Chapter 2 - The Shadow in the Greenhouse
The blue glow of Anna Carter’s smartphone screen illuminated the dark, quiet bedroom. She stared at the two messages, her thumb hovering over the glass, her heart hammering violently against her ribs.
Your daughter should have stayed in the ballroom. Next time, there won't be a cake between us.
Her immediate instinct was to grab Lily, wrap her in a blanket, and run to her sedan in the staff parking lot. But logic quickly cut through the panic. The estate was locked down. Heavily armed guards were patrolling the perimeter, and whoever sent this text was likely still inside the perimeter—or watching from a screen nearby. Leaving the relative safety of the main house meant stepping into the dark.
Anna stood up, her eyes glued to the door handle. She walked over to her nightstand, picked up a heavy brass desk lamp, and unplugged it. Holding the lamp like a weapon, she stood between the door and Lily’s bed.
Ten minutes felt like ten hours.
Then came three firm, rhythmic knocks on the door.
"Anna. It’s Dominic."
Anna didn't lower the lamp. "Who is with you?"
"Marco and two guards. Open the door."
Recognizing Dominic’s deep, command-accustomed tone, Anna unlocked the door and pulled it open just enough to look out. Dominic stood in the hallway, his white dinner jacket discarded, his crisp black shirt unbuttoned at the collar, revealing the strain of a man pushed to his absolute limit. Behind him, Marco looked pale, holding a tactical flashlight.
"You're holding a lamp," Dominic observed, his eyes dropping to her hands.
Instead of answering, Anna handed him her phone.
Dominic took the device. As his eyes read the text messages, his expression shifted from exhausted tension to an icy, lethal stillness. The room’s temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.
"When did this arrive?" Dominic asked, his voice deathly quiet.
"Five minutes ago," Anna whispered, glancing back toward Lily, who was still sound asleep. "Unknown number. Sir, they know she saw them."
Dominic handed the phone to Marco. "Trace it. Now."
"It's a burner application, Boss," Marco said immediately after a quick glance at the header data. "Routed through three proxy servers in Chicago and Toronto. The signal was sent via the estate’s guest Wi-Fi network before it was shut down. Whoever sent it is either on these grounds or within a hundred yards of the outer fence."
"Wake up the technical team," Dominic commanded. "Every device connected to our local network in the last six hours gets seized and imaged. Nobody leaves. Not even the shift workers."
Dominic stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and locking it. He looked at Anna, whose hands were still trembling despite her effort to hide it.
"What happened to Emily?" Anna asked.
"She’s alive," Dominic said, walking toward the window and pulling the heavy velvet drapes shut. "Concussed. Bound with zip-ties behind the old potting shed in the greenhouse. Someone struck her from behind with a pipe. The flooded sink in the east guest room was a deliberate distraction to pull you away from the kitchen staff wing and disable the security coverage."
Anna sank onto the edge of her bed, burying her face in her hands. "It was planned. Every single second of it was planned."
"Yes," Dominic agreed. He sat down in the armchair across from her, resting his elbows on his knees. "They knew Ethan’s allergy protocol. They knew the pastry chefs’ schedule. They knew where the blind spots in the camera coverage were—blind spots that only three people in this organization knew existed."
Anna looked up, her blue eyes wide with realization. "An insider."
"A high-level insider," Dominic corrected. "Which means until I find out who turned against my family, no one in this house is safe. Including you and Lily."
"We need to leave," Anna said firmly. "I’ll take Lily to my sister’s place in Vermont. We’ll disappear—"
"No," Dominic interrupted, his tone leaving zero room for negotiation. "If you step outside those gates, you are a soft target. Out there, I cannot guarantee four layers of armed perimeter defense. Out there, a single black SUV can pull up alongside your car, and you will both vanish before anyone notices."
"So what are we supposed to do? Stay here as bait?"
"You stay here as my guests," Dominic said, leaning forward. His dark eyes locked onto hers with absolute intensity. "Starting tonight, you and Lily are moving out of the staff wing. You will sleep in the family wing, next door to Ethan’s suite. My personal detail will cover your door twenty-four hours a day."
"Dominic... I’m your housekeeper," Anna said, using his first name for the first time in six years.
"You were my housekeeper," Dominic replied calmly. "Tonight, your daughter saved my heir's life. In my world, Anna, a debt like that is not paid with a bonus check or a letter of recommendation. You are under my protection now. Whether you like it or not."
Before Anna could reply, Lily stirred under her blanket. The three-year-old rubbed her eyes, sat up, and blinked through the dim light at the tall man sitting in her mother’s room.
"Mr. Dominic?" Lily murmured, her voice thick with sleep.
Dominic’s harsh expression instantly softened—a transformation so profound it startled Anna. The feared head of the Moretti organization stood up, walked over to the bed, and sat gently on the edge of the mattress.
"Hey, little one," Dominic said softly. "Did we wake you?"
Lily looked around, then looked at Dominic’s hand resting on the duvet. She reached out with her small fingers and patted his knuckles. "Is Ethan okay? Did the bad powder hurt him?"
Dominic looked down at her tiny hand against his. A rare, genuine warmth flickered in his dark eyes. "Ethan is safe in his room. Thanks to you."
"I don't like the bad powder," Lily whimpered, leaning against her mother, who had moved to sit beside her. "The man had dark eyes. Like a crow."
Dominic’s posture went rigid. "Like a crow?"
Lily nodded, tucking her face into Anna’s shoulder. "He had a crow on his neck. A blue crow."
Anna felt a chill run down her spine, but Dominic merely narrowed his eyes, processing the piece of information like a master chess player calculating his next move.
A tattoo. A blue crow on the neck.
"Did you see anything else, Lily?" Dominic asked, keeping his voice light and encouraging. "Was he tall?"
"He smelled bad," Lily mumbled. "Like old cigars and cold tea. And he told me to shush, or he’d lock me in the big freezer."
Anna squeezed Lily tighter, her anger flaring. Someone had threatened her three-year-old child inside this house.
Dominic stood up smoothly. The calm demeanor remained, but the dangerous edge behind his eyes was now razor-sharp. He looked at Anna.
"Pack a bag for yourself and Lily," Dominic said quietly. "Marco will move your belongings to the third floor in ten minutes."
"Dominic, wait—who has a blue crow tattoo?" Anna demanded in a low voice so Lily wouldn't hear.
Dominic reached the door and paused with his hand on the handle. He didn't look back.
May you like
"The Valenti family," he said coldly. "Our rivals in Brooklyn. And if one of their hitmen was inside my home, it means someone inside my inner circle sold out my son."
He turned the handle and stepped into the corridor, leaving Anna alone with her daughter in the quiet, terrifying darkness of the estate.
