Chapter 3 - The Man Behind the Security Glass
By midnight, the Romano Grand no longer felt like a resort.
It felt like a fortress.
Elevators required two-factor authorization.
Service corridors were locked.
Security officers occupied every entrance to the penthouse level.
Guests downstairs continued feeding slot machines and ordering champagne, completely unaware that forty-seven floors above them, Adrian Romano was trying to determine which member of his household might have helped someone reach his son.
Sofia sat beside Noah on his bedroom floor.
They were building a LEGO lunar base.
Or attempting to.
Noah held up a gray piece.
“This one is wrong.”
“It’s a rectangle.”
“It’s the wrong rectangle.”
“There are seventeen thousand gray rectangles.”
“Exactly.”
Sofia stared at him.
“That explanation somehow made your position worse.”
He grinned.
Adrian stood near the doorway watching them.
He had been there for almost a minute.
Noah hadn't noticed yet.
Sofia had.
Adrian had removed his tie.
His sleeves were rolled to his forearms.
He looked less like the cover of a business magazine and more like a tired father who didn't know how to enter his own child’s bedroom.
Sofia raised an eyebrow.
He looked at her.
She tilted her head toward Noah.
Go.
Adrian appeared annoyed by being instructed without words.
She widened her eyes.
Go.
He walked in.
Noah looked up.
“You came.”
Adrian stopped.
The joy in those two words seemed to hit him harder than accusation would have.
“I said I would.”
Noah glanced at the clock.
“You’re late.”
Sofia bit her lip.
Adrian checked his watch.
“By six minutes.”
“You said ten actual minutes.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“Security.”
Noah nodded.
Again.
That easy acceptance.
Adrian saw it now.
Sofia could tell.
He sat on the carpet.
The tailored trousers probably cost more than the entire LEGO set.
Noah looked shocked.
“You’re sitting on the floor.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked around.
“Because there are no chairs.”
“There’s one at my desk.”
“I committed.”
Noah smiled.
He handed his father a gray block.
“Find me two of these.”
Adrian examined it.
“There are thousands.”
“Seventeen thousand,” Sofia corrected.
Adrian gave her a look.
She smiled sweetly.
For the next twenty minutes, Adrian searched through plastic pieces.
He was terrible at it.
Spectacularly terrible.
A man who could identify discrepancies in casino revenue reports from six feet away somehow could not locate a four-by-two gray brick directly beneath his knee.
Noah discovered this quickly.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“You’re sitting on it.”
Adrian shifted.
The brick appeared.
Noah laughed so hard he fell sideways.
Sofia watched Adrian.
There it was again.
The change.
When Noah laughed, something in Adrian became younger.
Softer.
Almost startled.
As if happiness around his son had become a language he understood but rarely practiced.
A knock came.
Dominic appeared.
“Sorry.”
Adrian rose immediately.
The father disappeared.
The businessman returned.
“What?”
Dominic glanced at Noah.
“Need you outside.”
Adrian nodded.
Sofia’s chest tightened.
Here we go again.
Adrian took two steps toward the door.
Stopped.
He looked back at Noah.
“I’ll be back.”
Noah nodded.
“Okay.”
Adrian hesitated.
“When?”
The boy blinked.
“What?”
“You're supposed to ask me when.”
Noah smiled slowly.
“When?”
“Fifteen actual minutes.”
Sofia felt something warm move through her chest.
Noah held up one finger.
“I’m timing you.”
“Do that.”
Adrian left.
He returned in twelve.
That shouldn't have mattered.
It did.
The next morning, Sofia found him in the private kitchen before sunrise.
He was drinking coffee while reading security reports.
“You sleep?”
He didn't look up.
“Occasionally.”
“Very healthy.”
“So I’m told.”
She opened the refrigerator.
“You have fourteen kinds of juice.”
“Noah likes juice.”
“Noah likes apple juice.”
Adrian looked at the refrigerator.
“Then why do we have fourteen?”
“Because you’re incapable of purchasing one of anything.”
He went back to the reports.
She pulled out orange juice.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing conclusive.”
“The cloned credential?”
“Belonged to Teresa.”
Sofia stopped.
Teresa Alvarez had worked as the Romano family’s house manager for fourteen years.
She had known Noah since birth.
“No.”
“We don’t believe she used it.”
“Good.”
“Her access card disappeared for approximately twenty minutes yesterday.”
“Where?”
“She left her handbag in the staff dining room.”
“So anybody could have taken it.”
“Correct.”
Sofia poured juice.
“That's a lot of employees.”
“One hundred and eighty with access to the upper service floors.”
She whistled softly.
Adrian looked up.
“This is why I have security.”
“I never said don't have security.”
“You entered my meeting to say almost exactly that.”
“I said don't replace parenting with security.”
He leaned back.
“Semantics.”
“Important semantics.”
Silence.
Sofia sat across from him.
“Why are you like this?”
Adrian’s expression cooled.
“Like what?”
“Like somebody will kidnap Noah if he moves twelve feet without surveillance.”
“That’s an exaggeration.”
“Is it?”
He stared at her.
She held the gaze.
Eventually, he set down his coffee.
“My wife died when Noah was eighteen months old.”
Sofia immediately regretted her tone.
