Chapter 8 - They did not wait until noon.
Roman refused to give Luca the luxury of controlling the clock.
Norah refused to be hidden somewhere while men decided what happened to her friend.
The resulting argument was so vicious that Tommy eventually walked out of the room and closed the door.
Roman wanted Norah transferred to a secure property outside the city.
Norah wanted access to everything they knew.
“You are not trained for this.”
“I’m trained enough to understand that Luca took Jess because he expected you to behave exactly like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m luggage that needs to be moved somewhere safe.”
“You are the target.”
“Which means removing me removes the only person he wants to negotiate with.”
Roman stared at her.
Norah continued.
“He doesn’t want war with you.”
“He came back to Chicago, broke into your apartment, compromised a bank, and abducted your friend.”
“If he wanted war, he would have attacked you.”
“He is attacking me.”
“Through me.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Then he thinks I am your weakness.”
“You are.”
The answer was immediate.
Norah stopped.
Roman appeared almost irritated by her surprise.
“You think I spent three years buying apartment buildings and tracking coffee purchases because I am emotionally balanced?”
Despite the situation, she laughed once.
Roman did not.
“Nora, there is nothing Luca can do to my businesses that matters more than what he can do by putting you in danger.”
Norah’s brief humor disappeared.
“Then we use that.”
Roman shook his head.
“No.”
“He already is.”
“No.”
“If he believes your fear makes you predictable, we make you unpredictable.”
Roman studied her.
“What are you suggesting?”
“We give him exactly what he expects.”
That gained Tommy’s attention when he returned.
Norah explained.
Luca expected Roman to arrive with force.
He expected Roman to refuse any genuine exchange.
He expected Norah to be protected, controlled, perhaps not even present.
So they allowed him to believe all three.
Norah would communicate.
Roman’s people would appear to prepare for the obvious confrontation.
Meanwhile, Tommy would focus on Jess.
Not the drives.
Not Luca.
Jess.
Roman listened.
Then he asked, “And where are you during this?”
“With you.”
“No.”
Norah sighed.
“We almost made it thirty seconds.”
“You are not entering whatever location Luca chooses.”
“Fine.”
Roman narrowed his eyes.
“That was too easy.”
“I said I wouldn’t enter his location. I didn’t say I would leave Chicago.”
He rubbed one hand over his face.
Tommy looked away to hide a smile.
By evening, they had something.
Luca’s call had been routed through several systems and yielded almost nothing, but Jess’s abandoned phone told a different story.
A traffic camera had captured a dark sedan leaving the nursing school.
Another camera saw it twenty minutes later near the river.
Then it disappeared into an industrial neighborhood containing several Moretti-linked properties that had supposedly been sold years earlier.
One remained under a holding company connected to Luca’s hotel business.
An abandoned printing warehouse.
Roman wanted to go immediately.
Norah stopped him.
“What if it is bait?”
“It probably is.”
“And?”
“And I don’t care.”
“That is exactly why Luca chose Jess.”
Roman turned.
“What do you expect me to do?”
“Think.”
“I am thinking.”
“No. You’re reacting.”
His face hardened.
Three years ago that expression would have ended the argument.
Norah stepped closer.
“He wants the Roman who killed seven men in a warehouse.”
Roman became still.
“He wants you angry enough to stop asking questions.”
She pointed toward the map on the table.
“Why leave a camera trail this obvious?”
Tommy frowned.
“She’s right.”
Roman looked at him.
Tommy shrugged.
“The sedan disappeared two blocks from a Moretti property. Too clean.”
Norah scanned the map.
“What else is nearby?”
Tommy enlarged the area.
Warehouses.
A recycling center.
An old church.
Cold storage.
Then Norah saw a familiar name.
Bellweather.
The foundation from the safe-deposit box.
“Roman.”
He followed her finger.
Bellweather Cultural Foundation owned a small restoration facility five blocks away.
Tommy immediately began checking records.
The building had been inactive for seven years.
Roman smiled without humor.
“That’s where she is.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
But his instinct had shifted.
Within minutes, several things happened at once.
Roman’s men moved toward the printing warehouse loudly enough to be noticed.
Another smaller group approached Bellweather quietly.
Norah remained in a secured vehicle three blocks away with Roman.
He hated every second of it.
She could tell from the way his knee moved.
Roman Cavalari did not wait well.
Particularly when someone he cared about was somewhere he could not control.
Norah put her hand over his.
He looked at it.
“You’re going to wear a hole through the floor.”
“I should be there.”
“You being here is why Tommy can focus.”
“I don’t enjoy being reasonable.”
“I know.”
He turned his hand beneath hers and interlaced their fingers.
It was such an ordinary gesture that Norah’s chest hurt.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Luca.
She answered.
“You’re early.”
“So are Roman’s men.”
Norah looked at Roman.
His expression remained calm.
“They are exactly where you expected them to be.”
Luca paused.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere warm.”
