Chapter 2 - The Room Above the Ballroom
Dominic did not let me pack.
He lifted Lily from my bed himself, blanket and all, while Marco swept the staff corridor with two armed men.
"Shoes," Dominic said.
I shoved my feet into slippers and grabbed my phone.
"Leave everything else."
The private elevator opened before he touched the button.
That bothered me.
Dominic saw me looking at it.
"It stays on this floor when I'm home."
"So someone called it?"
His eyes went to Marco.
Marco checked the panel. "No call logged."
The elevator doors began to close.
Dominic jammed his hand between them.
They opened again.
Nobody spoke until we reached the fourth floor.
I had worked in that house for six years and had never been allowed past the third-floor landing.
The doors opened into a private hallway with no paintings, no flowers, no decorative tables. Just cameras, steel doors, and a silence that made the ballroom downstairs feel a mile away.
Ethan stood barefoot outside a bedroom with Dr. Harris beside him.
"Lily?"
His voice cracked.
Lily woke in Dominic's arms.
"Efan."
She reached for him.
Dominic set her down, and Ethan hugged her so hard her blanket slipped to the floor.
Dr. Harris crouched immediately.
"Easy, Ethan."
"She saved me."
"I know."
Ethan didn't let go.
Neither did Lily.
A radio hissed against Marco's shoulder.
"North wing clear."
Another voice followed.
"Kitchen staff accounted for."
Marco looked at Dominic. "I'm putting two men on this hall and two at the elevator."
"Four at the elevator."
"Dom, that's half the inside team."
Dominic's head turned.
Marco corrected himself. "Four."
I noticed the nickname because Dominic did.
It was only a flicker in his eyes.
Then it was gone.
Dr. Harris checked Ethan's breathing again before leaving. Dominic watched him go, then unlocked a bedroom across from Ethan's.
"You and Lily stay here."
I stepped inside.
The room was larger than my entire staff apartment.
I didn't care.
"Can the windows open?"
"No."
"Balcony?"
"None."
"Connecting door?"
"Only to my study. It's locked from my side."
I turned toward him.
"And who has keys?"
His mouth tightened.
"Me. Marco. One house manager."
"Three people."
"Anna—"
"Someone almost killed an eight-year-old boy in a locked estate full of your security people. Three is too many."
Marco stood in the doorway behind him.
His face did not change.
Dominic held out his hand.
"Keys."
Marco removed a ring from his pocket and placed one brass key in Dominic's palm.
"House manager's copy?"
"I'll get it."
"Now."
Marco left.
Dominic closed the door.
I sat on the bed with Lily pressed against my ribs.
She smelled like strawberry shampoo and birthday cake frosting.
My hands would not stop shaking.
Dominic poured water from a glass bottle.
I reached for it and spilled some down my wrist.
"Sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
I almost laughed.
Instead, I drank.
At 4:08 a.m., I heard whispering.
I opened my eyes.
Lily was sitting upright under the blanket.
"Baby?"
She stared at the bedroom door.
"The lion man."
I pushed myself up so fast the headboard hit the wall.
Dominic came through the study door with a pistol already in his hand.
"What happened?"
"She said something about a lion."
He lowered the gun but didn't holster it.
I touched Lily's knee.
"What lion, sweetheart?"
She rubbed one eye.
"Cake man had one."
"Where?"
She pointed to her finger.
"Black ring. Little gold lion."
Dominic stopped moving.
I looked at him.
"You know it."
He put the pistol on the dresser.
"Maybe."
"That's not an answer."
"Calderone Shipping used a lion crest before they went legitimate. Some older men still wear it."
"Calderone."
The name meant something even to me.
Vincent Calderone had appeared in enough newspapers beside Dominic to make the rivalry public without anyone ever admitting what it was.
The door opened.
Marco walked in with the house manager's key.
Dominic said, "Lily remembers a black ring with a gold lion."
Marco's answer came before Dominic finished the sentence.
"Calderone."
I looked at him.
Marco looked back.
Too late.
He realized I had heard the speed of it.
"Old insignia," he added.
Dominic held out his hand for the key.
Marco gave it to him.
A fist hammered against the outer door.
All three of us moved.
Dominic grabbed the pistol.
Marco drew his weapon.
I pulled Lily behind me.
"Sir!"
Dominic opened the door six inches.
A guard stood outside holding something pink.
My stomach folded.
Lily's stuffed rabbit dangled from his hand.
"Where did you get that?"
The guard looked at me. "Downstairs. Service stairwell."
"No."
I grabbed for it.
Dominic stopped my wrist.
A white strip of paper had been tied around the rabbit's neck.
Lily climbed off the bed.
"Bunny."
I turned to stop her.
The place beside her pillow was empty.
I had carried that rabbit upstairs tucked under my elbow.
I remembered it brushing my arm inside the elevator.
Dominic cut the paper loose with a pocketknife.
Four words were printed in block letters.
SHE SHOULD HAVE FORGOTTEN.
My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
May you like
Then Dominic looked toward the locked hallway and raised his gun—