“I know.”
“No. You know she died.”
His eyes moved toward the windows.
“You don't know the rest.”
Sofia waited.
Adrian spoke without looking at her.
“Claire was leaving a charity dinner. Her driver took a different route because of traffic.”
His voice stayed flat.
Too flat.
“A drunk driver crossed the median.”
Sofia’s stomach tightened.
“She died before the ambulance arrived.”
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded once.
“Three months before that, I had received threats from a former business partner. Nothing happened. They stopped.”
“You thought—”
“For almost a year, I was convinced her death wasn't an accident.”
He gave a humorless laugh.
“I hired investigators. Former federal agents. Private intelligence firms.”
“And?”
“It was an accident.”
That somehow felt worse.
“No enemy,” he said. “No conspiracy. No person I could punish. Just bad timing and a man who drank too much.”
Sofia understood.
Randomness.
That was what Adrian couldn't tolerate.
A threat could be studied.
An enemy could be defeated.
Randomness couldn't.
“So you built walls around Noah.”
His gaze returned to her.
“I made sure I would never again lose someone because I hadn't been careful enough.”
“You couldn’t have prevented Claire’s accident.”
“I know.”
“You don't act like you know.”
His face hardened.
“You enjoy telling me uncomfortable things.”
“No. I enjoy being employed. You simply make those goals conflict.”
For a second, he nearly smiled.
Then his phone buzzed.
He ignored it.
That surprised her.
“You’re not answering?”
“I’m talking to you.”
That did something strange to her heartbeat.
She disliked it immediately.
Sofia stood.
“Well. Stop.”
His brows lifted.
“What?”
“You’re being reasonable. It’s unsettling.”
She walked toward the door.
“Sofia.”
She turned.
“Thank you.”
She stared.
“For what?”
“For yesterday.”
The words seemed difficult.
She softened.
“You're welcome.”
“I still think you were wildly inappropriate.”
“There he is.”
He smiled.
Actually smiled.
It transformed him.
Dangerous.
Not because he looked intimidating.
Because he looked human.
Sofia left before her face could betray her.
Later that afternoon, Adrian attempted school pickup.
It was a disaster.
Noah came out of the building, saw the black SUV, and automatically walked toward Sofia’s usual car.
Then he noticed Adrian standing by the curb.
He froze.
His face lit up.
“Dad?”
Adrian lifted a hand.
“Hi.”
Noah ran toward him.
Not dignified.
Not careful.
Just eight.
Adrian caught him.
Sofia watched from near the entrance.
The hug lasted only seconds.
It still felt important.
Then Adrian ruined it.
“Where’s your backpack?”
Noah pointed.
“With Sofia.”
“Why?”
“She carries it.”
Adrian looked at Sofia.
“You carry his backpack?”
“Yes.”
“He can carry it.”
“I know.”
“Then why do you?”
“Because sometimes caring for someone involves doing unnecessary little things.”
His expression suggested he recognized the lecture.
Noah climbed into the SUV.
Adrian joined him.
Five security officers followed.
Sofia stared.
Adrian saw her through the open door.
“What?”
She counted with her finger.
“One. Two. Three. Four. Five.”
He sighed.
“We’re working on it.”
“Slowly.”
“We received a threat.”
“Fine.”
She got in.
Noah looked between them.
“Are you fighting?”
“No,” they said simultaneously.
Noah leaned back.
“That means yes.”
That evening, Adrian canceled two meetings.
They ate dinner together.
Noah talked about planets.
Adrian listened.
Not perfectly.
Twice, Sofia caught him glancing at his phone.
The second time, Noah noticed too.
Adrian placed the phone facedown.
Small thing.
Huge thing.
After dinner, Noah fell asleep on the living-room sofa.
Adrian lifted him carefully.
Sofia followed him to the boy’s room.
They tucked him in.
At the door, Adrian paused.
“He used to fall asleep on me.”
Sofia looked at him.
“When?”
“When he was little.”
“He’s still little.”
Adrian nodded.
“I know.”
They stood close.
Too close.
Sofia became aware of the rolled sleeves.
His tired eyes.
The subtle scent of cedar from his cologne.
Bad direction.
She stepped back.
Adrian noticed.
Neither commented.
His phone rang.
He answered quietly.
“Romano.”
The expression on his face changed.
Sofia knew instantly.
Something was wrong.
“What do you mean?”
Pause.
“Send it to me.”
Another pause.
“Now.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Someone sent another photograph.”
“Of Noah?”
“Yes.”
Her stomach turned.
“From where?”
Adrian opened the message.
His face went pale.
Sofia moved beside him.
The image showed Noah climbing into the SUV outside school earlier that afternoon.
Adrian stood beside him.
Sofia was visible near the door.
The picture had been taken from across the street.
A message was printed beneath it.
YOU’RE LEARNING TO PLAY FATHER.
HOW SWEET.
THIS TIME, SHOWING UP WON’T SAVE HIM.
Sofia stopped breathing.
Then she noticed something Adrian hadn’t.
A reflection in the SUV window.
A man holding the camera.
His face barely visible.
But Sofia knew him.
She had seen him inside the Romano Grand.
That morning.
May you like
Wearing an employee badge.
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