Chapter 2 - Roman looked toward her.
“What?”
“Dennis.”
“Who?”
“Dennis Cole. Temporary maintenance.”
The technicians searched the personnel system.
No Dennis Cole existed.
Roman’s expression changed.
“Lock every exit.”
The Bellini Grand became a sealed fortress.
40 minutes later, they found Margaret.
Unconscious.
Alive.
Inside an unused linen storage room.
Beside her lay a torn envelope.
Inside were copies of payroll records dating back to 1998.
Records connected to Roman’s father.
The numbers revealed something considerably larger than layoffs.
For decades, small percentages of employee retirement funds had been redirected through shell companies.
Never enough at once to attract attention.
But over time, millions had disappeared.
Adrien Vascari had inherited control of the system from his own father.
Roman’s modernization plan threatened to trigger audits across every legacy account.
The layoffs were not simply cost cutting.
Vascari had manipulated the projections.
He wanted longtime employees removed because several had unknowingly signed or witnessed documents tied to the old accounts.
Margaret recognized her own signature.
Samuel Price’s name appeared on 2 files.
Walter Green’s on another.
Roman studied the documents until dawn.
Emily stood beside him in his penthouse library.
“You almost fired all your witnesses.”
Roman looked at her.
“I almost fired people who trusted my family for 40 years.”
“That too.”
Roman poured whiskey.
He did not drink it.
Rain moved down the windows.
Emily had never seen him tired before.
It somehow made him more dangerous.
More human.
“My father taught me numbers were clean.”
Roman looked at the glass.
“People weren’t.”
Emily waited.
“He believed loyalty could be measured by usefulness.”
“And you?”
Roman’s gaze found her.
“I thought I disagreed with him.”
“You still might.”
His mouth tightened.
“You make excuses for me.”
“No.”
Emily shook her head.
“I’m saying becoming different is harder than claiming you are.”
Roman moved closer.
The room narrowed around the distance between them.
He raised one hand.
For an instant, Emily thought he was going to touch her face.
He stopped inches away.
His fingers curled.
“What are you afraid of?” she whispered.
Roman’s eyes dropped toward her mouth.
Then returned to her eyes.
“You.”
Emily’s heartbeat stumbled.
Roman stepped away.
The moment ended.
Neither spoke about it.
Adrien Vascari disappeared the following morning.
By evening, Emily’s apartment had been broken into.
Nothing valuable was missing.
Only her employee files had been scattered across the floor.
Roman arrived before the police had finished photographing the damaged door.
He walked through Emily’s apartment in complete silence.
Emily stood near the kitchen wrapped in a blanket.
A detective asked whether she had somewhere else to stay.
Roman answered for her.
“She does.”
Emily turned.
“No.”
Roman looked at her.
“That answer is no longer available.”
“You don’t own me.”
“No.”
His voice became quieter.
“That is exactly why this is becoming difficult.”
The detective chose that moment to walk away.
Emily folded her arms.
“I am not staying in your penthouse.”
“Fine.”
She blinked.
Roman took out his phone.
“Prepare the lake house.”
Emily stared.
“You had another option ready.”
“I have many options.”
“That is deeply irritating.”
“You’ll survive it.”
Emily should have refused.
Then she saw the photograph lying deliberately on her kitchen counter.
A security still.
Emily entering the Bellini Grand.
A red circle drawn around her face.
She stopped speaking.
Roman’s expression changed when he saw fear reach her.
Not softer.
Worse.
A cold fury settled over him.
He picked up the photograph.
“Pack a bag.”
This time, Emily did not argue.
The Bellini lake house stood 90 minutes outside Chicago, hidden among pine trees beside Blackwater Lake.
Forced proximity changed everything.
Roman received calls at all hours.
Men arrived in dark vehicles.
Names were spoken quietly.
Vascari.
Moretti.
Calderon.
Accounts.
Territory.
Retaliation.
Emily learned that Roman had spent years separating the hotel business from the criminal inheritance he had never completely escaped.
He had reduced violence.
Closed trafficking routes his father once tolerated.
Moved large amounts of money into legitimate property.
But power like Roman’s could not simply be resigned from.
It created enemies.
Now Vascari was offering rival families access to Bellini properties in exchange for protection.
Emily had become the weakness everyone could see.
Roman hated the fact.
He also gradually stopped pretending she was anything else.
One stormy night, the electricity failed.
Emergency generators cast a pale glow across the kitchen.
Emily found Roman standing beside the windows holding a pistol.
“Do you sleep with that?”
“Yes.”
“That was not comforting.”
“It wasn’t intended to be.”
Lightning illuminated the lake.
Emily stepped closer.
“Margaret called.”
Roman looked over.
“She remembered something.”
His expression sharpened.
“What?”
“Vascari’s father used to bring documents to Samuel at the front entrance because Samuel witnessed deliveries.”
Roman became still.
“Samuel may know where the original ledgers were stored.”
“We need to return.”
“No.”
“Roman.”
“No.”
Emily stepped toward him.
“Those people are in danger because of something your family did.”
“I know.”
“And you think locking me out here fixes it?”
“It keeps 1 person alive.”
Emily’s voice softened.
“At what cost?”
Roman’s eyes darkened.
“You think I care about cost anymore?”
The words remained between them.
Emily stopped.
Roman seemed to realize what he had admitted.
