Chapter 3 - THE APARTMENT WITH NO ADDRESS
Z
Damian’s attorney arrived in twenty-eight minutes.
Her name was Evelyn Shaw.
She wore a navy suit, carried a leather briefcase, and looked at Damian as though his reputation impressed her approximately as much as bad weather.
“Tessa Monroe?” she asked.
Tessa nodded.
“Sit.”
Damian raised an eyebrow.
Evelyn looked at him.
“You too, Damian.”
He sat.
That alone told Tessa the woman was unusual.
For the next hour, Evelyn asked questions.
Whose name was on the account?
Both.
Had Tessa given Trent permission to transfer the emergency fund?
No.
Did he know the password?
Apparently.
Did she have screenshots of threatening messages?
Thousands.
Photographs?
A few.
Medical records?
None.
Police reports?
None.
Witnesses?
No.
Evelyn stopped writing.
“Why not?”
Tessa looked at Damian.
“Because leaving is dangerous.”
Evelyn nodded.
No judgment.
“Correct.”
Damian’s mouth tightened.
Evelyn continued.
“The most dangerous period in an abusive relationship is often separation. So we do not improvise.”
Tessa looked down.
“We make a plan.”
Damian leaned back.
“I have a plan.”
Evelyn didn’t look at him.
“I’m sure yours involves several felonies.”
“Fewer than usual.”
“Tessa’s plan matters.”
Damian went silent.
Tessa almost laughed.
Instead she started crying.
Quietly.
Without warning.
She covered her face.
“I’m sorry.”
Evelyn passed her tissues.
“Don’t apologize.”
“I’m not usually like this.”
Damian spoke from the other side of the table.
“Like what?”
“Weak.”
His chair moved.
Tessa lowered her hands.
Damian had leaned forward.
“You came to work the morning after a man put his hands around your throat.”
She stared at him.
“You continued doing payroll.”
His voice hardened.
“You stood outside and told him no while your entire body was shaking.”
A pause.
“Stop insulting yourself in my building.”
Tessa blinked.
Evelyn looked between them.
“Interesting.”
Damian frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing.”
Evelyn closed her file.
“We need several things tonight. New phone. New email. New bank account at a different institution. Credit freeze. Password changes from a secure device. Documentation of every message. And somewhere safe to sleep.”
Damian pushed the silver key across the table.
Tessa stared at it.
“You kept it?”
She pulled it from her pocket.
“I took it earlier.”
“Good.”
“I didn’t say I’d use it.”
“You don’t need to.”
Evelyn looked at the key.
“Where?”
“Tribeca.”
“Known to your associates?”
“Three.”
“Known to police?”
Damian looked insulted.
Evelyn sighed.
“Of course not.”
Tessa picked up the key.
“What kind of apartment?”
“Small.”
Damian lied badly.
Evelyn actually laughed.
“His definition of small means fewer than three bathrooms.”
“It has two.”
Tessa closed her eyes.
“I can’t accept this.”
“Why?”
“Because people don’t give things away.”
Damian’s gaze sharpened.
“What do you think I want?”
She said nothing.
He understood.
Something dangerous moved behind his eyes.
“Nothing.”
“Everyone wants something.”
“Then consider rent payment for fourteen months of flawless books.”
“You already pay me.”
“Consider it a bonus.”
“No.”
“Then consider it stolen property and report me.”
Evelyn covered a smile.
Tessa glared at him.
“You’re impossible.”
“I’ve been told.”
The apartment was on a quiet block behind an unmarked entrance.
No doorman in uniform.
No brass plaque.
No Rossy name.
Carlo drove.
Damian sat in front.
Tessa rode in the back holding two shopping bags containing clothes Evelyn’s assistant had purchased because going home was considered too dangerous.
That word again.
Dangerous.
Tessa hated it.
She had lived in danger for so long that naming it made it suddenly real.
Damian unlocked the apartment.
“Small,” Tessa repeated.
The place was approximately twice the size of the apartment she shared with Trent.
Exposed brick.
Wide-plank floors.
Floor-to-ceiling windows.
A kitchen with untouched appliances.
No photographs.
No personal objects.
“This isn’t small.”
Damian shrugged.
“It’s Manhattan.”
Carlo left after checking every room.
Tessa placed the bags on the kitchen island.
“Who lives here?”
“No one.”
“Why do you own it?”
Damian looked toward the windows.
“For people who need to disappear temporarily.”
“What people?”
“The kind who don’t ask questions.”
She stared.
“Criminals?”
“Sometimes.”
“Witnesses?”
“Sometimes.”
“Girlfriends?”
His eyes returned to her.
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Tessa looked away.
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“No reason.”
Damian almost smiled again.
He placed a phone on the counter.
New.
Still boxed.
“Use that.”
“I’ll pay you back.”
“If it makes you feel better.”
“It does.”
“Then keep receipts.”
She looked at him.
“Damian.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you doing this?”
The humor disappeared.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he took off his coat.
Not because he intended to stay.
Because he wanted to show her something.
He rolled back his left sleeve.
A pale scar ran across his forearm.
Old.
Jagged.
“My father threw a whiskey bottle at my mother when I was eleven,” he said.
Tessa did not move.
“I stepped between them.”
His thumb traced the scar.
“She stayed another six years.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
He rolled the sleeve down.
“When she finally left, nobody helped because everyone was afraid of him.”
Tessa swallowed.
“And now everyone is afraid of you.”
His eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Sometimes.”
The honesty startled her.
He walked toward the door.
“Lock both deadbolts after me.”
“You’re leaving?”
“You sound surprised.”
“I thought you’d put armed men in the living room.”
“They’re downstairs.”
Tessa stared.
“Damian.”
“You won’t see them.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“It’s exactly the point.”
She followed him.
“No violence.”
“Unless necessary.”
“Damian.”
“No unnecessary violence.”
She sighed.
“That is not reassuring.”
“It’s the best offer available.”
He opened the door.
Then paused.
“Tessa.”
“Yes?”
“If you decide to go back to him…”
Her stomach tightened.
“I won’t stop you.”
She studied him.
“But?”
“But call me first.”
“Why?”
“So I can remind you of what your face looked like when he reached for your wrist today.”
Tessa looked away.
Damian’s voice softened.
“You’re going to miss him.”
Her head snapped up.
“No.”
“You will.”
“I hate him.”
“You can hate someone and miss the person you kept hoping he would become.”
The sentence landed harder than anything Trent had done physically.
Tessa’s eyes filled.
Damian stepped into the hallway.
“That doesn’t mean you should go back.”
Then he left.
Tessa locked both deadbolts.
For the first time in three years, she slept in a room where she did not need to listen for footsteps outside the bedroom door.
At 2:13 a.m., the new phone rang.
Unknown number.
Tessa stared at it.
Again.
Again.
Again.
She answered on the fourth ring.
Silence.
Then Trent whispered, “You really thought he could hide you from me?”
Tessa’s blood went cold.
The line disconnected.
She ran to the window.
Below, the street was almost empty.
One black sedan.
A taxi.
A man walking a dog.
Then something moved across the building opposite hers.
A tiny red light.
May you like
A camera.
Pointed directly at her window.