Roman’s mouth moved slightly.
“Bring the drives tomorrow.”
“Release Jess tonight.”
“No.”
Norah swallowed.
“Then you’re not getting anything.”
“She is safe.”
“Put her on.”
Silence.
“Luca.”
A moment later Jess spoke.
“I’m okay.”
Norah closed her eyes.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
A man spoke in the background.
Jess continued quickly.
“They gave me water. Sadie, don’t—”
Luca took the phone.
“Satisfied?”
“No.”
“You should be. Vincent would not have treated her so gently.”
Norah heard something underneath his voice.
Not pride.
Disgust.
“You hated your brother.”
Roman looked sharply at her.
Luca became silent.
Norah followed the instinct.
“Salvatore didn’t trust Vincent. That’s why he gave me the records.”
“You know nothing about my family.”
“I know he told me not to give the files to Vincent.”
A pause.
“He knew Vincent was dangerous.”
“Vincent was an animal.”
There.
The first crack.
Norah looked at Roman.
Roman understood too.
“Then why avenge him?” she asked.
“I’m not.”
Norah’s pulse changed.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“You kidnapped an innocent woman for truth?”
“I learned from the Cavalari family.”
Roman’s face hardened.
Norah squeezed his hand before he could react.
Luca continued.
“My uncle Salvatore spent twenty years collecting evidence because he intended to dismantle both families. Vincent discovered the plan. Roman’s father discovered part of it earlier. People died protecting those records.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
Norah’s throat tightened.
“Was Salvatore involved?”
“No.”
“Roman’s father?”
“Yes.”
Roman closed his eyes briefly.
“Then why does Roman matter now? Carlo is dead.”
“Because sons inherit debts.”
Norah looked at Roman.
“No.”
Luca laughed softly.
“You disagree?”
“I spent three years believing I had to pay for loving Roman. I’m finished inheriting other people’s punishments.”
Roman stared at her.
Norah continued.
“If you have something against Roman, say it. But Jess did nothing. I did nothing. You say Vincent was an animal while using the same methods.”
Silence.
When Luca spoke again, some of the amusement was gone.
“Tomorrow.”
“No. Tonight.”
“Nora—”
“The drives can destroy every person named in them. You need me cooperative.”
Roman’s fingers tightened around hers.
“Release Jess tonight, and tomorrow I meet you.”
Roman mouthed absolutely not.
Norah ignored him.
Luca said, “Without Roman.”
“Yes.”
Roman nearly ripped the phone from her hand.
Norah moved away.
“Public place,” she added. “My choice.”
Luca considered.
“Fine.”
The call ended.
Roman stared at her.
“No.”
“We got what we needed.”
“You just agreed to meet him.”
“I agreed to discuss meeting him.”
“That is not remotely the same thing you said.”
Before the argument could begin, Tommy called.
Roman answered.
His face changed.
“They found her.”
Norah stopped breathing.
“Jess?”
Roman listened.
“Alive?”
Another pause.
Then he nodded at Norah.
“Alive.”
Her knees weakened.
She sat back against the seat.
Roman relayed the address to the driver.
Twenty minutes later Norah saw Jess wrapped in a blanket beside an ambulance.
She ran.
Jess collided with her hard enough to nearly knock them both over.
Norah held her.
“I’m sorry.”
Jess was shaking.
“You have the worst ex-boyfriend situation in human history.”
Norah laughed through tears.
Behind them Roman stopped several feet away.
Jess noticed him.
Her expression changed.
“That’s him?”
Norah nodded.
Jess studied Roman.
“The terrifying restaurant guy?”
“Yes.”
“The crime guy?”
“Yes.”
Roman said, “Roman is fine.”
Jess stared at him.
“Did you find the people who took me?”
Tommy looked toward Roman.
Roman answered carefully.
“Some of them.”
Jess tightened the blanket.
“What happens to them?”
Norah looked at Roman.
This was the moment.
The old Roman would not have hesitated.
Roman’s eyes met hers.
He understood.
“They answer questions,” he said.
“And after?”
Roman remained silent.
Norah held his gaze.
Finally he said, “They live.”
Tommy actually looked surprised.
Jess nodded, apparently unaware of the significance.
Norah was not.
Roman Cavalari had just allowed men who participated in her friend’s abduction to survive because Norah asked him without speaking.
Later, in the SUV, she said, “Thank you.”
Roman looked out the window.
“I dislike it.”
“I know.”
“One of them laughed when Tommy questioned him.”
Norah almost smiled.
“And he’s still alive?”
“For now.”
“Roman.”
“He will remain alive.”
She leaned back.
After several seconds, Roman added, “Do not make this a habit.”
“What? Preventing murders?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds exactly like a habit I should develop.”
He looked at her.
There was no anger.
Only reluctant surrender.
Norah realized something important.
May you like
She had spent years afraid Roman’s darkness would change her.
She had never considered that she might change him.
