Chapter 4 - A Bride in Vegas and a Brother in Chicago
By 1:17 a.m., Nomi was riding through downtown Chicago in the back seat of an armored SUV she had definitely not agreed to love.
The heated seats were excellent.
She resented that.
Octavio sat beside her while another vehicle followed three car lengths behind.
Daniel Cho drove.
Apparently Octavio had eventually decided Daniel could be trusted enough to collect them, though he had told him almost nothing.
Daniel was forty-something, broad-shouldered, calm, and far less interested in Nomi than she expected.
That made her trust him slightly more.
“You’re taking me to the mansion,” Nomi said.
Octavio glanced over.
“It has the best security.”
“I hate that place.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“You always sit closest to the exit.”
Nomi blinked.
“You noticed?”
“Apparently I observed more than you think.”
She looked away before he could see how much that pleased her.
The Ki mansion stood along Chicago’s North Shore behind stone walls and gates that looked designed to survive either an invasion or an exceptionally determined fundraiser.
Nomi had been there dozens of times.
Never at 1:42 in the morning.
Never with security vehicles.
Never carrying drawings that might prove someone inside the family was betraying Octavio.
Daniel led them through a side entrance.
Octavio stopped.
“Not the main wing.”
Daniel understood immediately.
“The guest house?”
“Yes.”
Nomi looked between them.
“You have a guest house?”
Daniel said, “Three.”
“Of course you do.”
Octavio almost smiled.
The smallest guest house was larger than Nomi’s entire apartment building lobby.
She put her sketchpad on the dining table.
Octavio locked the door.
“Only Daniel knows you’re here.”
“And the helicopter pilot.”
“He thinks you went elsewhere.”
“The driver?”
“Daniel drove.”
“The second car?”
“Decoy.”
Nomi stared.
“This is your normal life?”
“No.”
“What part isn’t normal?”
“You.”
The answer came too quickly.
Nomi’s pulse did something irritating.
She changed subjects.
“We should contact Valentina.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“She’s safer away.”
“She deserves to know someone inside your family may be working with a rival.”
“Not on her wedding night.”
Nomi considered.
For once, she agreed.
“Tomorrow.”
Octavio sighed.
“Tomorrow.”
At 2:03 a.m., Valentina called anyway.
Video.
Nomi accepted.
Valentina filled the screen wearing a short white dress and a plastic veil with flashing pink lights.
Axel appeared behind her wearing a tuxedo T-shirt.
“Nomi!”
“Congratulations.”
“We’re married!”
“I gathered.”
Axel leaned into frame.
“Is her brother there?”
Nomi looked at Octavio.
Octavio closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Tell him I’m not afraid of him.”
Octavio opened his eyes.
Axel immediately added, “Actually, tell him I’m respectfully not excessively afraid of him.”
Nomi laughed.
Valentina squinted.
“Where are you?”
Nomi hesitated.
Too long.
Valentina’s expression changed.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Nomi.”
Apparently the Ki siblings shared an identical ability to turn a name into an interrogation.
Octavio took the phone.
“Valentina.”
“What happened?”
“Enjoy your wedding.”
“Octavio.”
“You’re safe?”
“Yes.”
“Stay in Vegas tonight.”
Her face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because I’m asking.”
“You don’t ask.”
“I’m learning.”
Valentina narrowed her eyes.
Then she noticed Nomi behind him.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You’re together.”
“No,” Nomi said.
“Yes,” Octavio said simultaneously.
Nomi glared.
Octavio corrected, “In the same location.”
Valentina’s eyes widened with delighted horror.
“I leave Chicago for forty-eight hours and my emotionally repressed brother discovers my best friend.”
“Goodbye, Valentina.”
“Wait! Nomi, did he—”
Octavio ended the call.
Nomi stared at him.
“You hung up on a bride.”
“She’ll recover.”
“You’re terrible.”
“I’ve been informed.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Then the room became quiet.
Too quiet.
Octavio removed his tie.
Nomi watched him loosen his collar.
A second tattoo appeared near his throat.
She looked away.
He noticed.
“You can ask.”
“Ask what?”
“About the tattoos.”
“I wasn’t looking.”
“You observe.”
“That word is going to ruin my life.”
He sat across from her.
“Probably.”
For the next hour they examined Nomi’s drawings.
The four-digit sequence appeared in three separate sketches.
Each time near Vincent Ki.
Each time near Emilio Sarno or one of Sarno’s known associates.
Octavio finally recognized it.
“A warehouse designation.”
“Where?”
“South Side.”
“What’s stored there?”
“Nothing now.”
“Before?”
His silence told her the answer was sensitive.
Nomi waited.
Octavio seemed to make a decision.
“Records.”
“What kind?”
“Financial.”
“Legal?”
“Some.”
“Some.”
His mouth flattened.
“Nomi.”
“Fine.”
The warehouse had been emptied six months earlier after someone gained unauthorized access.
Nothing had apparently been stolen.
Now Octavio no longer believed that.
“Vincent had access?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Could he have sold information?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That’s what I intend to ask.”
“You can’t.”
Octavio’s gaze sharpened.
“If you confront him, he’ll know we have something.”
“He already knows.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Nomi, someone followed you tonight.”
“Someone.”
“Connected to this.”
“Probably.”
Octavio leaned back.
“You’re enjoying correcting me.”
“A little.”
His expression softened.
Then Nomi found something.
A sketch from eleven months earlier.
Not from the mansion.
From a restaurant.
Valentina had invited Nomi to lunch after a family meeting.
Octavio had appeared briefly.
So had Vincent.
At the time, Nomi drew a man sitting behind them because she liked the shape of his hands.
Now she recognized the ring.
Emilio Sarno.
And reflected in the restaurant window was another man.
Daniel Cho.
Nomi stopped.
Her blood went cold.
Octavio noticed.
“What?”
She slowly turned the page.
His eyes locked on Daniel’s reflected face.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“He was there.”
“He could have been protecting me.”
“Did you know he was there?”
Silence.
“Octavio.”
“No.”
Nomi sat back.
The man who had driven them here.
The only person who knew exactly where they were.
Octavio stood immediately.
At that exact moment, the guest house lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Nomi heard a click outside.
Then another.
Not gunfire.
Locks.
Electronic locks engaging.
Octavio grabbed her hand.
“Bedroom. Now.”
“You said Daniel—”
“I know.”
They moved through darkness.
Octavio opened a hidden panel inside the bedroom closet.
Nomi stared.
“Secret passage?”
“Old house.”
“Of course.”
He pushed her inside.
“You first.”
“What about you?”
“Behind you.”
They descended a narrow staircase.
Above them, the guest house door opened.
Footsteps entered.
Nomi’s heart pounded.
Octavio closed the hidden panel.
They stood inches apart in the dark.
His hand remained around hers.
Nomi whispered, “If Daniel betrayed you…”
Octavio’s voice was colder than she had ever heard it.
“Then the problem isn’t that my enemy entered my house.”
A flashlight beam moved through the cracks above them.
“The problem is that I invited him in.”
May you like
And somewhere in the mansion beyond the wall, somebody began searching for Nomi’s drawings.
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