Chapter 2 - The Name Everyone Feared
Natalie wanted him gone.
That was the first clear thought she had after Roman Bellandi told her who he was.
The second was worse.
She had nowhere safe to send him.
Calling 911 might bring legitimate help.
Or it might bring the same men back wearing uniforms.
Driving him to a hospital meant taking Liam onto dark roads while killers searched the county.
Leaving Roman in the woods meant handing an injured man back to the people who had buried him alive.
Every option was terrible.
Natalie climbed into the cellar and pointed at Roman’s wound.
“Lie down.”
“I’m fine.”
“You were buried alive three hours ago.”
“I’ve had worse nights.”
“I sincerely doubt that.”
He tried to stand.
Pain folded him in half.
Natalie caught his shoulder.
“That argument was convincing.”
Roman lowered himself against the wall.
She checked his bandages.
Fresh blood had seeped through, but not enough to suggest catastrophic internal bleeding.
His pulse was stronger.
Still too fast.
His temperature had risen.
“You need imaging,” Natalie said. “I can stop visible bleeding. I can’t tell you what that knife damaged internally.”
“I’ll get a doctor.”
“How?”
“I have people.”
“Your people buried you.”
“Some of them.”
The distinction mattered to him.
Natalie replaced the dressing.
Roman watched her work.
“You’re very good.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive, not collect compliments.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Why what?”
“Why keep trying?”
“Because that’s what normal people do when someone is dying.”
Roman’s expression became strange.
Almost unfamiliar with the concept.
Natalie finished securing the bandage.
“I need to know why those men knew about me.”
“So do I.”
“You’re telling me you were attacked in the woods by people connected to you, and somehow they show up at the one cabin where you were taken?”
“They were searching.”
“They used my name.”
Roman went silent.
Natalie saw it.
A thought had occurred to him.
“What?”
He lifted his eyes.
“Who knows you live here?”
“My landlord. My employer. Liam’s school.”
“Family?”
“My mother died four years ago. My father when I was nineteen.”
“Friends?”
“A few people from the hospital.”
“Ex-husband?”
Natalie stiffened.
Roman noticed.
“His name?”
“That is none of your business.”
“It became my business when armed men used your name ten minutes after finding my blood outside.”
Natalie hated that he was right.
“Derek.”
“Last name?”
“Brooks.”
Roman repeated it quietly.
“Derek Brooks.”
Something changed.
Not recognition exactly.
More like a memory scratching at a locked door.
“You know him?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I heard voices before they put me in the ground.”
Natalie stopped breathing.
“One of them kept arguing.”
“What did he say?”
Roman closed his eyes.
He was clearly forcing himself through fractured memories.
“They were moving me from a vehicle. Someone asked why they had to come this far into the forest.”
Natalie waited.
“Another man said the property had one resident. A woman. Isolated. No family nearby.”
Her stomach dropped.
Roman continued.
“They said if anyone found the grave, suspicion would point toward her.”
Natalie whispered, “Me?”
“I didn’t know that then.”
The cellar suddenly felt too small.
“What else?”
Roman opened his eyes.
“One man said, ‘Her ex already did the hard part.’”
Natalie backed against the wall.
“No.”
Roman said nothing.
“No. Derek is selfish. He’s irresponsible. He lies. But he is not connected to—this.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
It came too fast.
Roman saw that too.
Natalie looked away.
Her divorce from Derek had lasted fourteen miserable months.
The marriage had taken much longer to die.
Derek never stayed employed.
Never stayed faithful.
Never stayed sober for long when gambling losses caught up with him.
But he had always remained charming enough around everyone else to make Natalie look unreasonable.
When she finally filed for divorce, he transformed.
Suddenly he wanted full custody.
Suddenly he attended school meetings.
Suddenly he had an expensive lawyer Natalie knew he could never afford.
He told the family court she worked too much.
That her debt made her unstable.
That moving Liam to Carbon County proved she was isolating their son.
Natalie had spent every dollar she possessed fighting him.
“How does your ex make money?” Roman asked.
“He sells cars. Sometimes.”
“Gambles?”
Natalie looked at him sharply.
“How did you know?”
“Men who need money are useful to men who have too much of it.”
“He wouldn’t sell me to criminals.”
Roman’s answer was quiet.
“Everyone thinks they know the price of someone they once loved.”
Footsteps sounded overhead.
Natalie jumped.
Roman grabbed the gun.
“Mom?”
Liam.
Natalie exhaled.
“Stay here.”
