Chapter 2 - The Night Someone Came for Ruby
Dante slammed the car door and shouted for the guards.
The Moretti mansion changed in seconds.
Men appeared from side corridors.
Steel security shutters began descending over the lower windows.
The gate guards raised weapons.
Maria pulled Ruby from the car.
“Inside.”
Ruby resisted.
“My father—”
“Inside, signora.”
A gunshot cracked through the night.
Then another.
Ruby flinched.
Dante turned toward the drive.
One SUV skidded sideways.
The second rammed the iron gate.
The third stopped fifty yards away.
Men climbed out.
Ruby saw the flash of weapons.
Dante grabbed her wrist.
“Move.”
She jerked away.
“Don’t touch me.”
Another bullet struck stone beside them.
Dante’s face hardened.
“Be angry with me later.”
He lifted Ruby into his arms.
She protested.
He ignored her.
He carried her through the doors as glass shattered behind them.
The guards returned fire.
Ruby had never seen Dante like this.
Not angry.
Not cold.
Focused.
Terrifyingly calm.
He set her down behind a marble wall.
“Stay here.”
“My father is missing.”
“I know.”
“You knew the house wasn’t sold.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“No time.”
Dante pulled a pistol from beneath his jacket.
Ruby stared at it.
She had known.
Of course she had known.
But seeing it still changed something.
He noticed her expression.
“I will explain everything.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I mean it.”
“You meant the vows too?”
His eyes flashed.
A guard shouted from the entrance.
“Boss!”
Dante turned.
One of the attackers had breached the foyer.
Dante moved before Ruby could think.
There was a brief struggle.
A body hit the floor.
Ruby covered her mouth.
Dante took the man’s weapon.
“Who sent you?”
The attacker spat blood.
Dante crouched.
“Who?”
The man smiled.
“Gallagher knows.”
Ruby’s heart stopped.
“My father?”
The attacker looked toward her.
Recognition appeared in his eyes.
“There she is.”
Dante stood instantly and blocked Ruby from view.
“What does that mean?”
The man laughed.
“The wife who thinks she married into the Morettis.”
Dante’s expression turned lethal.
The attacker looked directly at Ruby.
“You married out.”
Then he bit down.
Dante grabbed his jaw.
Too late.
The man convulsed.
Poison.
Ruby backed away.
“What did he mean?”
Dante stood.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t.”
“Ruby.”
“Don’t lie to me again.”
He looked at the dead man.
Then at the guards.
“Clear the house.”
He took Ruby by the arm.
This time she followed.
Not because she trusted him.
Because the gunfire had stopped and that somehow felt worse.
Dante led her through the study.
He touched a hidden panel behind a bookshelf.
A steel door opened.
Ruby stared.
“Of course.”
“Inside.”
The room beyond looked like a private command center.
Monitors.
Maps.
Encrypted phones.
Security feeds.
Ruby turned slowly.
“You manage businesses?”
Dante almost smiled.
Almost.
“Some businesses require protection.”
She folded her arms.
“My father. Now.”
Dante looked at one of the screens.
A map showed Gallagher House.
The property was outside the city.
Ruby had grown up there.
At eighteen, she had hidden cigarettes behind the old greenhouse.
At twenty-three, she had cried in the library after her mother died.
At twenty-eight, she had married Dante in a cathedral while her father watched from the first row.
She had been told the house was sold to pay debts.
Apparently that too was false.
Dante typed something.
Security footage appeared.
Gallagher House.
Earlier that evening.
Ruby leaned closer.
Her father entered through the west gate at 8:17 p.m.
Alone.
At 8:42, another vehicle arrived.
A black sedan.
Three men entered.
At 9:03, the cameras went dark.
Ruby looked at Dante.
“Who are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I recognize one.”
“Who?”
Dante hesitated.
Ruby pointed at him.
“You lost the right to protect me from information.”
He looked at her.
“Luca Serrano.”
The name meant nothing to Ruby.
“Who is he?”
“My uncle’s former adviser.”
“Former?”
“He betrayed my family fifteen years ago.”
“Why would he meet my father?”
“That is what I need to find out.”
Ruby stared at the frozen image.
Her father walking into the house.
Head bowed.
Shoulders tense.
Something else bothered her.
“Why did he go alone?”
Dante said nothing.
“Dante.”
“He received a message.”
“You saw it?”
“I have access to some of his communications.”
Ruby laughed bitterly.
“Of course you do.”
Dante ignored the insult.
“The message said there was evidence about your mother’s death.”
Ruby stopped breathing.
“My mother died of an aneurysm.”
“That is what you were told.”
Her face went pale.
Dante immediately regretted the sentence.
“What do you mean?”
“Ruby—”
“What do you mean?”
He walked toward her.
She backed against the desk.
“Tell me.”
Dante stared at her for several seconds.
“Your mother contacted my family six weeks before she died.”
Ruby felt the floor tilt.
“Why?”
“She wanted protection.”
“From whom?”
“We never found out.”
“My father?”
“No.”
“You?”
“No.”
“You said you didn’t know me then.”
“I didn’t.”
Ruby pressed her fingers to her forehead.
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
“You investigated my family.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to acquire our company.”
“Yes.”
“You married me.”
“Yes.”
“And now you are telling me my mother was asking your family for help before she died?”
“Yes.”
Ruby looked at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Because I had no proof her death was connected.”
“So you decided ignorance was better.”
“I decided you had already lost enough.”
Ruby laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You really do believe you get to decide everything.”
Dante did not argue.
A phone rang.
One of the guards answered.
“Sir.”
Dante took the phone.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“When?”
A pause.
“How many?”
Another pause.
“Keep them there.”
He disconnected.
Ruby’s pulse quickened.
“What happened?”
“We found two men outside the estate.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Who are they?”
“They work for Serrano.”
“Then question them.”
“We will.”
Dante looked toward the security monitor.
“But first we are going to Gallagher House.”
Ruby stared at him.
“You’re taking me?”
“No.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“My father is there.”
“Possibly.”
“Then I’m going.”
Dante stepped closer.
“The men who attacked this house came because they knew you were leaving. Someone tracked that car before it left the gate.”
Ruby remembered the driver.
The hesitation.
The unfinished sentence.
“Who knew where I was going?”
“Three people.”
“Who?”
“Me. You. And the driver.”
They both went silent.
Ruby looked toward the door.
“Where is he?”
A guard outside answered.
“Gone.”
Dante turned.
“What?”
“He disappeared during the attack.”
Ruby’s stomach dropped.
Dante reached for his phone.
Another message arrived first.
Not on his device.
On Ruby’s.
Unknown number.
One image.
Her father.
Tied to a chair.
Blood on his shirt.
Ruby gasped.
Beneath the image was a single line.
BRING YOUR HUSBAND’S ORIGINAL CONTRACT TO GALLAGHER HOUSE.
Ruby looked up.
Dante had gone completely still.
Then a second message appeared.
AND RUBY COMES ALONE.
Ruby stared at the screen.
A third message began typing.
It stopped.
Then one final photograph arrived.
It showed Ruby’s mother.
May you like
Alive.
Taken yesterday.
