Chapter 5 - Someone Inside Roman’s House Was Selling Him Out
The Vulov arrest should have ended everything.
Instead, it started something worse.
Three nights later, Morgana woke to breaking glass.
She sat upright.
Another crash.
Then footsteps downstairs.
She grabbed her phone.
No signal.
The bedroom lights went out.
Morgana’s heart pounded.
Someone knocked.
Three slow knocks.
“Morgana.”
Roman.
She unlocked the door.
He entered and immediately locked it again.
He wore black trousers and a white shirt.
There was a dark stain near his shoulder.
Her eyes widened.
“You’re hurt.”
“Not badly.”
“What happened?”
“Someone disabled the security system.”
“Hayes?”
“No.”
Roman handed her a phone.
“Stay here.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Morgana.”
“No.”
He stared.
She grabbed a towel and pressed it against his shoulder.
Roman winced.
“Sit.”
“I don’t take orders in my own house.”
“You do when you’re leaking on the carpet.”
Despite everything, he almost smiled.
Then footsteps approached.
Roman’s expression changed.
He pushed Morgana behind him.
The door handle moved.
A voice came through.
“Boss?”
Hayes.
Roman opened the door.
Hayes entered.
“We caught him.”
“Who?”
“Calvin.”
Roman’s accountant.
Morgana remembered the man who had brought Jason’s financial records.
“Why?”
Hayes answered.
“He’d been selling schedules to Viktor for months.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“Bring him downstairs.”
Calvin sat in the dining room with two guards behind him.
Roman stood across from him.
Morgana remained near the kitchen.
Calvin laughed nervously.
“You can’t blame me.”
Roman said nothing.
“They offered two million.”
“You sold access to my home.”
“They said they only wanted the girl.”
Roman’s expression went completely still.
Morgana saw Hayes take one small step backward.
Calvin continued.
“She’s nobody, Roman.”
Roman crossed the room.
Morgana spoke.
“Roman.”
He stopped.
She shook her head.
“Don’t.”
Calvin laughed.
“You see? She’s made you weak.”
Roman slowly looked back at him.
“No.”
He adjusted his cuff.
“She reminded me that killing stupid people is an inefficient use of my evening.”
Hayes coughed to hide a laugh.
Roman nodded toward the guards.
“Turn him over to the federal investigators. Give them everything.”
Calvin’s confidence vanished.
“Roman.”
“You’ve been laundering Vulov money through three shell companies.”
“You can’t prove that.”
Morgana lifted a folder from the table.
Calvin stared.
She smiled.
“You really shouldn’t leave passwords written under your keyboard.”
Roman looked at her.
“You went through his office?”
“He told me to clean it.”
Hayes started laughing again.
Even Roman couldn’t suppress a smile.
Calvin was dragged away.
Later, Morgana found Roman alone in the kitchen.
She changed the dressing on his shoulder.
“You could leave,” he said.
She looked up.
“We’ve discussed this.”
“I mean permanently.”
“Why?”
“Because people around me get hurt.”
“I was getting hurt before I met you.”
Roman’s eyes hardened.
“That doesn’t make this safe.”
“No.”
She taped the bandage down.
“But now I get to choose.”
Roman looked at her hand resting near his shoulder.
“You shouldn’t trust me.”
“I don’t.”
He raised an eyebrow.
Morgana smiled faintly.
“Not completely.”
“That’s smart.”
“But I trust the man who gave me a lock.”
Roman became silent.
“The first thing you ever gave me wasn’t money,” she continued. “It wasn’t clothes. It wasn’t protection.”
“What was it?”
“A door you weren’t allowed to open.”
Roman looked away.
Morgana touched his hand.
He froze.
She could have pulled away.
May you like
She didn’t.
Neither did he.
