Chapter 5 - The Night the Mansion Went Dark
Emergency lights came on red.
For one second, neither Damon nor Delaney moved.
Then he reached for her.
Not dramatically.
His hand closed around her wrist and pulled her behind the steel prep island.
"Stay down."
"Damon—"
"Please."
The word stopped her.
He took out his phone.
No service.
Then the kitchen door opened.
Frank appeared with a flashlight and one guard.
"Generator didn't start."
"Why?"
"Fuel cutoff."
Damon's expression hardened.
"Mother?"
"Upstairs. Two men with her."
Delaney stood.
Damon pushed her down again.
"I said stay."
"And I said Teresa."
Frank looked between them.
"She's frightened."
Delaney rose anyway.
"If she wakes in darkness surrounded by armed men, she'll panic."
Damon swore under his breath.
Then he pointed at Frank.
"With him."
Delaney moved.
The halls looked unreal under emergency lighting.
Red shadows.
Marble.
Silent paintings.
Snow pressed white against the windows.
Upstairs, Teresa sat on the edge of her bed wrapped in a robe, breathing too fast.
Two guards stood by the doors.
Delaney crossed directly to her.
"Hey."
Teresa grabbed both her hands.
"Where am I?"
"Home."
"Why is it dark?"
"Power problem."
"Is Damon here?"
"Yes."
"Is he hurt?"
"No."
"You promise?"
Delaney hesitated only a fraction.
"I promise he's here."
Teresa's breathing slowed.
Then she whispered, "Vincent."
Delaney leaned closer.
"What about Vincent?"
Teresa's eyes focused with sudden clarity.
"He wants me to sign."
"Sign what?"
"The shares."
"Did he ask you?"
"Yesterday."
Delaney's skin prickled.
"What did you say?"
Teresa smiled faintly.
"I told him I'd rather leave them to the zoo."
Despite everything, Delaney laughed.
Teresa squeezed her hand.
Then her expression shifted.
Fear.
"He's angry."
The emergency lights went out too.
Total darkness.
One guard cursed.
A door slammed somewhere in the hall.
Then a scream.
Not Teresa.
Male.
Damon's voice came from the corridor.
"Delaney!"
"Here!"
Flashlights flared.
Damon appeared.
He looked at her first.
Then his mother.
"You're okay."
Teresa lifted her chin.
"I was until everybody began behaving like lunatics."
The generator finally roared to life.
Lights returned.
Frank entered behind Damon carrying a small black device.
"Found this wired into the security panel."
Damon took it.
"What?"
"Remote relay. Someone inside could cut power and disable cameras."
"Inside tonight?"
"Maybe earlier."
Delaney thought of the pills.
The alley.
The men asking about her.
"Someone is creating episodes."
Damon looked at her.
She continued.
"Confusion. Darkness. Missing time. Then they say Teresa can't manage her own affairs."
Teresa's face went cold.
"I can manage them well enough to know my brother-in-law is a snake."
"Uncle," Damon corrected softly.
"Same snake."
Damon sat beside his mother.
"Did Vincent bring papers yesterday?"
Teresa nodded.
"Guardianship trust."
"Did you sign anything?"
"No."
"Did he touch your medication?"
"I don't know."
Frank said, "Security footage from yesterday is missing for nineteen minutes."
Damon stood.
"Find Vincent."
Frank left.
Delaney stayed with Teresa until nearly dawn.
At five, Teresa slept.
Damon waited in the hallway.
"You should go home."
"I have a shift at ten."
"You're not going."
Delaney stared at him.
"Try again."
"Three men already asked about you. Someone tampered with my mother's medicine. Someone cut power to this house. You are not walking into Bellucci's like nothing happened."
"I need the job."
"I'll cover—"
"No."
He stopped.
She softened slightly.
"I know you're trying to help."
"Do you?"
"Unfortunately."
Damon folded his arms.
"I don't know how to protect someone who refuses protection."
"Ask what protection looks like to them."
The words hung there.
He looked at her for a long moment.
"Fine. What does it look like?"
"Frank drives me. One person watches from outside. No men in the dining room. No paying my debt. No calling my manager unless there's an emergency."
"Two people outside."
"One."
"Two."
"One obvious, one invisible."
Damon almost smiled.
"Deal."
She held out her hand.
He looked at it.
Then shook.
His palm was warm.
Her heart did something stupid.
She pulled away first.
At Bellucci's, the lunch shift passed quietly.
Too quietly.
At three-fifteen, a courier delivered flowers.
No card.
White roses.
Delaney stared at them.
Her coworker Nina sighed.
"Rich boyfriend?"
"No."
"Secret admirer?"
"Hopefully not."
Delaney lifted the arrangement.
Something rattled underneath.
She set it down carefully.
Taped beneath the vase was a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Delaney leaving Mercy General two years earlier with her mother in a wheelchair.
On the back, one sentence was typed.
YOU COULDN'T SAVE HER EITHER.
Delaney stopped breathing.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
"Hello?"
A man's voice.
Smooth.
Older.
"Miss Whitfield."
"Vincent?"
A quiet laugh.
"My nephew has made you suspicious."
"What do you want?"
"To save you trouble."
"By stalking my dead mother?"
"Damon turns everyone around him into collateral."
"Funny. You're the one calling."
Silence.
Then Vincent said, "Walk away from Teresa. Your debt disappears."
Delaney's grip tightened.
"How do you know about my debt?"
"Chicago is smaller than people think."
"Go to hell."
"You should ask Damon what happened to the last woman who tried to help his mother."
The line went dead.
Delaney stood behind the bar with the photograph shaking in her hand.
One obvious guard entered through the front door.
The invisible one, she assumed, was already moving.
But Vincent's last sentence stayed.
The last woman.
That evening, Delaney went back to Lake Forest.
Damon was waiting in the foyer.
He saw the photograph.
His face changed.
"Who called?"
"Vincent."
"What did he say?"
She held his gaze.
"He told me to ask what happened to the last woman who tried to help your mother."
Damon went completely still.
For the first time since Delaney met him, fear appeared on his face.
Not anger.
Fear.
"Her name was Sofia," he said.
"Who was she?"
Damon looked toward the staircase.
"My sister."
Before Delaney left Bellucci's that night, Paul caught her by the back door. He had seen the flowers, the envelope, and the look on her face after the phone call.
"If this is bigger than some jealous boyfriend, tell me now."
"It's bigger."
"Police?"
"Maybe."
"Do I need to close?"
Delaney looked around the dining room. Nina was polishing glasses. One cook was arguing with a delivery driver. Ordinary people were finishing ordinary shifts.
"No," she said. "But check the rear cameras. Don't let anyone into storage without you. And if anybody asks about me, you know nothing."
Paul stared.
"You sound like you're in a crime show."
"I would like to resign from the crime show."
He softened.
"You okay?"
"No."
It was the first honest answer she had given anyone outside Lake Forest.
Paul nodded.
"Then don't be brave for free. Call somebody."
Delaney almost laughed.
That was what Damon had been trying to say in the worst possible language.
Protection did not have to mean surrender.
Sometimes it meant admitting that a problem had become too large to carry alone.
May you like
When she reached Lake Forest and saw fear on Damon's face at the mention of Sofia, she understood that he was not only protecting her from Vincent.
He was trying, badly, to prevent history from repeating itself.
