Chapter 2 - The Woman Someone Wanted Gone
Dominic reached Marin before she could move.
“Behind me.”
His hand closed around her wrist and pulled her against the side of the desk.
The darkness swallowed the office.
Marin could hear footsteps.
Fast.
Running.
Then a crash downstairs.
Dominic's guards moved without speaking.
A flashlight beam cut across the room.
“Generator's been disabled,” someone said.
“Seal the estate,” Dominic ordered.
Marin stared at her phone.
The photograph of her mother still glowed on the screen.
“My mother.”
Dominic looked down.
“We'll get someone to her.”
“Someone is already there.”
“I know.”
“You don't know where she lives.”
He met her eyes.
“I will in thirty seconds.”
Marin wanted to argue.
Instead she watched him make one call.
“Rafael. I need protection placed on Eleanor Holloway. Now.”
Marin stared.
“How do you know her name?”
Dominic ended the call.
“You filled out employment paperwork.”
“Oh.”
He almost smiled.
Not quite.
Another guard entered.
“No intruder found.”
“Someone called her name.”
“We heard.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Check every employee.”
Marin looked toward the dark doorway.
“You think somebody inside the estate sent the messages?”
“I think whoever did it knows where you work, where your mother lives, and exactly when you entered this office.”
“That isn't comforting.”
“It wasn't intended to be.”
The emergency lights flickered on.
Muted amber light filled the office.
Dominic looked at the signet ring still hanging loosely on Marin's finger.
“You're keeping that on.”
Marin almost laughed from sheer nerves.
“You're still worried about the ring?”
“I'm worried about what it communicates.”
“That I'm engaged to a man I've barely spoken to?”
“That touching you has consequences.”
The bluntness of it silenced her.
Dominic took her phone.
He enlarged the photo.
“Your mother lives alone?”
“Yes.”
“Any siblings?”
“No.”
“Father?”
“Dead.”
His expression changed slightly.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“How?”
Marin frowned.
“Heart attack.”
Dominic gave the phone back.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“No?”
“If someone is threatening my mother because of a folder your dog stole, I'm not sitting in a room waiting.”
Dominic studied her.
“Most people don't argue with me.”
“Most people aren't worried about their mother.”
Something in his expression softened.
He nodded once.
“Stay beside me.”
They moved downstairs.
The estate no longer looked like a wealthy home.
It looked like a fortress waking up.
Men in dark suits moved through hallways.
Doors were locked.
Security feeds filled screens in a control room Marin had never known existed.
Employees stood near the main staircase.
Some frightened.
Some confused.
Celeste looked furious.
Her eyes immediately fell to the ring on Marin's finger.
“You're actually wearing it?”
Marin ignored her.
Dominic did not.
“Celeste.”
She straightened.
“Yes?”
“You will not address Marin unless she speaks to you first.”
The humiliation on Celeste's face was immediate.
Marin felt uncomfortable.
She didn't want revenge.
She wanted answers.
Rafael, Dominic's security chief, entered through the front door.
“Eleanor Holloway is safe.”
Marin breathed.
“Where is she?”
“Her apartment. Two men are with her.”
“Does she know why?”
“We told her there was a security concern connected to your employment.”
“My mother will assume I've joined a cult.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Technically, no.”
Marin stared at him.
Rafael coughed to hide a laugh.
For the third time that morning, Dominic Castellano smiled.
And for the third time, everyone noticed.
Marin noticed something else.
Celeste hated it.
Not merely jealousy.
Fear.
Celeste turned away.
Marin followed her movement.
A thin red scratch crossed the inside of Celeste's wrist.
Marin's gaze dropped.
Fresh.
She looked toward Dominic.
He had seen it too.
“Celeste.”
The woman froze.
Dominic approached.
“What happened to your wrist?”
Celeste covered it.
“Nothing.”
“I asked what happened.”
“I caught it on a drawer.”
Rafael stepped forward.
“Which drawer?”
“The laundry room.”
Marin remembered the red mark on the folder.
Blood.
Celeste shook her head.
“I didn't touch the file.”
Nobody had accused her.
Marin's pulse accelerated.
Dominic's voice became dangerously quiet.
“What file?”
Celeste realized her mistake.
“I heard people talking.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“Interesting.”
Rafael took her gently but firmly by the elbow.
“We're going to talk.”
Celeste pulled away.
“You can't treat me like some criminal.”
Dominic looked at her.
“If I thought you were a criminal, this conversation would be different.”
Celeste went pale.
She was taken away.
Marin watched her disappear through a side door.
“I don't think she sent those messages.”
Dominic glanced at her.
“You defended the woman who insulted you?”
“I'm not defending her. I'm saying she looked genuinely afraid.”
