Chapter 2 - The Secret Beneath Romano Holdings
Federica woke to the smell of coffee and the unsettling realization that she was not alone.
For one disoriented second she expected to see the concrete walls of the warehouse.
Instead, morning light pressed weakly through rain-streaked windows.
Leo slept in a portable crib beside the sofa.
And Gabriele Romano sat ten feet away.
He had changed clothes.
Dark trousers.
Black shirt.
Sleeves rolled to his forearms.
No jacket.
Somehow the absence of the expensive suit made him look more dangerous.
Federica pushed herself upright.
Pain immediately answered.
Her shoulder.
Her ribs.
Her hands.
Gabriele stood.
“Slowly.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“I’ve been better.”
“That is not the same thing.”
He placed a cup of tea on the table.
Federica looked at it.
Then at him.
“You made tea?”
“No.”
“That makes more sense.”
“Marco did.”
“That makes less sense.”
For the first time, she saw Gabriele Romano almost laugh.
Almost.
Then the room became serious again.
“A doctor examined you while you slept.”
Federica stared.
“You let somebody examine me while I was unconscious?”
“A female physician. Marco’s sister.”
That reduced her irritation by approximately twenty percent.
“She said nothing is broken,” he continued. “You have bruised ribs, a mild concussion, cuts, dehydration, and exhaustion.”
“I need to go home.”
“No.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Excuse me?”
“You cannot go home.”
“Mr. Romano—”
“Gabriele.”
“That is not the important part of that sentence.”
“It is to me.”
Federica studied him.
During two years at Romano Holdings, she had rarely been alone with the company’s CEO.
Whenever Gabriele entered a room, everyone became different.
Executives laughed louder.
Junior employees sat straighter.
Men with enormous egos suddenly remembered manners.
Federica disliked that kind of gravity.
It distorted people.
So she had always treated him like what he technically was.
Her employer.
Nothing more.
Now he stood in a safe house after she had been kidnapped carrying his nephew.
Nothing about this situation felt technical anymore.
“Why can’t I go home?”
“The people who took you are alive.”
“At least some of them.”
“And they know your name.”
Federica went quiet.
Gabriele continued.
“They know where you work. They may know where you live.”
“My apartment has security.”
“Your doorman is seventy-two.”
“He’s very observant.”
“He fell asleep during a Bears game last Sunday.”
Federica stared.
“How do you know that?”
Gabriele said nothing.
Her eyes narrowed.
“How much do you know about my apartment building?”
“Enough.”
“That is an extremely disturbing answer.”
“It is currently the reason you’re alive.”
Before Federica could reply, Leo stirred.
Immediately, both of them turned.
The baby made a tiny sound.
Federica rose instinctively.
Pain shot through her ribs.
Gabriele caught her elbow.
For one second they were too close.
Federica looked at his hand.
Gabriele released her.
“I can get him.”
“He’ll cry.”
“He’s a baby.”
“He likes being held before he wakes completely.”
Gabriele looked mildly offended.
“I know how to hold my nephew.”
“I didn’t say you didn’t.”
“You implied it.”
“You are surprisingly sensitive for a man everyone is terrified of.”
His expression stopped her.
Not angry.
Interested.
“That includes you?”
Federica looked directly at him.
“Should it?”
Something passed between them.
Then Leo began crying.
Federica moved toward the crib.
Gabriele reached it first.
He lifted Leo with practiced care.
The feared Gabriele Romano became someone else when he held the child.
His shoulders relaxed.
His voice softened.
“Hey, little man.”
Leo blinked at him.
Then promptly reached for his collar.
Federica watched.
“You really do know how.”
“I told you.”
“Congratulations. You have defeated my devastating accusation.”
He looked at her.
This time he actually smiled.
It vanished quickly.
Marco entered carrying a laptop.
“Sorry.”
Gabriele handed Leo carefully to Federica.
“What did you find?”
Marco placed the computer on the table.
“Her vehicle was rerouted at 6:17 p.m.”
Federica sat with Leo against her chest.
“Who changed it?”
“Dispatch authorization came from executive security.”
Gabriele’s expression sharpened.
“That requires a senior code.”
“Correct.”
“How many people?”
“Fourteen.”
“List.”
Marco turned the laptop.
Names filled the screen.
Gabriele scanned them.
Federica leaned forward.
Something caught her attention.
“Wait.”
She pointed.
“Go back.”
Marco scrolled.
“There.”
Her finger stopped beside a name.
Daniel Hargrove.
Chief Financial Officer.
Gabriele looked at her.
“What?”
Federica frowned.
“Hargrove requested access to historical transportation expenditures three days ago.”
Marco said, “Why does finance need transportation security records?”
“It doesn’t.”
Gabriele’s gaze darkened.
Federica continued.
“I rejected the request.”
“You rejected the CFO?”
“He didn’t provide a valid accounting purpose.”
Marco looked amused.
Gabriele did not.
“What happened after that?”
“He called me.”
“What did he say?”
Federica remembered.
“He said I was becoming difficult.”
