CHAPTER 2 — MARK KELLER MADE A MISTAKE
CHAPTER 2 — MARK KELLER MADE A MISTAKE
The security footage arrived within seven minutes.
Vincent didn’t watch it alone.
I stood beside him at the office monitor, my arms folded tightly around myself like I could hold my life in place if I tried hard enough.
There it was.
The alley.
Mark’s hand around my wrist.
My body hitting the wall.
The moment Antonio opened the door.
Vincent didn’t blink once.
When it ended, he clicked the screen off.
Silence filled the room again.
Then he said, “You’re leaving work early.”
My stomach dropped. “I can’t. I need this job.”
“You don’t anymore.”
I turned toward him. “You can’t just—”
“I can,” he interrupted. “And I did.”
That should have scared me.
It did.
But not the way I expected.
It wasn’t fear of losing my job.
It was fear of what kind of man could erase someone’s entire life with a sentence spoken softly.
“You don’t understand,” I said quickly. “If I leave, he’ll go after my nephew. He always finds a way—”
Vincent’s gaze sharpened.
“You have a child in your care?”
“My nephew.”
A pause.
Then he nodded once, like something had just locked into place.
“Where is he now?”
“At home. With a neighbor.”
Vincent picked up his phone.
“No—wait—what are you doing?”
He didn’t answer me.
He spoke into the phone instead. “Move him to safe location. Now.”
My blood ran cold.
“Vincent—no, stop—don’t involve him in this—”
He looked at me then.
And for the first time, I saw something beneath the control.
Not anger.
Not violence.
Something far more dangerous.
Certainty.
“He involved himself when he touched you,” he said.
My breath caught.
I shook my head. “You don’t know him.”
“I know enough.”
Before I could argue again, his phone rang.
He answered immediately.
A pause.
Then: “Where?”
Another pause.
His expression didn’t change.
But the air did.
When he hung up, he looked at me.
“He’s at your apartment.”
My heart stopped.
“How do you—”
May you like
Vincent was already walking.
“Stay behind me.”
