Chapter 5 - The Stitch and the Scar
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Delaney’s apartment sat on the third floor above a shuttered Italian bakery on Federal Hill, furnished with little more than a leather sofa, a heavy punching bag hanging from an exposed ceiling beam, and a row of well-oiled locks on the front door.
Noel sat near the radiator wrapped in a wool blanket, watching as Delaney sat beneath a single floor lamp with a tiny silver needle and blue thread, carefully repairing the torn seam of the silk dress.
"You sew like a surgeon," Noel said quietly, cradling a mug of hot tea between her palms.
"Field sutures aren't much different from silk," Delaney replied without looking up. "You just use a lighter touch so the fabric doesn't pucker."
"Who are you, Delaney?" Noel asked, leaning forward slightly. "Waitresses don't take down two professional bodyguards in four seconds. And when that security guard mentioned my brother’s name, you didn't look scared. You looked angry."
Delaney bit the thread clean and held up the blue dress. Under the warm light, the tear was nearly invisible. As she reached out to drape it over the back of a chair, her rolled-up sleeve slid down her forearm, exposing a jagged, silvered gunshot scar just above a faded tattoo of three crossed daggers—one of them inked over in solid black.
Noel gasped softly, setting her mug down on the floorboards.
"I know that mark," Noel whispered. "My father’s inner circle wore those before the harbor war six years ago. The ones who crossed out the third blade were ghosts. You’re Delaney Vance. The woman who disappeared the night Dante’s wife was killed."
Delaney pulled her sleeve down and buttoned the cuff with sharp, steady movements.
"Delaney Vance died in the Providence River six years ago," she said coldly, walking to the window and parting the blinds an inch to check the rainy street below. "Delaney Marsh pours whiskey for tips and minds her own business. At least, she did until tonight."
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"Why did you save me if you hated my family?" Noel asked.
"I didn't know who you were when I stepped out from behind that bar," Delaney said, glancing back at her. "I just saw a coward with a trust fund hurting a girl in a corner."
