Chapter 2 - FIVE WORDS
I woke to the sound of a machine breathing beside me.
For several seconds, I did not know where I was.
Everything was white.
White ceiling. White sheets. White light leaking through half-closed blinds.
Then I tried to move.
Pain exploded through my shoulder and ribs so violently that I sucked in a breath and immediately regretted it.
“Don’t.”
The voice came from the corner.
Low.
Controlled.
Impossible to mistake.
Victor Romano sat in a chair beside the window.
He had changed out of the blood-soaked suit I remembered, but there was still dried blood under one of his fingernails.
Mine, I realized.
He looked as though he had not slept.
His black shirt was open at the throat, his jaw dark with stubble, and the cold eyes I had spent eight months avoiding were fixed directly on me.
For once, Victor Romano was not looking through me.
He was looking at me.
“Leo?” I whispered.
Victor stood immediately.
“Safe.”
My eyes closed.
That single word loosened something inside my chest.
“Thank God.”
“He has refused to leave this floor.”
I looked toward the door.
“He’s here?”
“In the family lounge with three guards and enough candy to rot every tooth in his head.”
Despite the pain, I almost smiled.
Victor did not.
He walked closer.
“The surgeons removed two bullets. The third passed through without damaging your spinal cord.”
“Lucky me.”
His jaw tightened.
“You almost died.”
“I noticed.”
“You died twice on the operating table.”
That erased the weak humor from my face.
Victor lowered himself into the chair beside my bed.
The most dangerous man I had ever met suddenly looked almost… angry at me.
“You covered my son with your body.”
“I didn’t think.”
“That’s obvious.”
I frowned.
He leaned forward.
“Thinking people don’t run into rifle fire.”
“Leo was six feet from me.”
“Ten.”
“What?”
“You were ten feet away.”
I stared at him.
“You measured?”
“I watched the security footage fourteen times.”
Something in the way he said it chilled me more than the pain medication could soften.
“Did you find them?”
“Some.”
That answer told me enough.
I looked away.
Victor studied me in silence.
Then he said, “Your brother has been transferred.”
My head snapped back toward him.
“Caleb?”
“He’s at St. Matthew’s now.”
My heart began pounding.
“What happened?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Then why was he transferred?”
“Because the facility he was using was inadequate.”
“You had no right—”
“I own St. Matthew’s.”
I blinked.
Victor continued as though discussing the weather.
“Caleb’s specialist reviewed his file this morning. The experimental treatment his former hospital denied will begin next week.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
Victor’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
“No?”
“I can’t pay for that.”
“You aren’t paying.”
“I’m not accepting charity.”
“It isn’t charity.”
“What is it?”
His expression changed.
Barely.
But I saw it.
Decision.
He reached into his jacket and placed a velvet box on the bedside table.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
“You haven’t heard me yet.”
“I don’t need to.”
He opened the box.
A diamond sat inside.
Not enormous in the vulgar way I expected from a Romano.
Simple.
Old-fashioned.
Beautiful.
Victor looked at me.
“You’re going to be my wife.”
For five full seconds, I thought the medication had caused me to hallucinate.
Then I laughed.
It hurt so badly I immediately grabbed my ribs.
Victor stood.
“I told you not to move.”
“You’re insane.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.”
“You know I mop your floors.”
“I know you worked six days a week for eight months while visiting your brother every night.”
My smile vanished.
Victor continued.
“I know you send almost seventy percent of your paycheck to his treatment account.”
My blood went cold.
“I know you skipped lunch more than once because you were saving money. I know you speak Spanish because your mother was from Puerto Rico. I know you were studying to become a physical therapist before Caleb became sick and you dropped out to work.”
I stared at him.
“You investigated me.”
“I investigate everyone who enters my home.”
“That doesn’t mean you know me.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But Leo does.”
That hurt more than I expected.
Victor walked toward the window.
“Since his mother died, my son has gone through seven nannies, four therapists and two private tutors. He barely speaks to any of them.”
“He’s grieving.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Victor turned.
Danger flashed across his face.
I should have been frightened.
Instead, I was suddenly furious.
“Because from where I was standing, that boy had twenty-seven rooms, twelve security guards and nobody who sat on the floor with him.”
Victor said nothing.
“You kept everyone away from him because you were afraid someone would hurt him.”
“Yes.”
“And in doing that, you made him lonely.”
His hands curled at his sides.
I pushed anyway.
“Leo didn’t need another bodyguard. He needed someone to notice when he was sad.”
“You noticed.”
“Yes.”
“That is why I am asking you.”
“You’re not asking.”
Silence.
His eyes narrowed.
I pointed weakly toward the ring.
“You walked in here and announced I’m going to marry you.”
“You saved my son.”
“That doesn’t mean you get to own me.”
Victor’s face became unreadable.
Then, unexpectedly, he closed the ring box.
“All right.”
I blinked.
“All right?”
“I’m asking.”
He came back to the bed.
