Chapter 4 - The Old InstinctNico did not call Audrey immediately.
That was his first mistake.
It lasted seventeen minutes.
Seventeen minutes during which Jack explained that the unidentified man had appeared near Vale House three times, outside their apartment twice, and near the restaurant where Audrey had eaten with a client the previous Thursday.
Seventeen minutes during which Nico’s mind returned to an older version of itself.
Cars.
Guards.
Restricted elevators.
Controlled schedules.
The architecture of safety.
By minute eighteen, he had already mentally assigned two men to Audrey’s office, one vehicle to her commute, and another team to their building.
Then he stopped.
Jack watched him.
“What?”
Nico stared at the photographs.
“Nothing happens until I talk to her.”
Jack raised an eyebrow.
“You’ve changed.”
“Don’t sound disappointed.”
“I’m deciding whether marriage made my job harder.”
“It did.”
“Thought so.”
Nico called Audrey.
She answered immediately.
“Did you buy an eight-hundred-million-dollar company before breakfast?”
“Where are you?”
Silence.
Nico closed his eyes.
Wrong opening.
“Audrey.”
“Try again.”
He breathed.
“There is something I need to tell you.”
“That’s better.”
“Jack identified someone appearing repeatedly near your office and our apartment.”
Her tone changed.
“What do you mean appearing?”
“We have photographs.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Is he following me?”
“Possibly.”
“How possibly?”
Nico forced himself not to soften the facts.
“At least five confirmed appearances in nine days.”
Audrey was silent.
He hated that silence.
“Where are you now?” he asked.
“At the office.”
“Is the door locked?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
He heard himself slipping.
The old rhythm.
Instructions.
Control disguised as urgency.
He stopped.
“What do you want to do?”
Audrey did not answer immediately.
Then she said, “I want to see the photographs.”
“I’ll come to you.”
“No.”
Nico’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because if you arrive with Jack and six men, my entire staff will panic.”
“I wasn’t bringing six.”
“How many?”
Nico looked at Jack.
Jack lifted four fingers.
Nico ignored him.
“Not relevant.”
Audrey laughed once.
Despite the situation, the sound calmed him.
“I’ll come to you,” she said.
“I don’t like that.”
“I know.”
“I can send a car.”
“No.”
“Audrey.”
“Nico.”
He closed his eyes again.
Then he remembered something she had told him years earlier.
Consider my feelings.
Don’t manage them.
“All right.”
Jack looked offended.
Nico continued, “Can I ask you to take a cab instead of walking?”
Audrey paused.
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“And Nico?”
“Yes?”
“Do not turn Bellandi headquarters into a military checkpoint before I arrive.”
He looked through the glass wall of his office.
Two security officers were already outside.
“Define military.”
“Nico.”
“Fine.”
She hung up.
Jack stared at him.
“You’re terrible at this.”
“I’m aware.”
Thirty minutes later, Audrey entered.
Nico stayed behind his desk.
That required more discipline than anyone in the room understood.
Every instinct told him to cross the space, check her physically, place himself between her and every hypothetical threat.
Instead, he waited until she approached him.
Audrey touched his shoulder.
“I’m fine.”
“I know.”
“You don’t look like you know.”
“I’m working on it.”
Jack placed the photographs on the conference table.
Audrey examined them.
The man appeared to be in his late forties.
Medium height.
Dark coat.
Ordinary enough to disappear in a crowd.
“That’s him?”
“Yes,” Jack said.
“I’ve never seen him.”
“You might not have.”
Audrey looked at Nico.
“What does Elena say?”
“We haven’t told her yet.”
“Why?”
“Because we discovered the pattern this morning.”
Audrey looked back at the photographs.
“Could this be connected to the acquisition?”
“Yes.”
“Could it be your family?”
Nico’s expression hardened.
“Also yes.”
“Could it be nothing?”
Jack answered.
“Unlikely.”
Audrey appreciated the honesty.
“What do you recommend?”
Jack glanced at Nico.
Audrey noticed.
“No. I asked you.”
Jack almost smiled.
“Temporary security. One person with you during transit, another near your office. We change routes. Review your building access. Nothing dramatic.”
Nico said nothing.
Audrey looked at him.
“That’s all?”
“No.”
Jack coughed.
Audrey folded her arms.
“Nico.”
“I want two people with you.”
“No.”
“One.”
“One.”
“And a driver.”
“No.”
“Audrey.”
“I agreed to one security person.”
“A driver gives us control over the vehicle.”
“There’s that word.”
Nico’s jaw tightened.
Jack became fascinated by the wall.
Audrey lowered her voice.
“I understand you’re afraid.”
“Yes.”
“I’m afraid too.”
That stopped him.
Audrey rarely admitted fear while it was happening.
Usually she analyzed it afterward.
“I don’t want someone following me,” she said. “I don’t want to wonder whether the man across the street knows where I sleep.”
Nico’s expression softened.
“But if fear means you automatically get more authority over me, then whoever is doing this has already changed our marriage.”
He looked away.
Audrey waited.
Finally he said, “One security person.”
“Yes.”
“Someone you approve.”
“Yes.”
“No walking alone at night until we know more.”
She hesitated.
“Reasonable.”
Nico looked almost surprised.
“I can be reasonable.”
“I have documentation suggesting otherwise.”
She ignored that.
“Anything else?”
He wanted to say ten things.
Instead he shook his head.
“No.”
Jack collected the photographs.
“I’ll arrange it.”
Audrey pointed toward him.
“Someone discreet.”
“I know discreet people.”
“I’ve met your discreet people. They look like refrigerators in expensive jackets.”
Jack smiled.
“I’ll find a smaller refrigerator.”
That evening, Audrey worked late.
