Chapter 3 - The Enemy Who Wanted Her Gone
Hazel stared at Marco.
“What photographs?”
“Pictures taken outside your apartment. At the hospital. At NYU.”
Her breath caught.
Luca moved toward the desk and picked up a phone.
“Who found the body?”
“Harbor police. Anonymous call.”
“And the phone?”
“Recovered by a detective who contacted one of our people.”
Hazel looked at Luca.
“Your people?”
“Yes.”
“You have people inside the police department?”
Luca’s expression did not change.
“I have people who know when my name appears in a case.”
That answer did not comfort her.
Nothing about Luca Romano should have comforted her.
And yet, standing in his office while the city stretched beneath them, Hazel knew one thing with terrifying certainty.
He was the only person in Manhattan taking the threat seriously.
“Who were those men?” she asked.
Luca looked at Marco.
“Leave us.”
Marco hesitated.
“Mr. Romano—”
“Leave.”
When the door closed, Luca returned to the window.
“They worked for Viktor Sokolov.”
“The Russian Bratva?”
“Part of it.”
“And Viktor wants to kill you?”
“He wants territory.”
“Then why are there pictures of me?”
“Because you made him look foolish.”
Hazel stared at him.
“I made him look foolish?”
“You stopped his men from shooting me in public. You created witnesses. You created photographs. You made him retreat.”
“I was trying to save you.”
“I know.”
“And now he wants revenge?”
Luca turned.
“Viktor does not understand gratitude. He understands leverage.”
Hazel looked down at her hands.
Her nails were chipped. Her fingers smelled faintly of hospital soap. She was a nursing student with tuition debt, a mother in treatment, and a life that had been ordinary until she walked toward the wrong booth at the right moment.
“I want to go to the police,” she said.
Luca’s gaze darkened.
“You can.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the truth. You can go to the police. But Viktor has officers on his payroll. If you report this without protection, your name will travel faster than the report.”
“So what am I supposed to do?”
“Stay somewhere secure.”
“With you?”
“No.”
Hazel blinked.
“No?”
“I have a safe apartment owned by a legal holding company. There are guards. There are no cameras. You can bring your mother if necessary.”
“You have an answer for everything.”
“No,” Luca said. “I have plans for everything. That is different.”
Hazel wanted to refuse.
But then her phone rang.
The caller ID showed the hospital.
She answered immediately.
“Mom?”
A nurse spoke.
“Ms. Brooks, your mother’s room was entered by someone who claimed to be family.”
Hazel’s blood turned cold.
“What?”
“Your mother is safe. Hospital security removed the man before he reached her bed. But we need you to come in.”
Hazel looked at Luca.
He had already seen the panic on her face.
“Marco,” he said.
Marco entered instantly.
“Secure the hospital,” Luca ordered. “No one enters Diane Brooks’s floor without authorization from hospital administration and federal security.”
Hazel flinched.
“Federal security?”
Luca looked at her.
“Your uncle was NYPD, correct?”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I asked questions after you saved my life.”
“That is not normal.”
“No,” he agreed. “It is not.”
Hazel rushed toward the door.
Luca caught her wrist.
Not hard.
Not controlling.
But enough to stop her.
“Hazel.”
She turned.
His expression had changed.
The ruthless man was gone for one brief second.
In his place was someone who looked genuinely afraid.
“Do not go alone,” he said.
Hazel stared at his hand around her wrist.
Then at his eyes.
“What happened to your family?” she asked.
Luca released her immediately.
The question had hit him.
“My father died because someone wanted to send a message,” he said after a moment. “My mother died because she stayed near me afterward.”
Hazel’s anger softened despite herself.
“I’m sorry.”
“Do not be sorry for asking.”
He looked toward the city.
“That is why I know what men like Viktor do. They do not attack the person they hate first.”
They attack the people that person loves.
At the hospital, Hazel found her mother shaken but unharmed.
The man who had entered the floor had been wearing a visitor badge with a fake name. He had left behind no identification.
But a security camera captured his face.
When Luca’s team saw the footage, Marco immediately recognized him.
“Sergei Antonov,” he said. “Viktor’s cousin.”
Hazel’s legs weakened.
The danger was no longer vague.
It had entered her mother’s hospital room.
That night, Hazel agreed to move Diane into the secure apartment.
Not because Luca ordered her to.
Because for the first time, Hazel understood the difference between accepting help and surrendering control.
The apartment was on the Upper West Side, hidden behind the ordinary front of a renovated brownstone. It had sunlight, medical equipment, a private nurse, and shelves filled with books.
It did not look like a prison.
That mattered.
Luca visited only after Hazel agreed.
He brought groceries for Diane, nursing textbooks for Hazel, and a small bag from a bakery in Queens that Hazel’s mother had loved years ago.
Diane looked at the pastries.
Then at Luca.
“You found Salvatore’s Bakery?”
Luca nodded.
“It closed in 2018,” Hazel said.
“The owner’s daughter opened a new shop in Astoria.”
Hazel watched him.
He remembered details.
He noticed things.
It was dangerous how much that mattered.
Later, after Diane had fallen asleep, Hazel found Luca standing alone on the small balcony.
“You don’t have to keep showing up,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then why do you?”
He looked at her.
“Because you walked into danger for me when you had no reason to.”
Hazel crossed her arms.
“I had a reason. I thought someone was about to die.”
“That is not a reason most people act on.”
“It should be.”
Luca studied her.
“You still believe that?”
“Yes.”
Even after everything.
Especially after everything.
Luca’s mouth curved faintly.
“That may be the most dangerous thing about you.”
Before Hazel could answer, his phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
Then his face changed.
Viktor had sent a message.
It contained a photograph of Hazel leaving the hospital.
May you like
Below it were seven words.
BRING THE GIRL TO THE DOCKS ALONE.
