CHAPTER 2 — The Woman They Marked for Death
At 1:42 a.m., Chloe finally clocked out.
She wanted nothing except sleep.
Instead...
She found every streetlight outside the restaurant mysteriously dark.
The rain had stopped.
The silence hadn't.
She wrapped her thin coat tighter and hurried toward the subway.
Halfway down the block...
Footsteps.
Not one person.
Several.
She glanced into a storefront window.
Three reflections.
Matching pace.
Not drunk.
Not homeless.
Following.
Her heartbeat climbed into her throat.
She crossed the street.
So did they.
She sped up.
They did too.
"Miss Bennett."
She didn't answer.
"Mr. Moretti wants to thank you."
The voice came from behind.
Smooth.
Friendly.
Completely false.
Every instinct screamed.
Run.
She did.
Her shoes slapped wet pavement.
A black SUV suddenly screeched around the corner.
Doors flew open.
Two masked men jumped out.
One carried a stun gun.
The other zip ties.
Kidnappers.
Not Dominic's men.
Professional.
One grabbed her backpack.
She twisted free.
The strap snapped.
She stumbled into the road.
Headlights exploded around the corner.
A matte-black Rolls-Royce Phantom.
It accelerated instead of braking.
The kidnappers scattered.
The Phantom slid sideways with impossible precision, blocking the entire street.
Before it stopped moving...
Its rear door opened.
Leo stepped out.
Holding an assault rifle.
"Wrong girl," he said calmly.
The kidnappers fired first.
Gunfire shattered storefront windows.
Leo didn't flinch.
Dominic emerged from the opposite side of the car.
No panic.
No hurry.
Just certainty.
Within seconds, the street became a battlefield.
One attacker fell.
Another escaped.
The third swallowed something.
Poison.
Dead before he hit the pavement.
Dominic crouched beside the body.
Inside the dead man's sleeve...
A tattoo.
Not Italian.
Not Russian.
Not Irish.
A black wolf.
Dominic's face hardened.
"I thought we buried them."
Leo answered quietly.
"So did I."
Dominic slowly turned toward Chloe.
"From this moment forward..."
He paused.
"...you don't go anywhere alone."
"I don't need bodyguards."
"You misunderstand."
His eyes never left hers.
"They're not protecting you."
A long silence.
"They're protecting everyone who comes near you."
Because whoever wanted Chloe alive...
Was powerful enough to start a war.
Three hours later...
Dominic returned to his mansion.
Waiting inside his office...
Was an envelope with no stamp.
Inside...
Only one photograph.
A grainy hospital security image from twenty-three years earlier.
A newborn baby.
In the arms of a nurse.
Written across the back:
YOU SAVED THE WRONG GIRL.
Dominic stared at it.
May you like
For the first time in years...
He looked afraid.