At nine forty, she left with Maria Santos, a thirty-eight-year-old former NYPD detective Jack had recommended.
Maria wore sneakers and complained about parking.
Audrey liked her immediately.
Nico did not.
Not personally.
He disliked anyone whose existence confirmed Audrey required protection.
At home, they ate reheated pasta.
Neither spoke about the watcher until after midnight.
Audrey was brushing her teeth when Nico appeared in the bathroom doorway.
“I want to tell you something.”
She looked at him through the mirror.
“That sounds ominous.”
“I almost put six people on you this morning.”
Audrey spat into the sink.
“Six?”
“Four.”
“You just said six.”
“I was including building coverage.”
She stared.
Nico leaned against the doorway.
“I didn’t.”
“No.”
“But I wanted to.”
Audrey rinsed her mouth.
“Thank you for telling me.”
“I’m not asking for congratulations.”
“Good.”
He looked tired.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Audrey walked closer.
“What are you afraid will happen?”
Nico laughed without humor.
“You want the list alphabetically?”
“The real thing.”
His expression changed.
She waited.
Finally he said, “I’m afraid that all this work I’ve done to stop controlling you will make me hesitate when I actually need to protect you.”
Audrey went still.
There it was.
Not control.
Not exactly.
The fear underneath it.
“What if something happens,” Nico said, “and I could have prevented it?”
Audrey touched his face.
“What if nothing happens and we destroy everything trying to prevent it?”
“I know.”
“No. I’m not saying you’re wrong.”
He looked at her.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Audrey whispered. “There isn’t a clean answer.”
Nico covered her hand with his.
“If someone hurts you because I respected your freedom—”
“Stop.”
His jaw tightened.
“My freedom would not be the cause.”
“Audrey—”
“The person hurting me would be the cause.”
He looked away.
She forced his eyes back toward hers.
“You don’t get to turn my autonomy into evidence against yourself.”
Something in his face broke.
Not dramatically.
Nico Bellandi did very little dramatically anymore.
He simply closed his eyes.
Audrey wrapped her arms around him.
He held her.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
The next morning, Maria found the tracker.
It was beneath Audrey’s car.
Magnetic.
Commercial grade.
Recently installed.
Jack called Nico first.
Nico called Audrey.
This time he did not wait seventeen minutes.
Audrey was standing inside Vale House when she heard.
Her hand tightened around the phone.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Can they trace it?”
“Jack is working on it.”
Audrey looked through the office windows.
People walked along the sidewalk.
Coffee cups.
Phones.
Delivery bicycles.
Normal life.
Suddenly every face looked deliberate.
“I’m coming home,” she said.
Nico became quiet.
“You want me to send someone?”
“Yes.”
One word.
It cost her something to say.
Nico understood.
“I’ll send Maria.”
“No. She’s here.”
“Then I’ll meet you at home.”
“Okay.”
Audrey hung up.
She hated how badly her hands were shaking.
Maria saw.
“Sit down.”
Audrey almost laughed.
Nico had once learned never to say those words to certain kinds of frightened women.
Apparently Maria had not received the memo.
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
Audrey looked at her.
Maria shrugged.
“Neither would I be.”
That helped more than reassurance.
Audrey sat.
Twenty minutes later, Jack called Maria.
They spoke quietly near the windows.
Audrey watched Maria’s expression change.
“What?”
Maria ended the call.
“They identified the tracker model.”
“And?”
“It was purchased through a security contractor.”
“Which one?”
Maria hesitated.
Audrey stood.
“Tell me.”
“Bellandi Protective Services.”
The room went silent.
Audrey stared at her.
“That’s Nico’s company.”
“Subsidiary.”
“Same difference.”
Maria shook her head.
“Thousands of devices pass through inventory.”
Audrey barely heard her.
The old fear had already arrived.
Not rationally.
Physically.
Her heart.
Her stomach.
Her skin.
Five years of trust did not disappear.
But trauma did not need to destroy trust to hurt.
Sometimes it only needed to imitate the shape of an old wound.
Audrey called Nico.
He answered.
“We traced—”
“I know.”
Silence.
“Maria told you.”
“Yes.”
“Audrey, listen to me.”
“I am.”
“I did not put that tracker on your car.”
She closed her eyes.
“I know.”
The answer came automatically.
Then she realized something.
She did know.
Not hope.
Not want to believe.
Know.
Nico went silent.
“Audrey?”
“I believe you.”
He exhaled.
She could hear it.
“But someone inside your company may have.”
“Yes.”
“And that scares me.”
“It scares me too.”
She looked at Maria.
“When you come home, don’t bring the whole security team.”
“Audrey—”
“I want you.”
Nico stopped.
“Just you.”
His voice changed.
“I’ll be there.”
He arrived nineteen minutes later.
Alone.
Audrey opened the apartment door before he knocked.
For a moment they simply looked at each other.
Then she stepped into him.
Nico held her.
No questions.
No strategy.
No instructions.
She pressed her face against his chest.
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“I hate being afraid in my own life.”
“I know.”
“I hate that someone knows exactly how to make this feel worse.”
Nico’s hand moved slowly along her back.
That sentence stayed with him.
Exactly how.
He pulled away.
“What did you say?”
Audrey frowned.
“Someone knows exactly how to make this feel worse.”
Nico became still.
The tracker.
His company.
Audrey.
The timing of the Marino acquisition.
Not random.
Not simply surveillance.
Someone was designing a message.
Nico reached for his phone.
Audrey caught his hand.
“What?”
He looked at her.
“The tracker wasn’t meant to remain hidden.”
“How do you know?”
“Because whoever bought it through my company wanted us to trace it back.”
Audrey felt cold.
“Why?”
May you like
Nico’s eyes hardened.
“To make you wonder whether I put it there.”
Related Stories