“Fear can mean guilt.”
“Or it can mean somebody is threatening her too.”
Dominic studied Marin as if she had just said something interesting.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“People keep saying that today.”
“You notice details.”
“I clean houses. Details are the job.”
“You cleaned offices before?”
“Hotels. Hospitals. One law firm.”
“How did you end up here?”
Marin hesitated.
The real answer embarrassed her.
“I needed better money.”
“That isn't embarrassing.”
“I didn't say it was.”
“You thought it.”
Marin folded her arms.
“Do you interrogate everybody?”
“Only people who interest me.”
The air changed.
Marin looked away first.
Rafael returned ten minutes later.
“Celeste didn't bleed on the folder.”
“How do you know?”
“The cut is almost twelve hours old.”
Marin frowned.
“But the blood was fresh.”
“Yes.”
Dominic turned toward the security monitors.
“Who else was in the library corridor?”
Rafael displayed footage.
Marin watched herself enter the library at 10:03.
Nero appeared at 10:11.
At 10:15 Marin walked toward the supply closet.
The screen flickered.
Static.
Forty-seven seconds disappeared.
Then the image returned.
Nero emerged carrying the folder.
Marin whispered, “Someone erased the footage.”
“Not erased,” Rafael said. “Interrupted.”
“From where?”
“We're checking.”
Dominic stood very still.
Marin had begun to understand that this was when he was most dangerous.
Not when he shouted.
He never shouted.
When Dominic became silent, other people became nervous.
A younger maid approached.
“Sir?”
Dominic turned.
Her name was Evelyn.
She was barely twenty-one.
“What?”
“I saw someone near the library.”
Rafael stepped closer.
“Who?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“I didn't see his face.”
“His?”
“Yes.”
“Staff?”
“I don't think so.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Gray jacket. He carried something.”
“What?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“A silver case.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
Rafael said, “You're sure?”
“Yes.”
Marin noticed Dominic and Rafael exchange a look.
“What does that mean?”
Neither answered.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
“The silver case means something.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“It belonged to a man named Victor Salerno.”
The same name Marin thought she had heard.
Her stomach tightened.
“Who is he?”
“Someone who should be dead.”
Marin stared.
“Should be?”
“His car went over a cliff six years ago.”
“That sounds fairly dead.”
“They never recovered a body.”
Before Marin could respond, her phone rang.
Her mother.
She answered immediately.
“Mom?”
“Marin.”
Eleanor sounded frightened.
“Are you okay?”
“There are two men outside my apartment.”
“They're protecting you.”
“From what?”
Marin looked at Dominic.
“I'll explain later.”
“Marin, someone came here before them.”
Her blood went cold.
“What?”
“A man.”
“When?”
“About an hour ago.”
“What did he want?”
“He asked about your father.”
Marin stopped breathing.
“My father?”
“He asked whether Samuel ever gave you anything before he died.”
Dominic turned sharply.
Marin whispered, “What did you tell him?”
“That he left you his old things.”
“What things?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“Your father's lockbox.”
Marin's eyes moved to Dominic.
She had not opened that box in years.
It sat beneath her bed.
The same cheap metal box her father kept in the back of his closet.
“Mom, don't touch anything.”
“Marin—”
A crash came through the phone.
“Mom?”
Silence.
“Mom!”
Dominic took the phone.
“Eleanor?”
Nothing.
Rafael was already moving.
Then a man's voice came faintly through the speaker.
Calm.
Almost amused.
“Tell Dominic the Holloway girl has what belongs to me.”
The call ended.
Marin stared at the dark screen.
Dominic's face lost every trace of warmth.
Rafael reached the doorway.
Then another phone rang.
Dominic answered.
He listened for three seconds.
His eyes locked onto Marin.
“What?”
Dominic lowered the phone.
“Your mother's safe.”
Marin sagged with relief.
“But there's a problem.”
“What problem?”
“The men entered your apartment.”
Her chest tightened.
“And?”
Dominic stepped closer.
“They didn't take money.”
Marin already knew what he would say.
“They took the lockbox.”
“No.”
Dominic looked toward Rafael.
Rafael shook his head.
“They tried.”
Marin frowned.
“Then where is it?”
Rafael lifted a small metal box.
“We found it beneath your mother's kitchen table.”
Marin stared.
“That isn't where I kept it.”
“I know.”
Dominic took the box.
Its lock had been broken.
Inside rested a photograph, an old key, and one folded document.
Dominic unfolded it.
His face changed.
Marin whispered, “What is it?”
He slowly turned the paper toward her.
At the bottom was her father's signature.
And beside it was another name.
Dominic Castellano.
May you like
But the date was fourteen years earlier.
Long before Dominic claimed he had ever heard of Marin Holloway.
