Chapter 4 - THE SAFE BEHIND THE WINE CELLAR
Doctors pushed me out of Clara's room before I could ask another question.
Her blood pressure had dropped.
Her heart rhythm had become unstable.
I stood behind the glass while a team surrounded her bed.
Every instinct I had told me to break something.
There was nothing to break that would help her.
Mateo touched my shoulder.
"Dominic."
I turned.
"The safe."
He nodded.
We both knew which one Clara meant.
My Lake Forest house had six safes.
Five were mine.
The sixth belonged to Clara.
It was hidden behind a movable wine rack in the old cellar beneath the east wing.
I had installed it for her three years earlier after she complained that my security people opened everything delivered to the house.
I had never asked for the code.
I had never cared what she kept inside.
Now Serena apparently knew about it.
"Call the house."
Mateo already had his phone out.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
My head snapped up.
"Who is on duty?"
"Dawson and Eric at the gate."
"Interior?"
"Nico."
"Call Nico."
No answer.
Mateo swore.
I ran for the elevator.
"You are not leaving Clara."
I stopped.
He was right.
I hated him for being right.
"Take six men."
"I need you here."
"Mateo."
He held my gaze.
"I will call the second I see anything."
The elevator swallowed him.
I returned to Clara's room.
The monitor had steadied.
The doctor came out ten minutes later.
"She is stable again."
I nodded once.
"Can I see her?"
"Not yet."
"Then I will stand here."
He understood that argument was pointless.
I waited.
Thirty-seven minutes later, Mateo called.
"The gate guards are alive."
"Why were they not answering?"
"Sedated."
"What?"
"Someone put something in their coffee."
My stomach dropped.
"Nico?"
Silence.
"Mateo."
"Dead in the kitchen."
I closed my eyes.
Another man dead because someone wanted what Clara had found.
"The safe?"
"Open."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Empty?"
"Almost."
"What does almost mean?"
"There is one envelope left."
"Do not touch it."
"Too late."
"Mateo."
"You need to hear what is written on it."
I waited.
His voice dropped.
"For Dominic, when he finally decides to see me."
I could not speak.
"Bring it."
"There is more."
"What?"
"The security system shows Serena entering the house at 1:12 a.m."
My vision narrowed.
"That is impossible."
She had been at Northwestern with me before midnight.
"She left her hospital room twice."
"How long?"
"Forty-eight minutes the first time."
I did the math.
The hospital to Lake Forest could not be done in that time.
"Then the footage was planted."
"Maybe."
"Or the timestamp was changed."
"Maybe."
"Stop saying maybe."
Mateo exhaled.
"Dominic, someone wants us to see Serena entering your house."
I understood.
If evidence was too perfect, it was usually a gift from an enemy.
"What did the camera actually capture?"
"Blonde woman. Same height. White coat. Face hidden."
I looked down the corridor.
Serena was gone.
The two men I had ordered to watch her were standing by the elevators.
I walked toward them.
"Where is she?"
The first guard frowned.
"Her room."
"No."
His face changed.
We reached the room in seconds.
Empty bed.
Open bathroom window.
Fourteenth floor.
No one climbed out that way.
Then I saw the housekeeping door beside the bathroom.
A service access panel stood open.
"Lock the building."
The guard reached for his radio.
I grabbed it first.
"No."
He looked confused.
If Carlo had someone listening to hospital security, an open search would only help him.
"Call Mateo privately."
I returned to ICU.
Elena was gone too.
For one horrible second, I thought the same thing had happened.
Then a nurse handed me a folded note.
"The woman in scrubs asked me to give this to you."
I opened it.
Only six words were written inside.
YOUR MEN ARE NOT YOUR MEN.
I looked around the corridor.
Armed men in dark suits stood at every entrance.
Men I had trusted for years.
Men hired by captains who reported to Carlo.
Suddenly, I had no idea who was protecting Clara and who was waiting for another chance to kill her.
While Mateo drove toward the house, I stayed beside Clara's ICU door and started making a list of every person who knew the Lake Forest property well enough to find the hidden cellar.
The list was longer than I liked.
Carlo.
Victor.
Mateo.
My mother.
Three senior guards.
Two maintenance supervisors.
And Serena, if she had ever paid attention during the parties I hosted there.
I called the head of household staff.
No answer.
The assistant manager finally picked up.
"Mr. Valente?"
Her voice shook.
"Where are you?"
"Across the street with police."
"Why?"