Too late.
“You barely knew I existed a month ago.”
“I know.”
“And now?”
Roman’s jaw flexed.
“Now I know what time you take your coffee.”
Emily stared.
“I know you skip breakfast when you’re worried.”
“I know you touch the silver chain around your neck when you’re angry but trying to remain polite.”
“I know you pretend you aren’t afraid when you are.”
His voice lowered.
“I know every camera angle between the employee entrance and housekeeping because I check them while you’re working.”
Emily’s breath caught.
“That sounds unhealthy.”
“It is.”
Roman stepped closer.
He still did not touch her.
“I have spent my entire life knowing exactly what everything costs.”
Another step.
“You are the first thing I cannot calculate.”
Thunder moved across the lake.
Emily looked at him.
She was afraid of Roman.
More frighteningly, she also felt safe when he was near.
Then headlights appeared through the trees.
Roman’s face changed instantly.
He shoved Emily behind the stone kitchen island.
“Down.”
The first window exploded.
The attack lasted 90 seconds.
To Emily, it felt like an hour.
Roman’s security team exchanged fire with masked men outside.
Glass covered the floor.
Emily stayed behind the island until she heard footsteps in the rear corridor.
A man appeared.
He reached toward her.
Emily grabbed the nearest object.
A heavy cast-iron pan.
She struck his wrist.
His gun fell.
Roman arrived 1 second later.
What followed was fast.
Brutal.
He drove the attacker against the wall.
Then fired 1 controlled shot into the floor beside the man’s head.
“Who sent you?”
The attacker laughed through blood on his lip.
“Vascari says the cleaner made you weak.”
Roman’s expression became terrifyingly calm.
Emily understood immediately that this was the face men feared.
Roman leaned close.
“No.”
His voice was almost gentle.
“She showed me where I already was.”
The attacker’s smile disappeared.
Roman’s men dragged him away.
Only then did Roman turn toward Emily.
He saw blood across her palm.
Everything in him changed.
He crossed the room.
“You’re bleeding.”
“It’s glass.”
Roman caught her wrist carefully.
The same man who had nearly killed someone seconds earlier touched Emily as if she might break.
“Roman.”
He ignored her.
“Medical kit.”
“Roman.”
His eyes met hers.
“You cannot keep doing this.”
“Doing what?”
“Looking at me like losing me would destroy you.”
Roman did not answer.
The silence was enough.
Samuel Price knew where the original ledgers had been hidden.
Roman brought him back to the Bellini Grand under armed protection.
The elderly doorman listened while Roman explained what had been uncovered.
When Roman finished, Samuel looked toward Emily.
Then back at Roman.
“Your father always believed employees heard nothing.”
Samuel smiled sadly.
“Rich men forget invisible people still have ears.”
27 years earlier, Roman’s father had ordered original financial ledgers hidden inside the foundation archive beneath St. Catherine’s Church, a property the Bellini family had financed.
Vascari knew about the archive.
So did the rival family protecting him.
Roman assembled his men.
Emily immediately said, “I’m coming.”
Roman laughed once without humor.
“No.”
“Samuel needs someone he trusts.”
“He trusts me.”
Samuel looked between them.
“I trust her more.”
Roman stared at him.
Samuel shrugged.
“She listens.”
Emily nearly smiled.
Roman did not.
St. Catherine’s stood abandoned beneath a storm-dark sky.
Black SUVs surrounded the church.
Rain made the old stone steps shine.
Roman entered first.
Emily and Samuel followed behind 2 armed guards.
Inside, empty candle racks collected dust beneath damaged stained glass.
They found the archive beneath the altar.
They also found Adrien Vascari.
He stood beside an open metal safe.
6 armed men surrounded him.
Roman stopped 10 ft away.
Vascari smiled.
“You canceled 47 firings because a cleaner made you emotional.”
Roman said nothing.
“You were supposed to be better than your father.”
“I am.”
Vascari’s smile widened.
“You think compassion proves that?”
“No.”
Roman’s eyes shifted briefly toward Emily.
“Choice does.”
Gunfire erupted.
The church became chaos.
Roman shoved Emily behind a stone pillar while his men returned fire.
Samuel crawled toward the archive.
Vascari ran toward the side aisle carrying the ledgers.
Emily saw him.
“Roman.”
Roman turned.
Vascari fired.
Roman moved in front of Emily.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He staggered.
Something inside Emily went cold.
Roman raised his weapon.
Fired once.
Vascari’s gun flew from his hand.
Roman’s men tackled him before he reached the exit.
Then Roman sank against the pillar.
Emily dropped beside him.
Blood spread across his white shirt beneath the black jacket.
“No.”
“I’m fine.”
“You were shot.”
“I’ve been shot before.”
“That is not reassuring.”
Even then, something near a smile touched Roman’s face.
Emily pressed both hands over the wound.
His jaw tightened against the pain.
His men secured the church.
From the floor, Vascari shouted.
“She made you weak.”
Roman looked toward him.
Then at Emily.
His blood covered her hands.
“She made me stop confusing cruelty with strength.”
Vascari stared.
Roman turned toward his security chief.
“Give the ledgers to federal investigators.”
The room froze.
Even Emily.
Those documents could expose decades of Bellini crimes.
Destroy alliances.
Cost Roman millions.
May you like
Possibly far more.
The security chief hesitated.
