Chapter 2 - Bullets Before Sunrise
Luca found my tote bag near the service elevator.
My cheap navy bag looked absurd sitting on a marble countertop beside Mateo Valente’s gold watch and a hotel telephone that probably cost more than my monthly rent.
“Unlock your phone,” Luca said.
“No.”
His expression didn’t change.
“Ms. Jenkins—”
“I have personal things on there.”
Mateo glanced at me.
“What kind?”
“None of your business.”
His mouth twitched.
Luca looked irritated.
Mateo said, “She unlocks it. You search only communications connected to the hotel from the last forty-eight hours.”
“Boss—”
“That’s the deal.”
I looked at Mateo.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Someone put you in my room.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have right now.”
I unlocked the phone.
The first message from Sarah was exactly as I remembered.
ROOM 714 EMPTY. SERVICE ELEVATOR. USE MASTER KEY. SLEEP TILL 5:30. I’LL WAKE YOU.
But underneath it was another message.
Sent at 2:43 a.m.
CHANGE OF PLAN. STAY ASLEEP. DON’T LEAVE UNTIL I TEXT.
My pulse began pounding.
“I didn’t see that.”
Mateo took the phone.
“What time did you enter my suite?”
“Around two thirty.”
Luca looked at him.
“She knew Harper was inside.”
I called Sarah.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
The fourth time, someone picked up.
“Sarah?”
Silence.
Then traffic noise.
Wind.
Finally:
“Harper?”
My knees almost gave out.
“Oh my God. Where are you?”
Sarah began crying.
“Are you alive?”
The question chilled me more than the gunfire had.
“Yes.”
She sobbed.
“I’m sorry.”
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t know they were going to hurt anyone.”
Mateo stepped closer.
“Who?”
Sarah heard him.
Her crying abruptly stopped.
“Oh God.”
“Sarah,” I whispered. “Tell us who.”
“They said they only wanted access.”
“Who?”
“I owed money.”
“To who?”
She hesitated.
Then whispered:
“The Carusos.”
Mateo became completely still.
Luca swore.
I looked between them.
“Who are the Carusos?”
Mateo answered.
“A family I’ve been fighting for twelve years.”
Sarah continued crying.
“They told me to get someone onto the floor.”
“Why me?”
“I didn’t choose you.”
My breath stopped.
“Who did?”
“Grant.”
Grant Keller.
The overnight hotel security supervisor.
The man who chewed peppermint gum and always knew which employees lived alone.
Mateo took my phone.
“This is Mateo Valente.”
Sarah whimpered.
“If you want to survive tonight, tell me where you are.”
“I’m scared.”
“You should be.”
His voice softened.
“But not of me.”
She gave him the name of a motel near O’Hare.
Mateo handed the phone to Luca.
“Send people.”
Sarah panicked.
Mateo took the phone again.
“They’ll protect you.”
“How do I know?”
“You don’t.”
He paused.
“But if Harper survived, the Carusos now know their plan failed. That makes you a loose end.”
The call disconnected.
By sunrise, police flooded the seventh floor.
I gave three statements.
I expected Mateo to disappear before they arrived.
He didn’t.
He stood beside his attorney and answered questions with unsettling calm.
More unsettling was the way officers treated him.
Politely.
Carefully.
Nobody joked.
Nobody raised their voice.
At 6:14, Detective Alvarez finally closed his notebook.
“You can leave, Ms. Jenkins.”
Relief nearly knocked me over.
I grabbed my bag.
Mateo was speaking with Luca.
I didn’t say goodbye.
I made it to the elevator.
The doors opened.
I stepped inside.
A hand stopped them.
Mateo entered.
“What?”
“You’re not leaving alone.”
“The police said I could.”
“They also said you may be a witness.”
“I have to go home.”
“I’m sending security.”
“No.”
“Harper.”
“I am not getting into a car with three strange men because Chicago’s most rumored criminal tells me they’re safe.”
“They work for me.”
“Exactly.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“All right.”
I waited.
“I’ll take you.”
“That is worse.”
The elevator reached the lobby.
A black SUV waited outside.
I headed toward the train station instead.
Mateo caught up.
“You’re taking public transportation?”
“I have seventeen dollars until payday.”
He stared as if poverty were a foreign language.
“I’m not getting into your car.”
“You were nearly killed.”
“They were shooting at you.”
“They fired into the bed.”
That stopped me.
His voice lowered.
“If I hadn’t been awake, Harper, neither of us would have left that room.”
Cold air entered the lobby as the doors opened.
Mateo stepped closer.
“Twenty-four hours ago, nobody in my world knew your name.”
He looked toward the street.
“Now the Carusos do.”
I said nothing.
“Give me one day.”
“One day?”
“Twenty-four hours somewhere secure.”
“And afterward I leave?”
“If it’s safe.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
His gaze met mine.
“I won’t lie to you.”
For some reason, that answer affected me more than a promise would have.
I hated that.
I followed him to the SUV.
As Luca opened the back door, a hotel employee ran toward us.
“Ms. Jenkins!”
I recognized Mia from housekeeping.
She looked terrified.
“I found this taped under your locker.”
She handed me an envelope.
No name.
No return address.
Inside was a single photograph.
Me.
Leaving my apartment three days earlier.
On the back, written in black ink, were six words.
WRONG BED. WRONG MAN. LAST WARNING.
Mateo read it over my shoulder.
His expression changed.
Not fear.
Rage.
He looked at Luca.
“The twenty-four hours just became indefinite.”
I spun toward him.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Mateo stared down at the photograph of me.
“No,” he said quietly.
May you like
“But someone already did.”
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