signature at the bottom.
Cassian read the heading.
SEARCH AUTHORIZATION AND ASSET RECOVERY.
Elena whispered, “He signed me over.”
Cassian looked up sharply.
But Luca was already staring toward the office window.
“Boss.”
Headlights filled the courtyard.
Not one vehicle.
Six.
Black SUVs surrounded the garage.
The front doors locked automatically.
Cassian reached inside his jacket.
Elena stared at the arriving men.
Then one SUV door opened.
Gabriel stepped out.
May you like
Beside him stood Elena’s father.
And Elena realized they had not come to negotiate.
