Chapter 2 - The Deal Chloe Refused to Call a Deal
Dominic’s residence was not a mansion in the way Chloe expected.
There were no gold gates, marble statues, or men with machine guns standing in every hallway.
The Castille home was an old limestone building on the edge of the Gold Coast, guarded quietly behind iron gates and dark windows.
It looked less like a palace.
More like a place built to survive siege.
Chloe sat in the back of a black sedan with Dante in the front passenger seat and Dominic beside her. Nobody spoke for the first ten minutes.
Finally, Chloe looked toward Dominic.
“You said my mother would see a doctor.”
“She will.”
“I did not ask you to pay for anything.”
“I know.”
“Then do not.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“The doctor will assess her treatment. That is all.”
“And if she needs help?”
“Then you decide whether to accept it.”
Chloe narrowed her eyes.
“You are making this sound generous.”
“It is not generosity.”
“What is it, then?”
Dominic looked out the window.
“An attempt to make one thing less wrong.”
She did not know how to respond to that.
At the residence, a woman named Sofia greeted Chloe.
She was in her fifties, elegant, warm-eyed, and entirely unimpressed by Dominic’s reputation.
“This is Chloe,” Dominic said.
“I know,” Sofia replied. “I have prepared the east suite.”
Chloe hesitated.
“East suite?”
“It has a bedroom, bathroom, sitting area, and private entrance to the garden,” Sofia explained. “The door locks from inside.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened slightly.
Chloe noticed.
He had instructed her to say that.
“You can leave whenever you want,” Sofia added. “But please tell someone before you do. There are people looking for Dominic, and they may decide hurting you is useful.”
Chloe looked at Dominic.
“You could have said that at the hotel.”
“I should have.”
“Yes,” she said. “You should have.”
For a moment, he looked almost uncomfortable.
Then Sofia led Chloe upstairs.
The room was beautiful, but not impersonal. It had tall windows, a fireplace, shelves of books, and a small vase filled with fresh white roses. A garment rack stood near the bed with several dresses, jeans, sweaters, and shoes.
Chloe stopped.
“These are all new.”
“Yes,” Sofia said.
“I said I wanted to choose my clothes.”
“You will,” Sofia replied. “I brought options, not instructions.”
Chloe looked at her.
Sofia smiled.
“Mr. Castille is learning.”
Despite herself, Chloe almost laughed.
Later that afternoon, a secure video call connected Chloe with her mother.
Helen Henderson looked tired but alert from her hospital room.
“Chloe,” she said immediately. “Where are you?”
“I’m safe.”
“That does not sound like your apartment.”
“It isn’t.”
Chloe hesitated.
Then she told her mother enough of the truth.
Not every detail.
Not the gun.
Not the murder.
But enough.
“There was a hotel mix-up,” she said. “And I am staying somewhere secure while I speak to a lawyer.”
Helen’s face tightened.
“Is someone threatening you?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Chloe looked through the window toward the garden below, where Dominic stood alone beside a stone fountain.
“Someone very powerful.”
Helen was quiet.
Then she said, “Honey, powerful people are not the same thing as safe people.”
“I know.”
“Do you trust this man?”
Chloe looked again at Dominic.
“No.”
The answer came easily.
But then she added, “Not yet.”
That evening, Chloe met the lawyer Dominic had arranged.
Her name was Maya Rosen.
She was not part of the Castille organization. She made that clear within thirty seconds.
“My duty is to you,” Maya said. “Not Dominic. Not Dante. Not anyone else in this building.”
Chloe exhaled slowly.
Maya explained the risks.
By giving Dominic an alibi, Chloe had exposed herself to potential obstruction charges. But coercion mattered. The threats mattered. Her lack of prior knowledge mattered.
“And the police?” Chloe asked.
“Detective Rayburn is determined to connect Dominic to Vincent Moretti’s death.”
“Did Dominic kill him?”
Maya looked at the closed office door.
“I do not know.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It is honest.”
Chloe sat quietly.
Then she asked the question she had been avoiding.
“What happens if I tell police Dominic forced me to lie?”
Maya folded her hands.
“You may be protected. Or you may become a target. If Rayburn has corruption inside his unit—as Dominic suspects—you could be exposed before any protection order takes effect.”
“So what do I do?”
Maya looked at her carefully.
“You do not make a decision today.”
For the first time in twenty-four hours, Chloe felt someone speak to her without asking for anything.
Then Dante burst into the room.
His face was tight.
“Boss needs to see you.”
Chloe stood.
“What happened?”
Dante hesitated.
“Your mother’s hospital received a visitor.”
Chloe’s blood ran cold.
“Who?”
“Someone asking questions about you.”
Dominic waited in the library.
His expression was colder than Chloe had ever seen it.
On the table lay a photograph.
It showed a man in a dark coat entering Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Chloe recognized him.
He had been standing near the hotel elevators that morning.
The man from the security footage.
The man who looked like Dominic.
But now Chloe could see the difference.
This man had a tattoo rising along the side of his neck.
A black serpent.
“Who is he?” Chloe asked.
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“Marco Moretti.”
“Vincent Moretti’s brother.”
“Yes.”
Chloe stared at the photograph.
“Why is he looking for my mother?”
May you like
Dominic looked directly at her.
“Because he believes you know whether I killed his brother.”
