Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN HE LEFT BEHIND|
Marco reached Laura before the second wave of gunfire.
He dropped beside her, one arm behind her shoulders, the other shielding her stomach as a bullet struck the marble banister above them.
“Look at me, Laura. Don't look anywhere else.”
“Where is Dominic?”
Marco's jaw tightened.
“I'm getting you out.”
“Where is my husband?”
“Laura—”
“Don't lie to me.”
For the first time in the years she had known him, Marco looked unable to find a safe answer.
“He went after Elena.”
The words were almost swallowed by the alarms, but Laura heard them. She heard them as clearly as she had heard Dominic promise to remember everything.
Another explosion shook the house. Marco lifted her carefully, and pain shot through her ankle. She cried out and clutched his jacket.
“My baby,” she whispered. “Marco, please. The baby.”
“I know. I've got you.”
He carried her through a side corridor while two guards moved ahead with weapons drawn. The hallway smelled of smoke and expensive flowers. Somewhere behind them, guests were shouting. Somewhere farther away, a woman was crying.
Laura tried to turn her head.
“Don't,” Marco ordered gently. “Keep your eyes on me.”
“Did he even ask if I was alive?”
Marco said nothing.
That silence answered her.
At the medical room, a private physician named Dr. Harris was already waiting. He cut away the fabric around Laura's injured ankle, checked her pulse, and pressed a monitor against her belly.
“Your blood pressure is elevated,” he said. “We need to get you to the hospital.”
“Is my baby alive?”
“I'm checking.”
The room seemed to shrink around those three words.
Laura stared at the ceiling while the doctor moved the monitor. Then a rapid heartbeat filled the room.
Fast. Strong. Beautiful.
She began to cry.
“There's your little fighter,” Dr. Harris said.
Marco turned away, rubbing a hand over his face.
“Call the hospital,” he ordered one of the guards. “And get an ambulance here.”
“No ambulance,” Laura said.
The doctor looked at her.
“Mrs. Romano, you need medical care.”
“I'll go in Dominic's car. I don't want strangers knowing where I'm being taken.”
Marco leaned closer.
“That's not a decision you need to make right now.”
“It is the only decision anyone has let me make tonight.”
He looked as if she had struck him.
The door opened.
Dominic entered with Elena behind him.
His white shirt was streaked with blood. Not his own, Laura realized. Elena's dress was torn at the shoulder, and the leather document case was pressed against her chest.
Dominic's gaze went immediately to Laura.
“Are you hurt?”
The question came too late.
Laura looked at the blood on his sleeve.
“Is she?”
Elena glanced at Dominic before answering.
“I'm fine.”
“Then why is there blood on your shirt?”
“Laura,” Dominic said, “we need to talk.”
She almost laughed.
“You had time to run across a room for her. You had time to carry her behind a locked door. But you couldn't spare one second to find out whether your wife was breathing.”
“I gave Marco an order.”
“You gave him my life as another responsibility.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“This is not the place.”
“Then where is the place, Dominic? In our bedroom? In the hospital? In another hotel where everyone can photograph you with her?”
Elena stepped forward.
“You don't understand what happened.”
Laura looked at her.
“Don't explain my marriage to me.”
A guard entered and whispered something into Marco's ear. His expression changed.
“What?” Dominic demanded.
“Police are on the way. The west security cameras went dark before the first shot. Someone opened the service entrance from inside.”
Dominic turned toward Elena.
“The case.”
She handed it over.
He opened it, checked the contents, and his expression shifted from anger to something colder.
Laura watched him.
There it was again. The calculation.
“What was in that case?” she asked.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Of course.”
Dominic closed it.
“Marco, take Laura to the hospital. Put men on every entrance. Nobody speaks to the press.”
“And you?” Marco asked.
“I have to find who did this.”
Laura's eyes burned.
“Go, then.”
Dominic looked at her.
For one brief moment, she thought he might cross the room. She thought he might take her hand, touch her cheek, or ask whether the baby had moved.
Instead, his phone vibrated.
He read the message.
Then he turned toward the door.
“Dominic.”
He stopped.
“Look at me.”
He did.
“If our child survives tonight, I don't want them growing up believing that being loved means waiting for someone to choose you.”
His expression changed, but he didn't answer.
He left with Elena.
Laura watched the door close.
Dr. Harris resumed checking her pulse, but Marco remained motionless beside the bed.
A minute later, Laura reached for the necklace at her throat. Dominic had fastened it upstairs. She unclasped it and placed it on the table.
“Marco,” she said quietly.
“Yes?”
“When we get to the hospital, I want you to help me call a lawyer.”
He stared at her.
“Laura, don't make a permanent decision while you're in shock.”
“I've been making excuses for him for six months. Tonight I finally ran out.”
She looked down at her stomach.
“And I have a child to protect.”
Outside, sirens approached the estate.
Inside Dominic's private security office, a technician was staring at a monitor that should have been recording the attack.
May you like
The system had been disabled from a terminal inside the mansion.
And the last person to access that terminal had been Marco Romano.
