Chapter 2 - The Man Behind the Billion-Dollar Name
The first bullet that struck the marble pillar sounded nothing like Lily expected.
Not like television.
Not like fireworks.
It sounded like somebody smashing a hammer against the world.
Fragments of stone burst beside her face.
Damian immediately covered the back of her head with one hand.
“Stay down.”
Lily could barely hear him above the gunfire.
“Why are they shooting?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not reassuring!”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Another burst shattered the glass doors.
Vale security moved with frightening coordination.
Two guards pulled employees behind reception desks while others returned fire toward the damaged SUV.
Charles Mercer crouched behind a stone planter, speaking rapidly into his phone.
The attackers had chosen the worst possible location.
Or perhaps the best, depending on what they intended.
Damian’s headquarters was heavily guarded.
But it was also full of civilians.
Lily’s breath came too quickly.
Her hands shook.
She pressed them against her thighs.
Damian noticed.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“Slow breaths.”
“Someone just tried to shoot me.”
“They tried to take you.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
A bodyguard reached them.
“Boss, east corridor is clear.”
Damian nodded.
“Move her downstairs.”
Lily immediately protested.
“I’m not going downstairs with anybody.”
Damian looked at her.
“You cannot go outside.”
“I’m going home.”
“The men outside specifically ordered someone to take you alive.”
“I heard them.”
“Then you understand why leaving is not an option.”
Lily stared at him.
“You think I’m staying with you?”
“At the moment, yes.”
“You’re the reason this happened.”
“I may be.”
“That is not comforting.”
“Again, it wasn’t meant to be.”
Despite the terror, something about his calmness infuriated her enough to keep her functional.
Damian placed the silver briefcase into the bodyguard’s hands.
“Take this to the vault.”
“No,” Charles called from behind the planter.
Damian turned.
Charles hurried toward them.
“Keep it with you.”
“Why?”
“I just received confirmation from Port Authority.”
Damian’s expression hardened.
Charles lowered his voice.
“The leak wasn’t limited to Romano’s shipment.”
“What else?”
“Three Vale manifests were accessed.”
“From where?”
“Your private server.”
Damian stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
Charles looked toward Lily.
“Apparently not.”
Another explosion of gunfire echoed outside.
Damian made a decision.
“Garage level three.”
Charles nodded.
They moved.
Lily was surrounded before she could object.
Damian on one side.
Two guards on the other.
They entered a service corridor behind reception and descended a private stairway.
The farther they went, the quieter the gunfire became.
By the time they reached the underground garage, Lily’s knees were trembling.
A black armored sedan waited with its engine running.
Damian opened the rear door.
Lily stopped.
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Lily.”
“How do you know they didn’t follow me from the café?”
“That is exactly what we need to determine.”
“So your solution is kidnapping me?”
“Protecting you.”
“Against my will.”
“For approximately the next thirty minutes, I’m willing to accept that criticism.”
She folded her arms.
“Put that on my Yelp review.”
For one second Damian looked as if he might laugh.
Then another guard shouted from the ramp.
“Movement!”
Damian physically lifted Lily into the car.
She gasped.
“Are you serious?”
He climbed in beside her and slammed the door.
The sedan accelerated.
“Put me down!”
“You are sitting.”
“You know what I mean.”
The vehicle raced through a private underground exit.
Charles sat in the front passenger seat while a driver she had not noticed maneuvered through back streets.
The silver case rested between Damian’s shoes.
Lily stared at it.
“This is because of that thing.”
“Possibly.”
“What’s in it?”
Damian looked at her.
“You didn’t want to know before.”
“I didn’t have people firing rifles at me before.”
Charles turned slightly.
“Fair distinction.”
Damian gave him a look.
Charles turned forward again.
Lily crossed her arms.
“I’m waiting.”
Damian was silent for several seconds.
Then he unlocked one side of the case.
Lily stared.
“Really?”
“You asked.”
“I didn’t expect you to actually—”
He entered the second combination.
Click.
The case opened.
Inside were several sealed folders, two encrypted hard drives, a black ledger, and an old photograph.
Lily blinked.
“That’s it?”
Damian lifted an eyebrow.
“What were you expecting?”
“Diamonds. Drugs. A tiny nuclear weapon.”
Charles coughed.
Lily looked at him.
“Was one of those accurate?”
“No,” Damian said.
“What are the drives?”
“Business records.”
“Legal business?”
Silence.
Lily leaned back.
“Wonderful.”
Damian closed the case.
“The documents concern shipping routes, port contracts, offshore accounts, and several people who would rather those records not exist.”
“So why were you carrying them around in a diner?”
“I received the case tonight from someone who feared our internal network had been compromised.”
“The person who gave it to you knew?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Damian looked through the tinted window.
“My younger brother.”
Lily noticed the subtle shift in his face.
“Where is he?”
Damian did not answer.
Charles did.
“Missing.”
The word changed the atmosphere inside the car.
“When?”
“Six hours ago.”
Lily looked at Damian.
“And you went to eat?”
“I had been searching for him for five.”
His voice was quieter now.
“You stopped at the café because…”
“Because I had not eaten since yesterday.”
Lily felt some of her anger loosen.
Not disappear.
Just rearrange itself.
“What’s his name?”
“Adrian.”
“Could whoever took him be the people who attacked us?”
“Possibly.”
