Chapter 3 - THE NAME BEHIND THE THREAT
At eight the next morning, Nora opened her apartment door and found two men standing in the hallway.
Both wore dark suits.
Both had earpieces.
And both looked as though they had never spent an ordinary morning in a building with broken elevators and graffiti-covered walls.
Nora stared.
"Can I help you?"
One man nodded politely.
"Ms. Ellis, Mr. Vale asked us to make sure you're safe."
She closed her eyes.
"Of course he did."
She reached for her phone.
Roman answered on the second ring.
"Morning, Nora."
"Why are there two enormous men outside my apartment?"
"Security."
"I figured that out."
"They're there because—"
"Roman, I have neighbors. I have a landlord. I have an eight-year-old who thinks your employees are secret agents."
He was silent.
Then she heard him sigh.
"All right. I'll explain."
"You'd better."
Thirty minutes later, Roman arrived alone, except for Daniel waiting downstairs.
Nora let him inside.
Lucy was at school, and the apartment was unusually quiet.
Roman looked uncomfortable.
That almost amused her.
The man whose name frightened half of Chicago apparently found it difficult to face an angry woman holding a dish towel.
"Sit," she ordered.
He sat.
"Now tell me the truth."
Roman looked at his hands.
"There are people who may want to hurt you because of what happened ten years ago."
Nora's expression changed.
"The men who were searching for you?"
"Possibly."
"Roman, that was ten years ago."
"I know."
"Why would anyone still care?"
He looked toward the window.
"Because the people who wanted me dead never stopped being afraid of what I might remember."
Nora pulled out a chair.
"Then tell me what happened."
Roman took a long breath.
"My father was Adrian Vale. He ran shipping businesses along the Chicago waterfront."
"I remember you said he was killed."
Roman nodded.
"He was also involved in organized crime."
Nora went still.
"My uncle Victor worked for him. They built everything together."
"Your uncle is still alive?"
"Very much."
Roman's expression hardened.
"After my father's death, Victor told me a rival family had arranged the killing. He said the same people were hunting me."
"Was it true?"
"Some of it."
Nora waited.
"Victor brought me back into the family business when I was seventeen. He taught me how to survive in a world where betrayal was ordinary."
Roman looked down.
"He also taught me how to become someone people feared."
Nora studied him.
"And now you're the boss."
"Yes."
"Do you hurt people?"
The question struck him harder than an accusation.
Roman didn't answer immediately.
Finally, he said, "I've done things I'm not proud of."
Nora looked away.
He continued.
"I'm trying to change what I inherited. But I won't pretend the past doesn't exist."
"Good," she whispered. "Because I don't want you lying to me."
Their eyes met.
Roman nodded.
"Then I won't."
He told her about the photograph.
The message.
His suspicion that Victor had been involved in the original search.
Nora's face grew pale.
"You think your uncle sent those men?"
"I don't know yet."
"Roman..."
"I'm going to find out."
She rose and crossed the room.
Outside, a garbage truck rumbled down the street.
Ordinary life continued.
Someone argued over parking.
A woman carried groceries through the rain.
And Nora wondered how the boy she had fed behind a grocery store had grown into the kind of man whose enemies could reach into her home.
"Why did you become like them?" she asked quietly.
Roman lowered his head.
"Because I thought power would make me safe."
"Did it?"
He looked toward the doorway.
"No."
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then Nora sat across from him again.
"Ten years ago, you promised me something."
Roman looked up.
"You said that if you saw somebody hungry or frightened, you wouldn't walk past."
"I remember."
She leaned forward.
"Is that still the kind of man you want to be?"
He swallowed.
"More than anything."
"Then start there."
Roman stared at her.
Most people approached him with demands.
Money.
Influence.
Protection.
Nora was asking him to become better.
He didn't know which was more frightening.
That afternoon, Roman asked Daniel to trace the original photograph through the family's archives.
The result was unsettling.
The image came from a security camera installed behind a grocery store once owned by a company connected to Victor Vale.
The footage had been archived under a file labeled:
WITNESS — NOVEMBER 16.
The date matched the night Nora had helped him.
Roman stared at the screen.
"Witness to what?"
Daniel shook his head.
"There's no description."
"Who accessed the file?"
"Victor's private office. Three days ago."
Roman leaned back.
His uncle had told him the past was finished.
But Victor was still opening evidence from that night.
Daniel hesitated.
"Boss, there's more."
"What?"
"Someone recently paid Travis Cole and his crew through a shell company."
"Victor?"
"Possibly. The payment came through one of his old accounts."
Roman looked toward the window.
"So the attack on Nora wasn't random."
"No."
"It was supposed to frighten her."
Daniel nodded.
"Or make her disappear."
Roman's jaw tightened.
"Then we need evidence before Victor knows we're investigating."
Daniel placed another document on the desk.
"This might help."
It was a copy of an old incident report from the alley.
The report mentioned two vehicles leaving the neighborhood shortly before midnight.
One belonged to the men searching for Roman.
The other was an unregistered dark sedan.
Roman frowned.
"Who was driving?"
"No record."
"Was Nora interviewed?"
"Apparently not."
Roman stared at the date.
He remembered hiding behind the dumpster.
Remembered Nora's voice lying to the men.
Remembered a second car passing slowly through the alley.
But he had never seen the driver.
His memory held only headlights and a quiet metallic sound.
The next evening, Roman returned to Nora's apartment.
He brought no security men upstairs.
No expensive gifts.
Just a paper bag containing soup and two bread rolls.
Nora opened the door.
"What's this?"
"Dinner."
She looked inside.
Then smiled.
"Chicken soup?"
"Seemed appropriate."
They ate in the small kitchen while Lucy worked on a school project.
For a little while, the past felt distant.
Then Nora suddenly set down her spoon.
"Roman, I remembered something."
He looked up.
"The night those men were looking for you, there was another car."
His body went still.
"What kind?"
"Black sedan. Older model."
"Did you see the driver?"
"Not clearly."
She frowned.
"But I remember a man's hand resting outside the window. He wore a large silver ring."
Roman's breath caught.
"A ring?"
"With a red stone."
He slowly reached into his pocket.
Pulled out his phone.
Opened an old family photograph.
In the picture, Victor Vale stood beside Adrian Vale at a charity dinner.
On Victor's right hand was a large silver ring with a dark red stone.
Roman showed Nora the photograph.
She stared.
Then touched the screen.
"That's it."
Roman's world seemed to tilt.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
His father had been murdered.
Men had hunted him through the streets.
And his uncle's car had been outside the alley where he was hiding.
Roman looked at Nora.
She saw the change in his eyes.
"Roman?"
He whispered, "My uncle wasn't searching for me to bring me home."
Her face went pale.
"He was making sure you never got there?"
Roman didn't answer.
Because for the first time in ten years, he understood that the man who had raised him might also have been the man who had ordered his death.
And when his phone rang, Victor's name appeared on the screen.
Roman answered.
"Uncle."
Victor's familiar voice sounded almost cheerful.
"Roman, my boy. I hear you've found the girl from the alley."
Roman looked at Nora.
May you like
Then Victor said something that made his blood freeze.
"How unfortunate that she's still alive."
