Chapter 1 - The Last Promise
Elias grabbed Dominic's wrist and whispered, "Marry her."
Dominic Castellano looked at the silver key hanging from his dying friend's fingers.
Three numbers had been scratched into the metal.
Dominic suddenly understood Elias had not called him there to say goodbye.
"You're delirious."
Elias Bell gave a weak laugh that ended in a cough.
Dominic did not laugh with him.
Twenty years of friendship had taught him the difference between Elias joking and Elias hiding terror.
This was terror.
The warehouse office smelled of old wood, machine oil, and coffee that had gone cold hours ago. Elias lay on a narrow couch beneath a gray blanket while a private doctor packed equipment into a leather case several feet away. Two of Dominic's security men waited beyond the closed door.
Nobody spoke above a murmur.
Nobody needed to.
Elias had been told he had hours, perhaps less.
Dominic stood beside him wearing black trousers and an open dark shirt, rain still clinging to his shoulders from the drive across South Boston.
"Who?" Dominic asked.
Elias swallowed.
"My cousin."
Dominic stared at him.
"You have six cousins."
"The one nobody calls."
That narrowed it immediately.
"Claire?"
Elias nodded.
Dominic stepped away.
"No."
Elias closed his eyes.
It was not the answer of a man disappointed by rejection.
It was the reaction of a man who had expected it.
Dominic moved toward the window and looked through streaked glass at the dark loading yard.
He knew Claire Bell.
Not well.
Enough.
She was twenty-nine, worked quietly in bookkeeping for one of Elias's legitimate construction companies, and lived alone in a small apartment in Quincy. Dominic had met her maybe four times.
The first had been at Elias's mother's funeral.
The second at Christmas.
The third at a charity dinner where two members of the Bell family had made a joke about Claire's size when they thought she couldn't hear.
Dominic had heard.
He had also seen Claire leave the table without defending herself.
The fourth time had been three months earlier, when she had handed Dominic a folder during a business meeting and politely corrected an accountant twice her age.
Nothing about her suggested she belonged anywhere near Dominic Castellano's world.
Which was exactly why Elias's request made no sense.
"She's not built for this life," Dominic said.
Elias opened his eyes.
"Neither was my mother."
"Your mother married a mechanic."
"My mother married my father before he became what he became."
Dominic turned.
"We're not discussing your parents."
"No. We're discussing Claire."
Elias struggled to sit up.
Dominic immediately crossed the room and helped him.
"Don't."
"I don't have time for you to order me around anymore."
"You've been ignoring my orders since we were fifteen."
Elias smiled faintly.
Then his face tightened.
Dominic waited until the pain passed.
Elias looked older than forty-one tonight.
Too old.
Too thin.
Too tired.
"Claire doesn't know what our family really is," Elias said.
"Then keep it that way."
"I tried."
Something in his voice made Dominic still.
Elias lifted the silver key.
"Locker 317. South Station."
Dominic looked at it again.
"What is inside?"
"Everything I couldn't trust to anyone else."
"Give it to your attorney."
"My attorney is bought."
"Then give it to me."
"I am."
Dominic frowned.
Elias shook his head.
"I'm giving you the key. But Claire has the other half."
Dominic said nothing.
Elias studied him.
"She doesn't know she has it."
That was worse.
Dominic pulled a chair closer and sat.
"Start at the beginning."
Elias breathed slowly.
"My uncle Frank has been moving money."
Dominic's jaw hardened.
Frank Bell had spent twenty-five years pretending to be a respectable businessman.
He owned shipping companies.
Warehouses.
Restaurants.
He also owned favors.
People.
Silence.
"How much?" Dominic asked.
"Enough to buy half the city."
"From whom?"
"From you."
Dominic's expression did not change.
That was what frightened most men.
Dominic Castellano did not need to shout.
At thirty-three, he controlled an organization inherited from a father he had spent most of his adult life trying not to become.
Dominic had rules.
No narcotics.
No trafficking.
No civilians.
No children.
Business disputes stayed between people who had chosen the business.
Frank Bell considered rules an inconvenience.
"What proof?" Dominic asked.
"The locker."
"And Claire?"
"She found numbers in company accounts six months ago."
"Does she understand them?"
"Not yet."
"Then why is she in danger?"
"Because Frank knows she noticed."
Dominic stood.
"I'll move her tonight."
"No."