She climbed out and found Liam standing in the kitchen in dinosaur pajamas.
Goliath had come inside and sat beside him.
“What are you doing awake?”
“You said nothing was happening.”
“Nothing is.”
“Six men came to our house.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
Seven-year-olds were inconveniently observant.
Liam looked toward the pantry.
“Is somebody down there?”
Natalie froze.
“What makes you think that?”
“Goliath keeps staring at the floor.”
The mastiff’s amber gaze remained fixed on the trapdoor.
Traitor.
“Go upstairs.”
“Mom.”
“Liam.”
“Is someone hurt?”
Natalie stared at her son.
He had inherited her inability to ignore a wounded creature.
His first instinct when he saw roadkill was to ask if anything could still be saved.
She crouched in front of him.
“Yes.”
His expression changed.
“Bad?”
“Pretty bad.”
“Is that why those men came?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is he a good guy?”
Natalie almost laughed.
“I definitely don’t know.”
Roman’s voice came faintly from below.
“That’s fair.”
Liam’s eyes widened.
“You can hear us?”
“Unfortunately.”
Natalie opened the trapdoor.
Roman had hidden the gun.
Smart.
Liam peered down.
His expression turned serious when he saw the bruises covering Roman’s face.
“Oh.”
Roman looked uncomfortable.
Not because of his injuries.
Because a child was looking at him.
“Hi,” Liam said.
Roman hesitated.
“Hello.”
“Did somebody beat you up?”
“Liam.”
“What? They did.”
Roman almost smiled.
“Yes.”
“Did you beat them up back?”
“Not enough.”
“Mom says fighting doesn’t solve things.”
Roman glanced at Natalie.
“Your mother is probably right.”
“Probably?”
“She doesn’t like that word,” Liam informed him.
“I’m discovering that.”
Goliath moved toward the cellar entrance.
Roman’s body tensed.
The mastiff descended two steps.
Then three.
His enormous head came level with Roman’s chest.
Roman stayed perfectly still.
“You might want to tell him I’m friendly.”
“He decides that himself.”
Goliath sniffed the bandage.
Then Roman’s face.
Then his right hand.
Roman slowly opened his palm.
Goliath sniffed again.
Finally the dog sat.
Liam grinned.
“He likes you.”
“Does he?”
“He hasn’t bitten you.”
Natalie sighed.
“That is not our definition of liking someone.”
“It’s a start.”
For the first time, Roman Bellandi laughed.
It was quiet.
Brief.
And startlingly human.
Then the kitchen phone rang.
All three of them froze.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Natalie climbed out.
Caller ID glowed on the small display.
DEREK BROOKS.
Her ex-husband.
At two forty-three in the morning.
Roman saw her face.
“Who?”
Natalie whispered, “Derek.”
Roman climbed painfully toward the ladder.
“Answer it.”
“No.”
“Answer it.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to hear him.”
Natalie stared.
The telephone continued ringing.
She picked up.
“Hello?”
Derek’s voice came immediately.
“Nat?”
She hadn’t heard him sound that nervous in years.
“Why are you calling?”
“I was worried.”
“At three in the morning?”
“There’s bad weather out there.”
“So?”
“So I wanted to check on Liam.”
Natalie looked at Roman.
Roman leaned close enough to hear.
Derek continued.
“You guys okay?”
“We’re fine.”
“No trouble?”
“What kind of trouble?”
A pause.
Too long.
“I don’t know. Power outage. Trees down.”
“Our power is on.”
“Good.”
Natalie’s skin prickled.
“How did you know about the storm?”
“I saw the weather.”
“You never check the weather where we live.”
“Jesus, Natalie. I’m trying to be a father.”
Roman suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Not hard.
A warning.
His face had changed.
He recognized something.
Natalie ended the call.
Derek immediately called back.
She ignored it.
“What?” she whispered.
Roman’s expression was terrifying.
“That voice.”
“What about it?”
“I heard him.”
Natalie shook her head.
“No.”
Roman lowered his voice.
“When they dragged me from the SUV, I heard a man asking if they were sure you’d be blamed.”
Natalie felt the room tilt.
Roman looked directly at her.
“That was Derek.”
The phone rang again.
Liam stood silently beside Goliath.
Natalie stared at her ex-husband’s name glowing on the screen.
And for the first time since their divorce, she understood something that scared her more than losing custody.
May you like
Derek Brooks had not been trying to take their son away from her because he loved Liam.
He had been trying to position himself for whatever happened after Natalie disappeared.