“Elise Carter.”
My heart skipped when he said my full name.
“Will you marry me?”
“No.”
He looked almost offended.
“No?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
“I have three bullet holes. My thinking is already questionable.”
“Elise.”
“I don’t love you.”
“I didn’t mention love.”
“Wonderful foundation for marriage.”
“You need security.”
“I need a job.”
“You need protection. Whoever attacked my house saw you cover Leo. If any of them escaped, they know your face.”
The room suddenly felt colder.
Victor leaned closer.
“They will assume you matter to me.”
“I don’t.”
His eyes held mine.
“That assumption would now be correct.”
I stopped breathing for a second.
He continued.
“My enemies understand wives. They understand sons. They understand blood. What they do not understand is a housekeeper who was willing to die for my child.”
“So you want to make me a bigger target?”
“I want to put the Romano name between you and every person stupid enough to come after you.”
“That name creates most of the danger.”
“Yes.”
At least he did not lie.
I looked toward the closed door.
“What about Leo?”
“He wants you home.”
“I’m not his mother.”
Victor’s expression shifted.
“No one is asking you to replace Sofia.”
His late wife.
I had never heard him say her name.
“Then why marriage?”
“Because a temporary employee can disappear. A nanny can resign. A housekeeper can be fired.”
“And a wife?”
“Stays.”
The word landed strangely between us.
I understood then.
This was not romance.
It was fear.
Victor Romano had nearly lost his son.
Now he was trying to build walls around everything Leo loved.
Including me.
“I’m not a wall, Victor.”
For the first time, his eyes softened.
“I know.”
A knock sounded.
Before either of us answered, the door opened.
Leo stood there in dinosaur pajamas.
A guard hovered behind him.
The boy’s face lit up when he saw my eyes open.
“Elise!”
He ran toward the bed.
Victor caught him gently around the waist before he could jump on me.
“Careful.”
Leo froze.
Then he approached one tiny step at a time.
His hand found mine.
“You woke up.”
“I promised you I would.”
“You didn’t.”
“What?”
“You didn’t promise.”
I swallowed.
“You’re right.”
Leo’s lower lip trembled.
“I thought you died.”
My chest tightened.
“I’m still here.”
He looked at his father.
Then at the velvet box.
Then back at me.
Six-year-olds noticed everything adults tried to hide.
“Is that Mama’s ring?”
Victor went completely still.
I looked at him.
The diamond suddenly seemed different.
Heavy.
Sacred.
Wrong.
“Victor.”
His eyes stayed on Leo.
“Yes.”
My heart sank.
I pushed the box away.
“I definitely can’t wear that.”
Leo surprised both of us.
“You can.”
I looked at him.
His small fingers tightened around mine.
“Mama said Daddy would be sad forever if nobody yelled at him.”
Victor closed his eyes.
For one bizarre second, I nearly laughed again.
Leo leaned closer.
“You yell at him.”
“I do not.”
“You did before.”
Victor muttered, “Repeatedly.”
Leo smiled.
Then his face became serious.
“If you marry Daddy, can you stay?”
I could survive bullets.
Apparently I could not survive that question.
“Leo…”
He looked down.
“Everybody leaves.”
Victor’s face broke for half a second.
Just enough for me to see the father beneath the criminal empire.
I reached out and touched Leo’s hair.
“I’m not leaving today.”
His shoulders relaxed.
“That’s enough for now.”
Victor’s eyes met mine.
He understood.
No marriage.
Not yet.
Maybe never.
But he also understood something else.
I had not rejected Leo.
The door opened again.
This time Victor’s consigliere, Dominic Russo, entered.
His face was grim.
“Boss.”
Victor immediately became someone else.
Cold.
Alert.
Dangerous.
“What?”
Dominic glanced at Leo.
Victor nodded toward the guard.
“Take him.”
Leo resisted.
“I want Elise.”
“You can come back in ten minutes.”
“Five.”
“Seven.”
Leo considered it.
“Six.”
Victor sighed.
“Fine.”
When the door closed, Dominic handed Victor a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a flattened bullet.
Victor stared at it.
“What am I looking at?”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“The ammunition from the sunroom attack.”
Victor waited.
“It came from one of our own shipments.”
The temperature in the room seemed to fall ten degrees.
Victor’s eyes darkened.
“Impossible.”
“We checked twice.”
I looked between them.
Dominic continued.
“Those men didn’t steal the rounds.”
Victor’s face became stone.
“How do you know?”
“Because the shipment they came from is still sealed in Warehouse Nine.”
Victor frowned.
Dominic swallowed.
“And only four people have authorization to access that inventory.”
Victor did not ask who.
He already knew.
Dominic looked at me.
Then back at Victor.
“One of those four people was inside this hospital less than thirty minutes ago.”
My skin prickled.
Victor stepped closer.
“Who?”
May you like
Dominic’s next words made even Victor Romano go silent.
“Your brother.”
