Chapter 3 - The Forty-Seventh Man
The alarm sounded without warning.
Every light in the safe room changed to red.
Doors sealed.
Metal shutters dropped over the reinforced windows.
Men appeared from hidden corridors.
Serena heard the sound of weapons being loaded.
Dorian grabbed her hand.
"Stay beside me."
"What happened?"
"Someone got inside our system."
"How?"
"We'll figure that out later."
A loud electronic tone filled the room.
Mercer shouted from the hallway.
"North corridor compromised!"
Dorian's grip tightened.
"How many?"
"Unknown."
Serena heard footsteps.
Fast.
Disciplined.
Then gunfire.
Dorian pushed her down behind a concrete support.
She instinctively curled around her cello case.
"Serena."
"I'm here."
"Don't move."
She heard Dorian fire.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then silence.
A man groaned somewhere beyond the door.
"Clear!"
Dorian returned.
His breathing was heavier.
"You hurt?"
"No."
"Good."
Serena reached up.
Her fingers touched his sleeve.
"You're bleeding."
"Not mine."
"Whose?"
He didn't answer.
She understood.
The safe room had been attacked.
But there was something stranger.
None of the guards had shouted.
None had panicked.
They knew the layout.
Which meant the attacker knew it too.
"There is someone inside," Serena said.
Dorian froze.
"Yes."
"No."
"What?"
She listened.
"The footsteps."
He went silent.
Serena closed her eyes.
"Your men all wear different shoes."
Dorian stared.
"They move differently."
She continued.
"Mercer drags his right heel slightly."
She heard a faint inhale.
"Your doctor walks softly."
"Yes."
"The man near the east hall has hard rubber soles."
Dorian's face hardened.
"That's the intruder."
Serena pointed.
"He is behind the wall."
Dorian signaled two guards.
They moved.
A moment later, a man was dragged out from a hidden service passage.
Serena heard him breathing.
A weapon hit the floor.
Mercer cursed.
Dorian stepped closer.
"Who sent you?"
The man laughed.
Then Serena heard something metallic.
A tiny vibration.
She knew that sound.
A ring.
She walked forward.
Dorian stopped her.
"Serena."
"Let me hear him."
The man laughed again.
Then said:
"Your father should have killed you ten years ago."
Serena froze.
Dorian's voice turned dangerous.
"Why?"
The man responded:
"Because she remembers."
Serena felt cold.
"What do I remember?"
The man smiled.
"You'll find out soon enough."
Then he bit down.
Mercer shouted.
"He has poison!"
Too late.
The man collapsed.
Serena stood in silence.
Dorian turned toward her.
"You said you didn't remember."
"I don't."
"Maybe your mind protected you."
"From what?"
He didn't answer.
Later, after the safe room was secured, Serena sat at the dining table.
Dorian poured tea.
She didn't touch it.
"Tell me about the accident."
He sat opposite her.
"I wasn't there."
"But you investigated it."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because your father was working for my father."
She frowned.
"Your father was involved?"
"My father was the man your father was investigating."
That made her angry.
"And you expect me to trust you?"
"No."
"Then why help me?"
"Because I discovered something."
"What?"
Dorian's voice lowered.
"Your father saved my life."
Serena went quiet.
"When?"
"Four days before the accident."
Dorian described the night.
His father had ordered an execution.
A rival.
Dorian, twenty-two at the time, had been present.
The rival was about to be killed when Serena's father intervened.
He showed Dorian evidence that the rival was innocent.
Dorian had believed him.
He had stopped the execution.
That decision had changed everything.
The next morning, Dorian's father was arrested.
His organization fractured.
Three months later, he was dead.
Dorian became the head of the Vascari family at twenty-two.
"I owed your father a life," he said.
"You think protecting me pays the debt?"
"No."
"What then?"
Dorian was silent.
"Tell me."
He looked at her.
"I started protecting you because I owed him."
"And now?"
His voice softened.
"Now I protect you because I choose to."
Serena's heart beat harder.
She looked away.
"Don't say things like that."
"Why?"
"Because I can't see your face."
"You don't need to."
"That's easy for you to say."
"No."
His voice became almost painfully gentle.
"I've spent years believing people were only worth what they could give me."
He paused.
"Then I met a woman who couldn't see me and still managed to notice everything."
Serena swallowed.
Before she could answer, Mercer rushed in.
"Dorian."
"What?"
"We found the source of the breach."
"Where?"
Mercer looked at Serena.
"Her orchestra."
Silence.
Serena's face went pale.
"No."
"They accessed her schedule."
"No."
"They had her performance route."
"No."
"They knew which hotel she would enter."
Serena stood.
"My orchestra isn't involved."
Mercer hesitated.
"Not all of them."
"What does that mean?"
"A musician."
"Who?"
Mercer handed Dorian a photograph.
Serena heard paper moving.
Then Dorian said a name.
"Julian Cross."
Serena's heart dropped.
Julian was the orchestra's conductor.
Her mentor.
The man who had supported her career for years.
She whispered:
"He wouldn't."
May you like
Dorian looked toward her.
"That's what makes him dangerous."
