Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much
Daniel returned twenty minutes later.
Amelia showed him the card before he took off his coat.
His expression changed immediately.
“Claire Serrano.”
“You know her?”
“I know the name.”
Daniel locked the door and checked every window before answering.
“Claire was an intelligence analyst attached to a federal organized-crime task force fifteen years ago.”
“Was?”
“She disappeared from government work after an internal investigation.”
“For what?”
“Passing information.”
“To Gabriel?”
Daniel looked at Amelia.
“She married him.”
Amelia stared.
“That seems important.”
“It is.”
Daniel paced toward the kitchen.
“Gabriel Serrano was investigated in connection with multiple criminal organizations, but nothing stuck. Claire had access to federal surveillance. A year later they vanished.”
“And now she knows where I am.”
“That concerns me more than anything she wrote.”
Amelia looked toward the fields.
The farmhouse no longer felt peaceful.
“How did she find me?”
Daniel did not answer.
He didn’t need to.
Someone had followed them.
Or someone inside Daniel’s network had talked.
Either possibility meant Amelia was vulnerable.
“We move tonight,” Daniel said.
Amelia shook her head.
“What?”
“If we keep running every time someone appears, we’ll never know who we’re running from.”
“You are pregnant.”
“I’m aware.”
“You were kidnapped forty-eight hours ago.”
“Also aware.”
Daniel stared at her.
Amelia held up the card.
“She could have sent men inside. She didn’t.”
“That does not make her trustworthy.”
“No. But it means she wanted to talk.”
Daniel folded his arms.
“You sound like Roman.”
The comparison hurt.
Amelia’s voice sharpened.
“No. Roman makes decisions for other people. I’m making one for myself.”
Daniel sighed.
“Fair.”
Amelia looked at Claire’s name again.
“We contact her.”
“How?”
“There’s no number.”
Daniel turned the card over.
Under ultraviolet light from a small forensic flashlight he still kept in his travel case, faint numbers appeared.
Coordinates.
Daniel gave Amelia a long look.
“I hate clever people.”
The coordinates led to an abandoned marina twenty miles away.
Daniel insisted they arrive separately.
Amelia remained inside a borrowed vehicle while Daniel inspected the area.
Claire appeared alone.
She stood on the end of an empty pier, hands visible.
Amelia approached.
“You found me.”
Claire looked toward the water.
“No. Somebody wanted me to find you.”
That answer immediately changed everything.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to listen long enough to decide.”
Amelia remained several feet away.
Claire looked older up close.
Tired eyes.
A thin scar near her jaw.
“Gabriel arranged the kidnappings,” she said.
Amelia’s stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“To destroy Roman.”
“There are easier ways.”
“Not if you understand Roman.”
Claire faced her.
“Your husband built his power around loyalty. Not money. Not territory. Loyalty. People follow him because he keeps debts.”
“Enzo.”
“Yes.”
Claire nodded.
“Gabriel believed Roman stole everything that should have belonged to Enzo’s organization after Enzo died.”
“Roman didn’t kill Enzo.”
“No. But Gabriel blamed him for surviving.”
Amelia thought of Valyria.
“And Valyria?”
“Gabriel considered her Enzo’s legacy.”
“He kidnapped her.”
“To prove something.”
“What?”
“That Roman’s loyalty to the dead could be weaponized against the living.”
Amelia went cold.
The choice.
It had never been random.
Gabriel had known exactly what Roman would do.
Or believed he did.
Claire continued.
“If Roman chose you, Gabriel would tell Valyria that Roman had betrayed her father.”
“And if he chose Valyria…”
“He lost you.”
Amelia swallowed.
“Either way, Roman’s inner circle fractures.”
Claire nodded.
“But there’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“Gabriel could not have arranged this alone.”
“Someone inside Roman’s organization.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Claire looked toward the road.
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because Gabriel stopped trusting me five years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because I told him revenge had become obsession.”
Amelia studied her.
“Are you still married?”
“Legally.”
“And otherwise?”
Claire laughed without humor.
“There is no otherwise with Gabriel anymore.”
She reached inside her coat slowly.
Daniel’s hand moved toward the pistol beneath his jacket.
Claire produced a flash drive.
“This contains what I have.”
Amelia did not take it.
“What’s on it?”
“Payments. Shell companies. Some communications.”
“Why give it to me?”
Claire’s face changed.
“Because Gabriel has a new plan.”
“What?”
“He knows you escaped.”
Amelia’s heartbeat quickened.
“He wants Roman to believe you’re dead.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“How?”
Claire looked at him.
“There will be a body.”
Silence.
“Whose?” Amelia asked.
“Someone close enough in height and age. Dental work altered. Jewelry planted.”
Amelia felt sick.
“He’s going to murder a woman just to hurt Roman.”
“He’s done worse.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel muttered a curse.
Claire held out the drive again.
“This gives you leverage.”
Amelia finally took it.
“Why not give it to law enforcement?”
Claire looked at Daniel.
“Because half the names on that drive are people law enforcement already trusts.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
Corruption.
