Chapter 5 - The Mistress Who Knew Too Much|
Ruby Mercer had been awake for twenty hours when Damian Price entered Vincent's penthouse.
She sat on the edge of a velvet sofa, wearing an oversized sweater over the dress she had worn to the restaurant.
Her left wrist was bandaged.
A bruise darkened her collarbone.
Beside her sat an untouched cup of tea.
Damian closed the door behind him.
“Vincent isn't coming back yet.”
Ruby looked up.
“Where is he?”
“Looking for his wife.”
She lowered her gaze.
“Is Clare alive?”
Damian smiled.
“You seem awfully concerned about her.”
“She's pregnant.”
“Not anymore.”
Ruby froze.
“What?”
“She delivered a boy.”
For a moment, relief softened her expression.
Then she remembered the blood on Clare's dress.
She remembered the sound of Clare calling for Vincent.
And she remembered something nobody else seemed to have noticed.
The first shot had come from the restaurant's western entrance.
But Damian had been standing near that entrance thirty seconds earlier.
He had walked outside just before the glass shattered.
Ruby looked carefully at him.
“You knew something was going to happen.”
Damian's smile disappeared.
“Be careful.”
“You told me to sit two tables away from Clare.”
“I told you where Vincent wanted you.”
“You said he'd come to me when the trouble started.”
Damian approached.
Ruby instinctively leaned back.
“Your job was simple,” he said.
“Sit where you were told, look frightened, and make sure Vincent noticed you.”
Ruby felt sick.
“You said nobody would get hurt.”
“People say many things.”
She stood.
“Clare could have died.”
Damian caught her injured wrist.
Ruby gasped.
“Your brother could still die.”
The room became silent.
Eli.
Nineteen years old.
A college student who had been arrested after unknowingly delivering a package for one of Damian's associates.
Ruby had spent six weeks trying to find a lawyer who could help him.
Then Damian appeared with an offer.
Keep Vincent interested.
Attend certain dinners.
Repeat whatever Clare said.
In exchange, Eli's criminal charges would disappear.
Ruby had agreed.
She had told herself she was doing what was necessary to protect her brother.
But somewhere along the way, she had become part of something monstrous.
“Where is Eli?” she whispered.
“Somewhere safe.”
“Let me speak to him.”
“When you learn to behave.”
Damian released her.
Before leaving, he stopped at the doorway.
“Vincent still thinks you're the innocent little girl he rescued.”
Ruby stared at him.
“Keep it that way.”
The door closed.
Ruby waited until she heard the elevator.
Then she ran to the bathroom and vomited.
For months, she had believed Vincent's attention made her important.
Now she understood that she had been placed in his path like a piece on a chessboard.
Her beauty had been useful.
Her fear had been useful.
Even her affair with a married man had been useful.
And somewhere, a woman who had never harmed her was fighting to keep her newborn son alive.
Ruby washed her face.
Then she made a decision.
She opened the small handbag she had carried to the restaurant.
Hidden inside the lining was a second phone.
Damian had given it to her weeks earlier.
He had used it to send instructions he did not want appearing on ordinary records.
Ruby had never deleted the messages.
At 11:31 the previous night, he had written:
Wait until Vincent looks toward your table.
At 11:34:
When the glass breaks, scream.
At 11:35:
His wife is Thomas's responsibility.
Ruby read the final message.
It had arrived after the shooting.
The heir survived.
She stared at those three words.
Damian had not asked whether Clare survived.
He had asked about the baby.
Ruby suddenly remembered a conversation she had overheard at Vincent's mansion.
Damian had mentioned an inheritance clause.
Something about the birth of a living Hale descendant.
Something about voting rights and an expiration date.
At the time, Ruby had not understood.
Now she wondered whether the restaurant attack had been about the baby all along.
Her phone vibrated.
An unfamiliar number appeared.
She answered without speaking.
A young man's voice whispered her name.
“Ruby?”
She covered her mouth.
“Eli?”
“Don't come looking for me.”
“Where are you?”
“Listen.”
His voice shook.
“They're watching everything.”
Ruby pressed the phone closer.
“Are you hurt?”
“I'm okay right now.”
A door slammed in the background.
Eli began speaking faster.
“There's a black anchor painted on the warehouse doors.”
Ruby went cold.
“What warehouse?”
“I don't know.”
He swallowed audibly.
“They bring people here at night.”
“What people?”
“I heard someone crying inside one of the trucks.”
Ruby stood completely still.
Then Eli whispered something that changed everything.
“They said the Moretti baby changes who owns the docks.”
The call ended.
Ruby stared at the phone.
She could still hear her brother's frightened breathing.
She had no idea how to reach Clare.
She did know something about Vincent's world.
Every important conversation eventually passed through a lawyer.
Ruby remembered seeing Nina Bell at a charity luncheon two years earlier.
She searched for Nina's office number.
Then she used the second phone to send a brief message.
I was at the restaurant.
I know who arranged the shooting.
Your client is still in danger.
She attached screenshots of Damian's instructions.
Before pressing send, Ruby hesitated.
If Damian discovered what she had done, Eli might pay the price.
But if she remained silent, more people would suffer.
Ruby pressed the screen.
The message disappeared.
Across town, Nina Bell's office received evidence that would soon turn Clare's private heartbreak into a federal criminal investigation.
And in a locked warehouse near Pier Nine, Eli Mercer listened to heavy footsteps outside his door.
May you like
Someone had just given an order over the radio.
“Move the witnesses before sunrise.”
