“All right.We need to bring her up to speed on what Nikolai found.Coordinate our next moves.”He stands, reaching for his jacket.“Let’s go.”
The four of us take elevator H down to the parking garage.Our footsteps echo against the concrete as we cross to Dave’s armored SUV.Tommy slides behind the wheel while Nikolai claims the passenger seat.I settle into the back beside Dave, watching the Seaport District blur past as we head toward my penthouse.
Traffic crawls through the Financial District.Construction on Summer Street forces us onto a detour, adding a few minutes to the drive.I use the time to flip through Nikolai’s folder again, studying the evidence against Giovanni with fresh eyes.
The pieces fit together with sickening precision.Every shell company, every falsified manifest, every property deed leads back to the same source.Giovanni DiLorenzo has been running a trafficking operation under the Syndicate’s nose for years.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
I pull it out, and my heart flutters when I read Serena’s name on the message notification.Maybe she wants to know when I’ll be home.
I unlock the screen, and three lines of text jump at me like fucking thieves in the dark.
I can’t do this anymore.I’m sorry.
By the time you read this, I’ll be gone.
Please don’t try to find me.
I read the words once.
Twice.
Three times.
They refuse to make sense.
Twelve hours ago, we lay tangled together in paradise, planning our wedding and a future together.She told me she was falling in love.She said yes when I asked her to marry me again.She said she’d never leave.
And now this?
“Shelby?”Dave’s voice cuts through the fog.“What’s wrong?”
I hand him the phone without a word.My hand doesn’t tremble.I won’t let it.
He reads the message.His expression shifts from curiosity to concern to something harder, more guarded.When he looks up, his eyes hold a question I can’t answer.
Tommy glances in the rearview mirror.“What’s going on?”
“Serena.”Dave’s voice is flat.“She left.”
The SUV falls silent.
I stare out the window at the city streaming past.The same places I’ve driven by a thousand times, looking exactly as they did this morning.Yet everything has changed.
Maybe she got tired of living in the darkness.Maybe marrying a monster isn’t so appealing under the harsh light of reality.Or maybe blood is thicker than anything we were planning to build together.
Or maybe I never knew her at all.
The doubt Dave planted earlier spreads through my chest like slow poison.I think of her whiskey eyes, her fierce intelligence, the way she looked at me like I was worth something.Was any of it real?Or was I just another piece on her father’s chessboard, moved into position for a game I never understood?
Please don’t try to find me.
The words burn behind my eyes.
Tommy catches my gaze in the mirror.I read his question all over his face:What are you going to do?
I don’t have an answer.
