Chapter 3 - The Highway to Lovell
The rain had cleared by dawn, leaving the New York sky a crisp, pale blue.
The armored dark blue Suburban left the estate at six AM, escorted by a second non-descript SUV fifty yards behind us. Dominic sat in the front passenger seat, a encrypted tablet on his lap, while Marco drove. I sat in the middle row with Lily, who was busy sticking bright red dinosaur stickers all over my coat sleeves.
"Where are we going, Mommy?" Lily asked, pressing her nose against the dark tinted window as the Manhattan skyline faded behind us.
"We're going to see Grandma Linda," I said, forcing a smile onto my face despite the knot of anxiety twisting in my stomach. "And Mr. Moretti was nice enough to give us a ride."
Lily looked past my shoulder at the back of Dominic's head. "Mr. Moretti? Did you bring your gun?"
Marco choked on his coffee in the driver's seat.
Dominic turned his head slowly, looking over the leather headrest at my three-year-old daughter. A faint, rare smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Why do you ask, Lily?" Dominic inquired smoothly.
"Because the man in the blue car had one," Lily said nonchalantly, peeling a T-Rex sticker off her thumb. "He showed it to me when he told me not to tell Mommy about the lollipops."
The air inside the Suburban instantly turned thick enough to cut with a knife.
Marco’s hands tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. Dominic’s smile vanished completely, replaced by a dark, terrifying calm.
"He showed you a gun, sweetheart?" I whispered, my hands shaking as I pulled Lily onto my lap, hugging her tightly against my chest. "When?"
"At the park," Lily said, yawning. "He put it in his lap. He said it was for protection."
Dominic tapped his tablet screen twice. "Marco. Call the rear unit. Is the tail still on us?"
Marco glanced at his side mirror. "Two miles back. A black Ford Expedition with dark glass. They picked us up as soon as we crossed the Lincoln Tunnel."
"They think we're running," Dominic observed coldly. "They think I'm escorting a panicked woman out of the city."
"Are we running?" I asked, looking at Dominic with wide, frightened eyes.
Dominic reached over the headrest, his hand briefly covering mine where it clutched Lily's sweater. His touch was warm, solid, and impossibly grounding.
"I don't run, Clara," Dominic said softly. "We're taking you to see your mother because she is sick, and because you deserve to see her in peace. As for the men behind us... they are driving into a trap."
Three hours later, the Suburban turned off the main interstate onto a winding two-lane road deep in the forested hills of Eastern Pennsylvania. The trees were bare, their gray branches reaching out over the damp asphalt like skeleton fingers.
My mother's hospice facility—a small, quiet brick building surrounded by pine trees—sat three miles outside the small town of Lovell.
As Marco pulled the heavy SUV into the secluded driveway, the black Ford Expedition that had been following us slowed down near the entrance, parking near the tree line fifty yards away.
Dominic unbuckled his seatbelt. He opened the glove compartment, pulled out a sleek, black semi-automatic handgun, checked the magazine with a practiced click, and slipped it into his leather shoulder holster.
"Marco," Dominic commanded. "Stay in the vehicle with Clara and Lily. Lock the doors."
"Mr. Moretti, no!" I gasped, grabbing his sleeve before he could open his door. "There are at least three men in that car! You can't go out there alone!"
Dominic stopped, turning his head to look at my hand on his sleeve. He looked down at my cut finger, then up into my eyes.
"Clara," he said, his voice dropping into that deep, magnetic register that made my breath catch in my throat. "Four years ago, you walked into my house looking for a safe place to raise your child. You spent four years caring for my home. Today, I care for yours."
May you like
He gently leaned over, pressed his thumb against my cheek, and wiped away a stray tear I hadn't realized was falling.
"Stay inside," he whispered. "This will only take five minutes."