“And why did they say to take me?”
“That is the question.”
The sedan turned through a gated entrance.
Lily looked outside.
Stone walls.
Security cameras.
An enormous property hidden among trees.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
Damian glanced at her.
“What?”
“Is that your house?”
“Yes.”
“It has its own guard tower.”
“Yes.”
“Normal people have porch lights.”
“I have those too.”
Against her will, Lily laughed.
She immediately hated herself for it.
The sedan stopped beneath a covered entrance.
Damian got out first.
He extended a hand.
Lily stared at it.
“I can walk.”
“I know.”
She ignored the hand and stepped out.
Inside, the mansion was quieter than expected.
Not gaudy.
Dark wood.
Stone.
Old paintings.
A massive staircase.
Security personnel moved through hallways without speaking.
Damian led Lily into a library.
Charles followed.
A woman in her late forties arrived carrying a medical kit.
“I’m fine,” Lily said.
“You’re bleeding,” Damian replied.
She touched her cheek.
Her fingers came away red.
A fragment of marble had cut her near the temple.
“It’s nothing.”
The woman cleaned the wound while Lily sat reluctantly on the edge of a leather chair.
Damian stood near the fireplace, speaking with Charles in low tones.
Lily caught pieces.
Romano.
Manifest.
Informant.
Adrian.
Traitor.
She did not understand the structure of Damian’s world.
But she understood one thing.
People were frightened.
Not of Damian.
For Damian.
That surprised her.
When the medic finished, Lily stood.
“I want to call Ray.”
Damian handed her a phone.
“Use this.”
“Where’s mine?”
“In your purse.”
“Then why can’t I use it?”
“Because if you were followed digitally, turning it on gives them your location.”
Lily slowly lowered her purse.
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
She called the café.
Ray answered after one ring.
“Where the hell are you?”
“I’m safe.”
“You’ve been gone almost two hours.”
“I know.”
“Did you find Dracula?”
Lily looked across the room at Damian.
“He’s more complicated than that.”
Damian raised an eyebrow.
Ray continued.
“I saw something online about shooting downtown.”
Lily closed her eyes.
“Ray—”
“Tell me you weren’t there.”
“I was there.”
A long silence.
“Lily.”
“I’m okay.”
“You come back right now.”
“I can’t yet.”
“Why?”
She glanced at Damian.
“Because apparently somebody tried to kidnap me.”
Ray said nothing.
Then, very carefully:
“What did you put in your coffee today?”
“Ray.”
“I’m coming to get you.”
“No. Stay there.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You can’t tell me?”
“I promise I’m safe.”
Ray cursed softly.
“Call me in one hour.”
“I will.”
“If you don’t, I’m calling every cop in the state.”
She smiled despite everything.
“Okay.”
Lily ended the call.
Damian was watching her.
“What?”
“Your employer cares about you.”
“He’s basically family.”
Damian’s expression became unreadable.
Lily remembered his missing brother.
She regretted the casual wording.
“Sorry.”
“For what?”
“Nothing.”
A security officer entered.
“Mr. Vale.”
Damian turned.
“We traced the attackers’ vehicle.”
“And?”
“Stolen three hours ago.”
“Bodies?”
“Two men captured.”
“Who hired them?”
“They’re refusing to talk.”
Damian’s voice dropped.
“Make them reconsider.”
Lily stared.
Damian noticed.
“What?”
“Do I want to know what ‘reconsider’ means?”
“No.”
“Great.”
The officer hesitated.
“There’s more.”
He handed Damian a tablet.
Damian looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
Charles stepped closer.
“What?”
Damian turned the tablet toward him.
Lily could not see the image.
Charles whispered, “Jesus.”
“What is it?” Lily asked.
Neither answered.
She stood.
“What?”
Damian finally looked at her.
“We pulled traffic footage from the highway.”
“So?”
“One vehicle followed you from the café.”
Lily felt cold.
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“And?”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“It wasn’t following me.”
He handed her the tablet.
The image showed Lily’s little blue sedan moving through rain.
Behind it, three cars back, was a dark vehicle.
The next photograph showed the same car nearer downtown.
Then another.
Then another.
Lily swallowed.
“They were tracking me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Charles stepped toward the silver briefcase.
“Perhaps they thought you opened it.”
“I didn’t.”
“They wouldn’t know that.”
Lily looked at Damian.
“So this really is all because I returned your case.”
Damian stared at her for a moment.
“I’m afraid it may be worse.”
He took the tablet and enlarged another frame.
The surveillance image showed the café parking lot before Damian had left.
A man stood beneath the far awning.
Watching Lily.
The timestamp was twenty-three minutes before Damian forgot the briefcase.
Lily’s blood went cold.
“They were watching me before I found it.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
“Yes.”
Lily whispered, “Why?”
Nobody answered.
Then Charles picked up the old photograph from inside the case.
He stared at it.
His face changed.
“Damian.”
“What?”
Charles turned the photograph around.
Lily looked.
It showed a much younger man standing beside a woman holding a baby.
The image was faded.
But Lily recognized the woman.
Her breath stopped.
“That’s impossible.”
Damian looked at her.
“You know her?”
Lily walked closer with shaking hands.
“That’s my mother.”
And suddenly the briefcase was no longer something Lily had accidentally returned.
May you like
Somehow, it had been connected to her long before she ever touched it.
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