“And?”
“I told him accurate accounting occasionally has that effect.”
Marco looked away to hide a smile.
Gabriele’s mouth twitched.
Federica was not finished.
“Then yesterday my database permissions changed.”
“Changed how?”
“I lost access to archived merger files.”
Gabriele became still.
“What merger files?”
“The Sterling acquisition proposal.”
Marco looked at Gabriele.
Federica noticed.
“There was never a completed acquisition,” she said slowly.
“No,” Gabriele replied.
“But there were negotiations.”
“Years ago.”
“Before I worked here?”
“Yes.”
“And somebody removed my access immediately after I rejected Hargrove’s request?”
“Yes.”
Federica looked between them.
“You know something.”
Gabriele did not answer.
“Tell me.”
“You have been through enough.”
“That stopped being an acceptable argument when somebody kidnapped me.”
He held her gaze.
She did not look away.
Finally, Gabriele pulled out the chair opposite her.
“Sterling is not only a competitor.”
“I figured that out around the time his employees put a gun in my face.”
Marco coughed.
Gabriele ignored him.
“Victor Sterling once worked with my father.”
Federica waited.
“Their businesses separated twenty-two years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because Sterling wanted control.”
“Of Romano Holdings?”
“Of everything.”
The way he said everything made Federica understand there was a second conversation beneath the first.
Corporate power was only part of it.
Maybe the smallest part.
She looked at the armed guards beyond the door.
At the hidden cameras.
At the panic room.
At Gabriele Romano.
Then she said quietly, “Your company isn’t just a company.”
Marco stopped moving.
Gabriele’s expression remained unreadable.
Federica felt cold.
“Oh.”
Nobody spoke.
She looked down at Leo.
The child grabbed her finger.
“You’re involved in organized crime.”
Marco muttered, “Direct.”
Federica looked at him.
“I’m an accountant.”
“That explains the charm.”
Gabriele leaned forward.
“Federica.”
She met his eyes.
“I have spent years separating legitimate Romano businesses from what my father built.”
“But not completely.”
“No.”
“Matteo?”
His face changed.
“My brother wanted out too.”
“And Sterling killed him.”
“We believe so.”
Federica’s stomach tightened.
She remembered the kidnappers’ words.
Another Romano funeral.
She looked at Leo.
“They were finishing what they started.”
“Yes.”
“Why now?”
Gabriele had no answer.
Federica did.
Or at least a possibility.
She stood, ignoring the pain.
“I need my work computer.”
“No.”
“Then we waste time.”
“You are injured.”
“Your nephew was almost murdered.”
Silence.
Federica handed Leo to Gabriele.
“Laptop.”
Marco brought one.
Federica logged into a secure remote accounting portal.
Her fingers shook slightly.
She hated that.
She forced them still.
“What are you looking for?” Gabriele asked.
“A pattern.”
“With what?”
“Sterling.”
She searched archived transactions.
Payments.
Consulting fees.
Property acquisitions.
Shell companies.
Then she stopped.
“Oh.”
Gabriele leaned closer.
“What?”
Federica pointed to a series of small payments.
“Sixteen corporations.”
Marco squinted.
“They’re unrelated.”
“No,” she said.
“They’re designed to look unrelated.”
Her fingers moved faster.
Companies folded into companies.
Real-estate holdings into contractors.
Contractors into consulting firms.
Consulting firms into insurance payments.
Then one name appeared repeatedly.
NORTH LAKE ADVISORY.
Gabriele stiffened.
“You know it?”
“My brother investigated them.”
Federica looked at him.
“When?”
“The week before he died.”
The room went silent.
Federica opened another file.
A transfer dated nine days before Matteo’s crash.
Three hundred forty thousand dollars.
Recipient hidden behind a legal-services account.
She traced it backward.
Then froze.
“Gabriele.”
His voice lowered.
“What?”
“This payment originated inside Romano Holdings.”
Marco stepped closer.
“Who approved it?”
Federica opened the authorization trail.
The screen loaded.
Three names appeared.
One belonged to a retired executive.
One to Daniel Hargrove.
And one—
Federica stopped breathing.
Gabriele saw her face.
“Who?”
She turned the laptop.
Marco cursed.
Gabriele did not move.
The third authorization belonged to someone who had sat beside Matteo at family dinners.
Someone Gabriele had trusted since childhood.
Someone who currently knew every safe house used by the Romano family.
Alessandro Romano.
Gabriele’s uncle.
Federica whispered, “Your own family paid the company connected to your brother’s death.”
Thunder sounded over Lake Michigan.
Gabriele stared at the screen.
And for the first time Federica understood the real danger.
Sterling was outside the Romano family.
But the person opening the doors for him was already inside.
And if Alessandro had helped arrange Matteo’s death, then he would know exactly where Gabriele had taken Leo.
Including this safe house.
A sudden sound echoed downstairs.
Glass breaking.
Marco reached for his weapon.
Every light in the house went out.
Leo began to cry.
May you like
And somewhere below them, a door opened.
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