Chapter 2 - THE PENDANT
The sedan door closed beside Serafina with a soft, expensive click.
She immediately regretted getting in.
Roman Valenti slid into the seat opposite her.
The partition rose between them and the driver.
Her pulse jumped.
Of course.
Private car.
Private compartment.
Fifty thousand dollars dropped on a nightclub table.
Serafina had worked at Saint Violet long enough to know what men usually expected after paying that much money.
She grabbed the door handle.
Locked.
Roman glanced toward her hand.
“If this is some kind of private booking,” she said, “you can unlock the door now.”
His expression sharpened.
“A what?”
“You heard me.”
For several seconds, he simply stared.
Then understanding reached his face.
And something surprisingly close to anger followed it.
“At me?”
“At the situation.”
“You threw fifty thousand dollars onto a table and announced my contract was over.”
“I paid your owner to stop arguing.”
“That does not improve how it looked.”
“No.”
He reached forward and pressed a button.
The lock clicked open.
“There.”
Serafina looked at the handle.
Then through the rear window.
A dark SUV had pulled away from the curb behind them.
Victor’s collectors sat inside.
Roman saw where she was looking.
The lock clicked again.
Serafina turned.
His voice dropped.
“You’re not leaving.”
Her body went rigid.
Roman continued before she could answer.
“Not while Cade’s men are following this car.”
“That sounded very different before the second sentence.”
“I’m learning.”
“You’re doing poorly.”
“I’ve been told.”
The SUV stayed behind them through two turns.
Roman’s attention shifted to the silver pendant against Serafina’s chest.
“You said your mother gave you that?”
She covered it instinctively.
“I didn’t say anything about it.”
“No. Cade’s man did.”
His gaze remained fixed on the tarnished oval.
“May I see it?”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“That was quick.”
“So was your fifty thousand dollars.”
One corner of his mouth almost moved.
Then disappeared.
“My brother had one exactly like it.”
Serafina’s anger faltered.
“Had?”
“He died twelve years ago.”
She lowered her hand slightly.
Roman leaned back instead of reaching toward her.
“Silver Saint Christopher medal. Scratched edge. Small dent near the lower right corner.”
Serafina looked down.
There was a dent.
She had assumed it came from being old.
“My mother said it belonged to someone who helped her once.”
“What is your mother’s name?”
“Miriam Marrow.”
Roman went completely still.
“You know her?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Serafina noticed.
“So that’s a yes.”
“I know the name.”
“From where?”
Roman looked through the window.
The following SUV had disappeared.
That somehow made Serafina more nervous.
“My brother’s death.”
Her fingers tightened around the pendant.
“What does my mother have to do with your brother?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Then why did you react like that?”
Roman reached into his jacket.
Serafina tensed.
He removed a photograph.
Not a weapon.
An old family picture.
Two young men stood on the steps of a church.
Roman was younger, maybe twenty-five.
Beside him stood another man with the same dark hair and gray eyes, but an easier smile.
The older brother.
Around his neck hung a silver pendant.
The same one.
Serafina stared.
“That could be another necklace.”
Roman turned the photograph.
Written on the back:
JULIAN — CHRISTMAS, 2013.
Roman said quietly, “My brother wore it every day from the time he was sixteen.”
“What happened to him?”
“A warehouse fire.”
Serafina looked at the photograph again.
“And the necklace disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night he died.”
A strange pressure gathered behind her ribs.
“My mother gave this to me when I turned eighteen.”
“How long ago?”
“Ten years.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
Two years after Julian’s death.
Before either could say more, Roman’s phone lit with a message from one of his security men.
He read it.
His face hardened instantly.
“What?”
“Your mother’s appointment tomorrow was changed.”
Serafina sat forward.
“What do you mean changed?”
“She was supposed to see Dr. Kapoor at Mercy Heart Center at nine-thirty.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because after Cade’s man mentioned her appointment in an alley, I checked.”
“You checked my mother’s medical information?”
“I checked the clinic schedule through someone who works security there. Not her file.”
That distinction mattered.
Barely.
“What changed?”
“Someone moved her appointment to a private cardiac center across town.”
“I didn’t change it.”
“Your mother didn’t either.”
Serafina’s stomach turned.
“Who owns the center?”
Roman held her gaze.
“Victor Cade.”
Every bit of warmth left her body.
“Take me home.”
“We already are.”
“No. Faster.”
Roman pressed the intercom.
“Move.”
The car accelerated.
Serafina’s apartment was twenty minutes away.
They made it in twelve.
Roman stayed one step behind her climbing the stairs.
Not in front.
Not grabbing.
Just close enough that she could feel his presence.
Serafina unlocked the apartment.
“Mom?”
No answer.
Her heart stopped.
She ran down the hallway.
“Miriam?”
A cough came from the bedroom.
Serafina nearly collapsed.
Her mother sat on the edge of the bed sorting prescription bottles into a weekly organizer.
She looked up.
“You’re home early.”
Then she saw Roman.
The bottle slipped from her fingers.
Pills scattered across the floor.
Roman stopped in the doorway.
Miriam stared at him.
Not frightened.
Shocked.
“Mrs. Marrow?”
She looked at the pendant around Serafina’s neck.
Then back at Roman.
“You found her.”
Roman’s face changed.
“You know me.”
Miriam closed her eyes.
“I knew your brother.”
Serafina stared at her mother.
“You never told me that.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Miriam’s hands began shaking.
Roman crouched and picked up the fallen pills.
He set them carefully on the nightstand.
“What happened to Julian?”
Miriam looked at him.
For several seconds she seemed to be deciding whether twelve years of silence had finally become more dangerous than truth.
Then she said, “The story your family told you about the fire was wrong.”
Roman did not blink.
“My brother died there.”
“No.”
Serafina’s breath caught.
Roman’s voice lowered.
“What did you say?”
“Julian survived the warehouse.”
The room became painfully quiet.
“For how long?”
“Forty-eight hours.”
Roman’s face emptied.
“Where?”
“With me.”
He sat down slowly.
As if his legs had stopped working.
Miriam looked toward her daughter.
“That pendant was his.”
Serafina touched it.
Roman whispered, “How did he get to you?”
Miriam’s eyes filled with tears.
May you like
And when she answered, every assumption in the room changed.
“Victor Cade brought him.”
