Chapter 2 - THE MAN EVERYONE FEAREDAmelia woke beneath fluorescent hospital lights with six stitches behind her left ear and a police officer sitting beside the door.
For one terrifying second, she thought she was back in Raymond’s apartment.
Then she smelled antiseptic.
Her hand flew to her head.
“Easy.”
A nurse entered.
“You have a concussion, but your scans look good.”
Amelia closed her eyes.
Raymond.
She remembered his face.
Then Luca Moretti’s.
“Where is he?”
“The man who assaulted you?”
“Yes.”
“In custody.”
Relief hit so violently that tears filled Amelia’s eyes.
The nurse lowered her voice.
“There are two detectives waiting to speak with you.”
Amelia nodded.
The interview lasted forty minutes.
She told them everything.
The restaurant.
Raymond’s threats.
Their previous relationship.
The abuse.
Her escape.
“Did you ever report him before?” Detective Karen Mills asked.
Amelia stared at the blanket.
“Once.”
“What happened?”
“He convinced me to retract it.”
“How?”
Amelia looked up.
“He broke two fingers on my right hand.”
Silence.
Detective Mills stopped writing for a moment.
Her partner, Detective Nolan Reeves, looked away.
Amelia flexed those fingers unconsciously.
They had never healed perfectly.
A knock sounded.
The doctor returned.
Behind him stood Richard Bell, her manager.
Richard carried flowers.
Cheap supermarket flowers wrapped in plastic.
His eyes were red.
“Amelia.”
She looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
The words seemed difficult for him.
“You asked me to remove him.”
“Yes.”
“And I didn’t.”
“No.”
“I should have.”
“Yes.”
Richard swallowed.
“I’ve given the police the security footage.”
That mattered.
Amelia nodded.
“Thank you.”
“There’s something else.”
He hesitated.
“Mr. Moretti is outside.”
Both detectives looked toward the door.
Amelia’s stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“He says he wants to make sure you’re okay.”
Detective Reeves raised an eyebrow.
“Luca Moretti?”
Richard nodded.
“You know him?” Amelia asked.
The detectives exchanged a glance.
Detective Mills answered carefully.
“Everybody knows of him.”
That wasn’t an answer.
“What does he do?”
“Officially? Commercial real estate, logistics, restaurants, construction.”
“And unofficially?”
No one answered.
Amelia gave a humorless laugh.
“Fantastic.”
She leaned back against the pillow.
“My violent ex appears, and now some gangster is waiting outside.”
“We didn’t say gangster,” Reeves replied.
“You didn’t have to.”
Detective Mills closed her notebook.
“You don’t have to speak with him.”
Amelia considered that.
Then remembered Raymond’s expression when Luca had asked about Victor.
“Actually, I do.”
Luca entered alone.
Without the two men who had accompanied him to the restaurant, he looked less intimidating.
Not harmless.
Never harmless.
But human.
His dark hair was slightly disordered, and his jacket had disappeared. His white shirtsleeves were rolled to his forearms.
He stopped several feet from the bed.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I hit a marble floor with my head.”
One corner of his mouth moved.
“That would explain it.”
Amelia studied him.
“Who’s Victor?”
The faint humor vanished.
Detective Reeves shifted in his chair.
Luca glanced toward the detectives.
“I’d prefer to speak privately.”
“No,” Amelia said.
“You can say it in front of them.”
Luca regarded her for several seconds.
Then he pulled a chair closer but didn’t sit.
“Victor Fletcher is Raymond’s uncle.”
Amelia frowned.
“Raymond told me his uncle died when he was a kid.”
“He lied.”
That was hardly shocking.
“What does Victor do?”
Luca looked at Detective Mills.
She answered this time.
“Victor Fletcher has been investigated for money laundering, extortion, fraud and organized theft.”
“Investigated?”
“Never successfully prosecuted.”
Amelia turned toward Luca.
“And Raymond?”
“Works for him.”
Her stomach dropped.
“No.”
“He has for years.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Raymond repaired HVAC systems.”
“That was one job.”
Luca’s gaze remained steady.
“He also collected cash from businesses his uncle controlled.”
Amelia felt suddenly cold.
All those nights Raymond came home at two in the morning.
All the unexplained money.
All the burner phones.
The locked drawer.
The blood on his shirt once.
He had said he cut himself repairing a compressor.
“What does this have to do with you?”
Luca finally sat.
“Seven years ago, my older brother Daniel discovered Victor was stealing from a company they partially owned together.”
“Your brother?”
“Daniel tried to take the evidence to federal investigators.”
Luca paused.
“Three days later, he died in what police believed was a car accident.”
The detectives were silent.
“You think Victor killed him?”
“I know Victor ordered it.”
“How?”
Luca’s eyes changed.
“Because the man who helped arrange it confessed before he disappeared.”
Amelia stared at him.
“And Raymond?”
“Raymond was nineteen. He drove one of the cars used to follow Daniel.”
Her pulse quickened.
“So you’ve been looking for Raymond?”
“No.”
Luca’s answer surprised her.
“I knew where Raymond was until three years ago. Then he vanished.”
“The same time I left him.”
“Yes.”
Amelia leaned back.
A memory surfaced.
The night before she escaped.
Raymond had come home furious because he couldn’t find something.
He tore apart the bedroom.
Flipped the mattress.
Dumped kitchen drawers.
Then he grabbed Amelia by both shoulders.
“Where is it?”
She hadn’t known what he meant.
She had assumed drugs.
Or money.
But afterward...
Amelia stopped breathing.
Luca noticed.
“What?”
She looked at him.
“There was a flash drive.”
Every person in the room became still.
“What flash drive?” Detective Mills asked.
“I found one inside the lining of my suitcase after I escaped.”
Luca leaned forward.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought it was mine. I plugged it into an old laptop.”
“What was on it?”
“It was encrypted. I couldn’t open anything.”
“Where is it now?”
Amelia thought.
Then remembered.
A small box.
A blue ceramic angel.
Her mother’s old Bible.
The suitcase she never unpacked completely.
“My storage locker.”
Luca stood.
Detective Mills did too.
“Where?”
“South Side.”
“When were you there last?”
“Maybe two months ago.”
Luca reached for his phone.
Detective Mills raised a hand.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”
Luca looked at her.
“I’m thinking somebody should make sure it still exists.”
“That somebody will be us.”
Amelia watched their silent power struggle.
Finally, Luca put his phone away.
But something bothered her.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked toward her.
“If Raymond has been searching for that drive for three years...”
She swallowed.
“Why did he suddenly find me yesterday?”
Luca’s expression darkened.
Nobody answered.
Then Amelia’s phone vibrated on the bedside table.
Unknown number.
A text.
She opened it.
Her blood turned cold.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED GONE.
Another message arrived.
A photograph.
Taken through the window of her apartment.
Her bedroom.
Her bed.
Her pillow.
And placed carefully in the center of it was the old blue ceramic angel from her storage locker.
Luca took one look at the screen.
May you like
Then he said the words Amelia feared most.
“They already found it.”
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