"Someone told us there was a gas leak."
I went still.
"Who?"
"Mr. Carlo's office."
Of course.
"When?"
"About an hour ago."
"Did anyone verify it?"
"The security team told us to evacuate immediately."
Carlo had cleared the house before sending people inside.
Organized.
Quiet.
No witnesses.
"Stay away until Mateo says otherwise."
"Yes, sir."
I ended the call.
A nurse came out to update me on Clara's breathing.
I listened to every word.
Normally, I would have interrupted with demands.
Tonight I asked her to explain what I did not understand.
She looked surprised.
So was I.
When she finished, she said, "Your wife may be awake for short periods. Keep things calm."
Calm.
The word felt almost insulting in a building where someone had fired into an ICU.
"Can she hear me if she is sleeping?"
"Possibly."
I entered quietly.
Clara's face remained still beneath the oxygen tubing.
I sat in the chair beside her.
"Your house is being robbed," I told her softly.
A ridiculous sentence.
No response.
"I know you would probably tell me to call insurance."
Nothing.
"Mateo is there."
I looked at her hand but did not touch it.
"I am trying not to ruin your plans."
The monitor continued its steady rhythm.
"That may be the first time I have ever said that about anything you planned."
I thought of our wedding.
Clara had wanted eighty guests.
I invited two hundred because image mattered.
She wanted a small house by the lake.
I bought an estate with gates because status mattered.
She wanted me home for dinner twice a week.
I gave her jewelry because money was easier than time.
I had spent five years calling generosity what was really avoidance.
"If you wake up and leave me, I will understand."
The words tasted like blood.
"I do not want you to."
My throat tightened.
"But I will understand."
Her fingers moved.
Barely.
I leaned forward.
"Clara?"
No response.
Maybe it had been reflex.
Maybe not.
For the first time in my life, I did not force meaning onto what I wanted.
I sat back.
A few minutes later, Mateo sent a photograph of Nico lying beneath a white sheet in my kitchen.
Under it, one sentence.
THIS WAS INSIDE WORK.
I stared at the image until anger blurred my vision.
Nico had a wife and a son.
I knew their names.
I had attended the boy's baptism.
People called men like Nico soldiers, as if the word made their deaths part of some noble tradition.
In reality, he had been killed on a kitchen floor protecting secrets that should never have existed.
Another cost of the life I kept telling myself I controlled.
Then Clara woke and whispered about the safe.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
"Dominic?"
Serena.
I walked into an empty consultation room and locked the door.
"Where are you?"
She was crying.
Or pretending to cry.
"They are going to kill me."
"Who?"
"Carlo."
I said nothing.
"Dom, please listen to me."
Her breathing came fast.
"I made mistakes, but I did not order what happened to Clara."
"You met with Lorenzo."
Silence.
"I saw the pictures."
"It is not what you think."
"You have ten seconds before I hang up."
"Lorenzo is my uncle."
That stopped me.
"My mother's brother," she said quickly.
"My mother changed our name when she left the family."
I leaned against the desk.
"And you forgot to mention that during the year you were sleeping with me?"
"I was told to get close to you."
The admission landed like a knife.
"By Lorenzo?"
"At first."
"At first?"
"Then Carlo took over."
My jaw clenched.
"Explain."
"Carlo promised me money and protection if I kept you distracted."
"Distracted from what?"
"The accounts."
There it was.
"Did you know they were going to hit Clara's car?"
"No."
Her voice cracked.
"I swear to you."
"You have lied to me every day for a year."
"I know."
"Then your oath means nothing."
She started crying harder.
"Carlo thinks Clara hid copies of everything."
I thought about the safe.
"He sent someone to my house."
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Victor."
I went still.
"Victor works for Carlo?"
"I do not know anymore."
That was not the answer I expected.
"What does that mean?"
"Victor came to me last week and said Carlo planned to kill both of us once the money was moved."
"Why would he warn you?"
"Because Victor has been working with Clara."
The room tilted.
"Say that again."
"Victor has been helping Clara collect evidence against Carlo for months."
A soft click came from the hallway outside the consultation room.
Someone touched the door handle.
I pulled my gun.
Serena whispered through the phone.
"Dom, there is one more thing."
The handle turned again.
"What?"
"The envelope in Clara's safe was never meant for you."
My heart stopped.
"Then why did it have my name on it?"
Serena's voice became almost inaudible.
"Because Clara knew Carlo would open it first."
May you like
The door burst inward.
