Chapter 3 - A House Full of Eyes.
The Rossi estate had cameras hidden in clocks, smoke detectors, carved moldings, and even the stone angels outside the front gate.
Yet the one stretch of video Lorenzo needed had vanished.
By noon, every employee was being questioned in the ballroom beneath a chandelier bright enough to expose fear on every face.
Hunter sat alone upstairs with Leo while two guards stood outside the nursery.
Lorenzo had insisted she remain with the baby.
Marco had insisted that decision was reckless.
Hunter could still hear their argument through the hall.
“You know nothing about her,” Marco said.
“I know Leo eats when she holds him.”
“That does not make her safe.”
“It makes her necessary.”
Hunter looked down at Leo.
“Apparently I’m necessary.”
His eyes fluttered open.
The strange warmth that moved through her chest was immediately followed by guilt.
Lily should have been in her arms.
Lily should have been the baby keeping her awake.
Lily should have been the reason she knew exactly how warm a bottle should feel against the inside of her wrist.
Hunter blinked hard and kept feeding.
Her phone vibrated inside her apron.
Only three people had the number.
The staffing agency.
Her landlord.
Tommy.
She nearly dropped the bottle when she saw the message.
YOU THINK A BIG HOUSE CAN HIDE YOU?
A second message appeared.
YOU STILL OWE ME.
Hunter’s skin went cold.
Tommy always rewrote reality until his debts became hers and his violence became something she had caused.
She locked the screen.
The nursery door opened.
Lorenzo entered.
His eyes went immediately to her face.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“That was not nothing.”
Hunter kept her attention on Leo.
“It’s personal.”
Lorenzo’s expression hardened.
“In this house, personal problems have a way of becoming security problems.”
Hunter almost told him to mind his own business.
Then her phone vibrated again.
A photograph appeared.
It showed the front entrance of her apartment building in Queens.
Under it was a single sentence.
COME HOME BEFORE I COME GET YOU.
Lorenzo held out his hand.
Hunter did not move.
“No.”
“Hunter.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“I am trying to keep my son alive.”
“And I am trying to keep what is left of my life from becoming yours to control.”
The words hit harder than she intended.
Lorenzo looked away first.
After a moment, he said quietly, “Fair.”
Hunter had expected anger.
The restraint surprised her enough that she finally handed him the phone.
He read the messages.
His face became unreadable.
“Tommy Vance?”
Hunter stared at him.
“How do you know his last name?”
Lorenzo did not answer immediately.
Instead, he opened the photo and enlarged the reflection in the apartment door.
A black sedan was visible behind Tommy.
Lorenzo’s thumb stopped over the screen.
He knew that car.
“Who is he in debt to?” Lorenzo asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You need to think.”
Hunter’s voice sharpened.
“I was busy losing my baby after he pushed me down a staircase.”
Silence dropped between them.
Lorenzo’s face went still.
“He did what?”
Hunter immediately regretted saying it.
Before Lorenzo could continue, another message arrived.
This one was not from Tommy.
May you like
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
LEAVE THE ROSSI HOUSE TONIGHT, OR THE NEXT BABY DIES TOO.
