‘And telling everyone I’m married to a mafia boss fixes that?’
Vincent didn’t flinch at the description.
‘It changes the calculation.’
‘You could have asked me.’
That landed harder than he expected.
Isabella watched her son carefully.
Vincent lowered his voice.
‘You were losing blood on a diner floor.
I made the fastest decision available.’
‘About my life.’
‘Yes.’
‘Without my permission.’
‘Yes.’
Chloe looked away.
For the first time, Vincent seemed uncertain.
He reached into his pocket and placed the gold signet ring on the bedside table.
‘I don’t expect you to wear that.
I don’t expect you to pretend anything.
The story outside this room protects you.
Inside this room, you owe me nothing.’
Chloe glanced at the ring.
‘Nothing?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Not even four bullets?’
Vincent’s expression tightened.
‘Especially not four bullets.
Those were never yours to take.’
Isabella looked down at her hands.
Chloe was quiet for several moments.
Then she asked what had happened to Tommy.
Vincent’s answer surprised her.
‘He’s alive and in police custody.’
She had expected something darker.
‘Why?’
‘Because a dead hitman can tell us nothing.’
The police had recovered Tommy’s weapon and a burner phone from his raincoat.
The phone held no names, but it contained a short chain of calls made in the hours before the shooting and a message directing him to the Silver Spoon at precisely nine.
The numbers were disposable.
One, however, had made a mistake.
It had connected twice through an office line associated with a construction company controlled by the Moretti organization.
It wasn’t enough for a conviction by itself.
It was enough to make people nervous.
Over the next several days, Chloe discovered what being publicly connected to Vincent Rossi meant.
A guard appeared outside her hospital room.
Flowers arrived until the nurses ran out of places to put them.
Her nursing-school dean called to assure her that her enrollment would be protected during recovery.
Then a hospital administrator mentioned that her balance had been settled.
Chloe immediately called Vincent.
He arrived twenty minutes later.
‘Did you pay my hospital bill?’
‘Yes.’
‘Undo it.’
‘I can’t unpay a hospital.’
‘Then let me repay you.’
‘No.’
Chloe folded her arms as much as her injuries allowed.
