Chapter 4 - Nora’s Secret
Dante ordered everyone out except Nora.
Vincent was taken downstairs.
Nora stood beside the window.
“You knew?”
Dante asked.
“That the yard belonged to you? Yes.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“So that’s why you came here.”
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“You expect me to believe Margaret randomly hired the widow of a man who died on my property?”
Nora turned.
“I didn’t know when she offered me the job.”
“When did you find out?”
“Two weeks before I started.”
Dante stared at her.
“And you came anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the official report said electrical fire.”
“And?”
“My husband, Sam, called me twenty minutes before he died.”
Dante said nothing.
Nora’s voice tightened.
“He told me there were men moving unregistered cargo through the yard. He said he’d found something he wasn’t supposed to see.”
Dante’s anger shifted.
“What?”
“He never told me.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
Nora laughed once.
“You?”
“You knew who I was.”
“I knew people were terrified of you.”
“And you still took the job.”
“I wanted answers.”
Dante looked away.
“So I was right. You used Margaret.”
“No.”
“You used me.”
“No.”
“You danced on my table while investigating my family?”
“That wasn’t planned.”
“What part was real?”
Nora’s face tightened.
“All of it.”
Dante turned toward her.
“That’s convenient.”
“I didn’t make you smile.”
“No?”
“You did that yourself.”
Dante’s jaw flexed.
Nora stepped closer.
“I came here because I wanted to understand what happened to Sam. But then I met you.”
“And?”
“And you weren’t the man I expected.”
“Stop.”
“You weren’t.”
“Nora.”
“You were lonely. Angry. Half-dead.”
His eyes flashed.
“Enough.”
“And I cared.”
Dante looked at her.
She continued.
“That was not part of any plan.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then a guard knocked.
“Boss.”
Dante opened the door.
“What?”
“Vincent’s gone.”
Dante’s face changed.
“How?”
“Someone cut the lower cameras. Two guards are down. He took a vehicle.”
Nora stepped forward.
Dante immediately turned to her.
“You leave tonight.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“Vincent just connected my husband’s death to Luca.”
“Which makes you a target.”
“And you think sending me away fixes that?”
“It gets you out of here.”
“Dante—”
“You wanted answers. Now you have enough to get killed.”
Nora stared at him.
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Turning fear into orders.”
“This is not fear.”
“Then look me in the eye and tell me you don’t care what happens to me.”
Dante opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Nora nodded slowly.
“That’s what I thought.”
Dante looked away.
An hour later, information came from security.
Vincent had taken an old access key to a warehouse south of Atlanta.
The same property where Sam Hayes had died.
Nora read the address.
Her hands shook.
“I’m going.”
“No,” Dante said.
“Sam died there.”
“Which is exactly why you’re not going.”
“Luca died because nobody listened to him.”
Dante froze.
Nora softened her voice.
“Don’t make the same mistake.”
Dante stared at the address.
Then at her.
“Fine.”
Nora blinked.
“Really?”
“You stay behind me.”
“That sounds unnecessarily dramatic.”
“You wear body armor.”
“Less romantic.”
“This is not romantic.”
“Your face says otherwise.”
Dante stared.
Nora gave him the smallest smile.
May you like
For one second, despite everything—
he nearly smiled back.