"No?"
"She won't go with you."
"She doesn't need to like me."
"She'll run."
"Then I'll put security on her."
"She'll find a way around them."
Dominic almost smiled.
"You make her sound difficult."
"She is when she's scared."
"So why marriage?"
Elias stared toward the ceiling.
"Because nobody can reach the wife of Dominic Castellano without starting a war."
Dominic's amusement vanished.
"You want to use my name as armor."
"I want her alive."
"Marriage isn't security paperwork."
"I know."
"She deserves more than that."
"Then give her more."
Dominic looked at him sharply.
Elias's smile was tired but knowing.
"I'm dying, Dom. Don't waste my last hour pretending you don't understand women."
"I understand women."
"You understand women who know what you are."
"Claire knows enough."
"No. She thinks you're a businessman with tattoos and expensive cars."
"That's not entirely wrong."
Elias laughed again.
This time tears appeared in his eyes.
Dominic looked away.
He had seen men die.
Too many.
He had never learned how to watch a friend do it.
"Why did her family reject her?" Dominic asked quietly.
Elias's face darkened.
"They didn't reject her."
"That's not what I heard."
"They used her."
Dominic waited.
"Her father died when she was seventeen. Her mother married again. Claire inherited a small trust from her grandmother. Everyone treated her like the inconvenient cousin until they needed money."
"And after the money?"
"They stopped calling."
Dominic's fingers tightened around the silver key.
"Frank too?"
"Especially Frank."
Elias's breathing became rougher.
"He gave her the bookkeeping job because he thought she was harmless. Quiet woman. No husband. No influence. Everybody underestimates her."
"You don't."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because she remembers everything."
Dominic glanced at him.
"Numbers?"
"People."
Elias reached beneath the blanket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
He held it toward Dominic.
It was a photograph.
Claire stood outside a bakery, laughing at something outside the frame.
She wore a green sweater and jeans, her dark hair loose around her shoulders.
She looked nothing like the frightened, lonely woman Elias was describing.
She looked alive.
Warm.
Ordinary.
Dominic handed the photo back.
"She won't agree."
"Then ask."
"And if she says no?"
"Protect her anyway."
"You've thought of everything."
"No."
Elias looked at him.
"I didn't think I'd die before I could fix it myself."
Silence settled between them.
The doctor approached.
"Five minutes."
Dominic's head snapped toward him.
The doctor lowered his eyes.
Elias sighed.
"See? Even death has appointments."
"Shut up."
"Make me."
Dominic leaned forward, forearms on his knees.
"You'll tell her yourself."
"I won't."
"You will."
"Dom."
"No."
Elias's expression softened.
"You were my brother before either of us understood what that word meant."
Dominic looked down.
"You were there when my father threw me out."
"You slept on my couch for six months."
"Your couch smelled like wet dog."
"We didn't own a dog."
"Exactly."
Elias smiled.
Then the smile faded.
"Promise me."
Dominic did not answer.
"Promise me Claire won't face Frank alone."
"She won't."
"Promise me you'll ask her."
Dominic stared at his friend.
Marriage.
To a woman who barely knew him.
A woman who might hate everything his name represented.
A woman who had no reason to trust him.
Elias tightened his grip.
"Promise."
Dominic finally covered his hand.
"I promise."
Elias closed his eyes.
A tear slipped toward his temple.
"Good."
An hour later, Elias Bell was gone.
Dominic remained in the warehouse long after the doctor had left.
He sat beside the empty couch with the silver key in his palm.
At 2:14 a.m., his phone rang.
His security chief, Marco DeLuca.
"Boss."
"What?"
"We found Claire."
Dominic stood.
"Where?"
"Mass General."
Dominic frowned.
"Why?"
"Someone ran her car off the road forty minutes ago."
Every muscle in Dominic's body went still.
"Condition?"
"Shaken. Bruised. Nothing broken."
"Who was driving the other car?"
"They disappeared."
Dominic grabbed his jacket.
"I'm coming."
He made it halfway to the door before Marco spoke again.
"There's something else."
Dominic stopped.
"What?"
"Claire wasn't alone."
A beat of silence.
"Who was with her?"
"We don't know."
Marco lowered his voice.
"But whoever it was left a black envelope on her hospital bed."
Dominic opened the warehouse door.
Rain blew inside.
May you like
"And?"
"Your name was written across the front."
