The words knock the air from my lungs.
"I've heard the whole thing, Ms. Catalano." His pale eyes bore into mine. "The break-in. Your screams when he grabbed you. The sounds of the struggle."
I'm going to be sick. Right here on the sidewalk, in front of this monster in an expensive coat, I'm going to vomit.
"And then Phoenix arrives. The beating. My brother begging for his life at the end."
I can hear it in my head now. The wet sounds of the fire poker. Marcus's voice, slurred and desperate, pleading for Phoenix to stop. And then the final blow, the one that ended everything.
I'm shaking. My whole body is trembling, and I can't make it stop. He has everything. The entire nightmare, recorded and saved and waiting to destroy us.
"So you see, I don't need you to tell me the truth." Dominic releases my arm and takes a half-step back. "I already knowit. Every detail. Every sound. Every moment of my brother's pathetic death."
"What do you want?" My voice is barely audible.
Dominic straightens his coat, adjusting the collar. "Not yet. I'm not ready to tell you what I want yet. But soon."
He smiles again, that dead-eyed expression that makes me want to scream and run and hide.
"I just wanted you to know where things stand. So you understand that your boyfriend's family money can't make this disappear. The police can be bought. Evidence can be destroyed. But I have copies in places his father’s people will never find. And I have a very long memory."
"Phoenix was protecting me." The words burst out before I can stop them. "Marcus was going to rape me. He was going to kill me. Phoenix saved my life."
"I don't care what Marcus was going to do." For the first time, something flickers in those pale eyes. Something hot and dark and dangerous. "He was my brother. My blood. And now he's dead, beaten to death while he begged for mercy."
"He didn't deserve mercy. He was a monster."
"Perhaps." Dominic reaches into his pocket and pulls out a business card. He tucks it into my jacket pocket, his fingers brushing against my chest in a way that makes my skin crawl. "But he was my monster. And someone has to pay for taking him from me."
He turns to leave, then pauses, looking back over his shoulder.
"I'll be in touch, Ms. Catalano. Don't do anything stupid in the meantime." His lips curve into something that might be amusement. "There's nowhere you can go that I won't find you. Nowhere in the world."
Then he walks away, disappearing into the fog like he was never there at all.
I stand on the sidewalk, frozen, the mist swirling around me. My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my skull. My hands are shaking too badly to hold anything. The card in my pocket feels like it weighs a thousand pounds.
He has a recording. He heard it happen.
Everything. The attack, the murder, all of it, captured on Marcus's phone and saved to a cloud server somewhere that Nicholas Crawford's money and influence can't reach.
We're not safe.
I fumble for my phone with numb fingers, nearly dropping it twice before I manage to pull up Phoenix's contact. The screen blurs through my tears as I press call.
He answers on the first ring. "Jade? What's wrong?"
I can barely get the words out. My throat is tight, my lungs won't work properly, and everything I want to say gets tangled up with the fear that's choking me.
"Phoenix." I force his name past my lips. "We have a problem. A big one."
"What happened?" His voice sharpens instantly. "Are you hurt?"
"Marcus's brother. He found me. He knows everything." I'm crying now, tears streaming down my face. "He has proof. He has a recording of the whole thing."
There’s silence on the other end that stretches so long I start to wonder if the call dropped.
Then Phoenix's voice comes back, cold and hard in a way I've never heard before. Not even when he was killing Marcus. Not even when he was covered in blood and holding me in his arms.