Deep enough that no official channel could be assumed safe.
Claire walked away.
Amelia called after her.
“Why help me?”
Claire stopped.
For several seconds she did not turn.
Then she said, “Because I spent twelve years loving a man who kept choosing vengeance over me.”
She looked back at Amelia.
“I know what it feels like when a woman finally realizes she has been competing with ghosts.”
Then she left.
On the drive back, Daniel said, “We’re changing locations.”
This time Amelia agreed.
But before leaving, she plugged the flash drive into an isolated laptop.
Files appeared.
Transfers.
Company names.
Properties.
Photographs.
One folder contained names.
Several belonged to Roman’s organization.
One made Amelia stop breathing.
Matteo Duca.
Roman’s cousin.
His chief financial officer.
The man who had toasted their marriage.
The man who sent Amelia flowers after every prenatal appointment Roman missed.
Daniel leaned closer.
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
“Well enough that he has a key to our house.”
At that moment in Baltimore, Roman was sitting across from Matteo.
Neither knew the other conversation happening miles away.
Roman poured two glasses of whiskey.
Matteo accepted one.
“You look terrible,” Matteo said.
Roman didn’t drink.
“Did you know Gabriel Serrano was back?”
Matteo’s hand paused almost invisibly.
Almost.
Roman noticed.
“I thought he was dead,” Matteo said.
Roman leaned back.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“I never said anyone thought he was dead.”
Matteo smiled faintly.
“Figure of speech.”
Roman stared at his cousin.
They had grown up together.
Fought together.
Buried family together.
Roman had trusted Matteo with financial accounts worth hundreds of millions.
Now he watched every breath.
“Where were you the night Amelia was kidnapped?”
“At the Harbor Club.”
“With?”
“Clients.”
“Names.”
Matteo laughed.
“Am I being interrogated?”
“Yes.”
The smile disappeared.
“Careful, cousin.”
Roman’s voice remained quiet.
“My wife is missing. Careful is over.”
Matteo set down his glass.
“You think someone inside helped?”
“I know someone did.”
“And you’re looking at me?”
“I’m looking at everyone.”
Matteo stood.
“Maybe you should look at yourself.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“You made the choice, Roman. Not Gabriel. Not whoever leaked information. You.”
Roman rose.
The room changed instantly.
Matteo took a step back despite himself.
“That’s enough.”
“Is it wrong?”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
The admission surprised them both.
Matteo left.
Roman waited until the door closed.
Then he called Stefano.
“Put surveillance on Matteo.”
“Your cousin?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because when I said Gabriel Serrano’s name, he looked afraid before he looked surprised.”
Stefano became silent.
Roman added, “And find every account Matteo controls.”
“We’ll need time.”
“You have six hours.”
At the temporary motel Daniel had chosen, Amelia continued reading the flash drive.
One document contained recent messages between encrypted IDs.
Most meant nothing.
Then she found a photograph.
Roman’s house.
Taken from inside.
The staircase.
The breakfast room.
Their bedroom hallway.
Amelia’s skin turned cold.
The photograph had been taken four days before the kidnapping.
Someone with access had been documenting her routine.
She zoomed in.
A reflection appeared in a framed mirror.
Only part of the photographer was visible.
A dark sleeve.
A hand.
And on that hand—
a large silver ring bearing the Duca family crest.
Amelia knew exactly who wore it.
Matteo.
She looked at Daniel.
“We need to warn Roman.”
Daniel stared.
“You just vanished to get away from him.”
“This isn’t about our marriage.”
“If you contact him, he can trace you.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t.”
Amelia’s hand settled over her stomach.
She remembered Roman turning away from her to save Valyria.
She remembered the silence after the call.
But she also remembered something else.
Roman sleeping beside her.
Roman painting the nursery himself because he didn’t trust contractors to get the color right.
Roman kneeling on the bathroom floor during morning sickness, holding her hair.
A man could fail you terribly and still be in danger.
The truths did not cancel each other.
“I don’t want him dead.”
Daniel exhaled.
Amelia picked up a prepaid phone.
She entered Roman’s number from memory.
Before she could press call, Daniel’s laptop beeped.
An alert.
A news feed.
The headline made Amelia freeze.
UNIDENTIFIED PREGNANT WOMAN FOUND DEAD NEAR BALTIMORE WATERFRONT
Below it was a photograph of police surrounding a burned vehicle.
Amelia stared.
Claire had been right.
Gabriel had created a body.
Daniel whispered, “They’re going to think it’s you.”
At that same moment, Roman’s phone rang.
Stefano’s voice sounded different.
“Roman.”
“What?”
“We found someone.”
Roman stood.
“Amelia?”
A pause.
Then:
“There’s a body.”
Roman did not move.
Stefano continued carefully.
“It matches her age. Her height.”
Roman’s face emptied.
“And?”
“She was wearing Amelia’s necklace.”
The phone nearly slipped from Roman’s hand.
For one terrible second, the most feared man in Baltimore believed the woman carrying his child was dead.
May you like
And Matteo Duca, watching silently from across the room, smiled before he remembered not to.
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