Chapter 4 - The Price of Being Loved
Norah saw the SUV from the third-floor window.
It parked across the street with its lights off.
Two men remained inside.
Her skin prickled.
Evelyn came up behind her.
“What is it?”
“Get your coat.”
Evelyn looked outside once and did not argue.
Norah grabbed the duffel bag she had never fully unpacked.
They left through the rear staircase.
At the end of the alley, Norah called Detective Price.
No answer.
She called again.
Voicemail.
Her pulse climbed.
There was only one other number she could call.
Nico answered before the first ring finished.
“Norah?”
“There’s a black SUV outside Evelyn’s building.”
Nico was already moving.
“Are you inside?”
“No. We took the back stairs.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“Norah.”
“If someone in your organization is involved, your people could be compromised.”
He stopped.
She was right.
That fact made him proud and furious at the same time.
“Go to a public place.”
“We are.”
“Do not take the subway.”
“I know.”
“Norah—”
“Nico, stop.”
He forced himself silent.
Her voice softened.
“I called because I thought you should know.”
The words mattered more than they should have.
“Thank you.”
She ended the call.
Arthur entered the study.
“What happened?”
Nico grabbed his coat.
“They found Evelyn.”
Arthur cursed.
“Who knows the address?”
“Almost nobody.”
They looked at each other.
Then Arthur said, “Someone accessed old background files.”
Nico’s expression turned lethal.
Within twenty minutes, the Moretti network began folding inward.
Phones were taken.
Vehicles tracked.
Security logs pulled.
No one left the headquarters.
Victor Serrano arrived furious.
“What the hell is this?”
Nico watched him enter.
Victor was forty-two, broad-shouldered, expensive, and smiling even when angry.
“Security review.”
Victor scoffed.
“Because your girlfriend ran away?”
Every man in the room went still.
Nico stepped closer.
“Say her name.”
Victor smiled.
“Norah.”
Nico punched him.
The blow dropped Victor into a chair.
Arthur grabbed Nico before he could strike again.
Victor wiped blood from his mouth and laughed.
“There he is.”
Nico stared.
“The grieving king.”
Arthur’s grip tightened.
Victor stood slowly.
“You think no one noticed? You stopped meetings. You delayed collections. You canceled Sunday because she made one phone call.”
Nico’s eyes narrowed.
Victor had revealed too much.
“How do you know she called?”
Victor’s smile faded.
Silence.
Arthur released Nico and reached for his weapon.
Victor moved first.
He shoved the table over.
Gunfire exploded.
Lights shattered.
Men screamed.
Nico dove behind a stone column as bullets tore through the room.
Victor ran.
Arthur fired once, striking one of Victor’s men.
“Back corridor!” Arthur shouted.
Nico chased him.
They reached the service hall seconds too late.
Victor disappeared through the loading exit.
A black sedan screamed away.
Arthur looked at Nico.
“He’s been building this longer than we thought.”
Nico stared at the empty street.
“He’s going after Norah.”
Across Manhattan, Norah and Evelyn sat in the back of a taxi heading south.
“Where are we going?” Evelyn asked.
“A hotel.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Norah’s new phone rang.
Detective Price.
She answered.
“Where were you?”
“Sorry. I was in a secure briefing.”
“Someone was outside Evelyn’s building.”
Price’s voice sharpened.
“Description?”
Norah gave it.
“Don’t go back.”
“We weren’t planning to.”
“I’m sending officers.”
“No.”
“Ms. Hart—”
“If someone has police contacts, I’m not walking into a location everyone can trace.”
Price paused.
“You sound like Moretti.”
“That is not a compliment.”
“No. But it may keep you alive.”
Norah looked out the window.
“Victor knows.”
Price went quiet.
“How?”
“Nico called. There was a confrontation.”
“You spoke to Moretti again?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.”
The taxi stopped at a red light.
A motorcycle pulled up beside them.
The rider turned.
Norah saw the gun.
“Down!”
She threw herself over Evelyn.
The rear window exploded.
The taxi driver screamed and accelerated.
Glass cut Norah’s cheek.
A second shot hit the trunk.
The motorcycle followed.
Norah grabbed the driver’s shoulder.
“Turn right! Right!”
He swerved into a narrow street.
Traffic boxed them in.
The motorcycle came closer.
Then another black vehicle slammed into it from the side.
The motorcycle spun.
The rider crashed into a parked van.
Norah looked up.
The black vehicle’s rear door opened.
Nico stepped out.
For one suspended second, the city disappeared.
He was not wearing a suit.
No overcoat.
No polished armor.
Just black pants, a dark sweater, and an expression of naked terror.
He ran to the taxi.
“Norah.”
She stepped out before thinking.
He touched her face where glass had cut her.
Blood streaked his fingertips.
Something inside him broke.
“Who did this?”
She grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t.”
His eyes found hers.
“Nico, don’t become worse because someone hurt me.”
The words stopped him.
Behind them, Arthur’s men secured the shooter.
Evelyn climbed from the taxi.
Nico looked at her.
“Mrs. Hart.”
“Evelyn.”
He nodded.
“Evelyn.”
She studied him.
“So you’re the idiot.”
Arthur coughed to hide a laugh.
Nico blinked.
“Yes.”
Evelyn looked at Norah’s bleeding cheek.
“Good. At least we agree.”
Nico wanted to take Norah somewhere safe.
He did not command it.
“Will you come with me?”
Norah hesitated.
Every instinct told her not to return to the penthouse.
But someone had just tried to kill her in traffic.
“Not there,” she said.
“Anywhere you choose.”
That mattered.
“Arthur?” Nico called.
Arthur stepped closer.
“Find a place not connected to us.”
Norah watched him.
“You trust him?”
“With my life.”
Arthur’s eyes flicked toward her.
“And hers?”
Nico answered without hesitation.
“More.”
Arthur looked away.
They moved to a private residence owned by a retired judge who owed Arthur a favor and had no known Moretti connection.
By midnight, Norah sat at a kitchen table while a doctor stitched the cut along her cheek.
Nico waited across the room.
He never looked away.
When the doctor finished, Norah asked everyone to leave except Nico.
He sat opposite her.
“You saved me.”
“I almost didn’t get there.”
“But you did.”
His hands were shaking.
Norah noticed.
She had never seen Nico’s hands shake.
He looked down at them as if ashamed.
“I thought I was going to watch you die.”
“You didn’t.”
His eyes closed.
“I told myself you were safer away from me.”
“I probably was.”
He flinched.
Norah regretted the cruelty immediately, but did not take it back.
“Nico, Victor didn’t target me because I left.”
“No.”
“He targeted me because I mattered to you.”
“Yes.”
“And you spent three years pretending I didn’t.”
His eyes lifted.
“I know.”
She leaned back.
“Why?”
He took a long time to answer.
“My father loved my mother.”
Norah went still.
Nico almost never spoke about his father.
“He loved her more than anything,” Nico continued. “And everyone knew it. When his enemies couldn’t reach him, they took her.”
Norah’s face changed.
“She died?”
Nico nodded.
“I was sixteen.”
He stared at his hands.
“My father taught me that love creates a target. So when I met you, I told myself I could keep you if I never admitted how much you meant.”
Norah’s eyes filled.
“And instead you made me feel meaningless.”
“Yes.”
The word was barely audible.
He looked at her.
“I became exactly the kind of man I thought I was protecting you from.”
For the first time since leaving, Norah saw no strategy in him.
No defense.
Only truth.
She reached across the table and covered his shaking hand.
Nico’s breath stopped.
It was not forgiveness.
May you like
It was not a return.
But for one moment, she let him hold on.
