Chapter 2 - The Men Outside Her Door
Sadie had met dangerous men before.
Men who drank too much at the diner and mistook a waitress’s politeness for permission.
Men who followed women into parking lots.
Men whose voices became quieter, not louder, when they were angry.
The man standing at the end of her hallway was different.
Dominic Castile did not need to prove that people listened to him.
The two men blocking Sadie’s doorway proved it for him.
Sadie kept the chain attached.
“You’re Rosa’s son?”
Dominic walked closer.
“Yes.”
“She’s alive?”
The question stopped him.
Sadie was not asking what he wanted.
She was asking about his mother.
“She’s recovering.”
Sadie exhaled.
“Good.”
Then she started closing the door.
Dominic frowned.
“Miss Brooks.”
“I have work tomorrow.”
“You’re injured.”
“I noticed.”
“I can arrange medical treatment.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at the gauze around her hands.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know you.”
“You saved my mother.”
“That doesn’t mean I know you.”
“You entered a burning building.”
“Yes.”
“For someone you had never met.”
Sadie’s tired eyes narrowed.
“Are you criticizing me for it?”
For the first time, something almost like amusement touched Dominic’s face.
“No.”
“Then thank me and go home.”
Dominic was not accustomed to being dismissed.
Carmine, standing behind him, seemed to be trying not to react.
Dominic looked past Sadie into the apartment.
Peeling paint.
Old furniture.
A kitchen barely large enough for one person.
Then he noticed the nursing textbook on a shelf.
“You were studying nursing.”
Sadie’s expression changed.
“How do you know that?”
Dominic realized his mistake.
She opened the door wider.
Not because she trusted him.
Because she was angry.
“You investigated me?”
“I needed to know who saved my mother.”
“You needed my name. You didn’t need my education history.”
“There are circumstances you don’t understand.”
“Then explain them.”
Dominic glanced toward the hallway.
“Not here.”
Sadie laughed once.
“You arrive at my apartment with two men who look like they bench-press refrigerators, tell me you investigated my life, and now you want me to go somewhere private with you?”
Carmine coughed.
Dominic shot him a look.
Sadie folded her arms.
“Thank you for telling me Rosa’s okay. Good night.”
“Sadie.”
Something in his tone changed.
She stopped.
“The fire wasn’t an accident.”
The humor vanished from her face.
“What?”
“Someone started it deliberately.”
Sadie stared at him.
Dominic continued carefully.
“The people responsible expected everyone inside to die.”
The hallway suddenly felt colder.
Sadie remembered the smoke.
The locked door.
The strange speed of the flames.
“They know Rosa survived?”
“Yes.”
“Do they know about me?”
“We don’t know.”
Sadie swallowed.
“And you came here because…”
“Because if they learn you were the person who brought her out, they may decide you saw something.”
“I didn’t.”
“They may not care.”
Sadie stepped backward.
For the first time, Dominic saw real fear enter her eyes.
He hated it.
Not because fear bothered him.
He had caused enough of it.
But Sadie’s fear was there because she had saved his mother.
That debt sat differently.
“I can protect you,” he said.
Sadie looked at him.
“From whom?”
Dominic did not answer immediately.
That told her enough.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Dominic Castile.”
She waited.
“And?”
“You’re safer knowing less.”
Sadie shook her head.
“That’s not how this works.”
“It is tonight.”
“No. You don’t get to show up and tell me mysterious people might hurt me because I rescued your mother, then expect me to climb into your car.”
Dominic took another step.
Sadie did not retreat.
“I can put security outside your building.”
“No.”
“I can relocate you temporarily.”
“No.”
“You could at least allow a doctor to examine your hands.”
“No.”
His patience thinned.
“Do you say no professionally?”
“Only when strangers try to reorganize my life.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“And I’m trying to pay rent.”
That answer silenced him.
Sadie glanced at the clock.
“If I don’t work tomorrow, I lose another shift.”
“You shouldn’t be working.”
“Tell that to my landlord.”
Dominic looked at Carmine.
That was another mistake.
Sadie caught it immediately.
“Don’t.”
Dominic looked back.
“Don’t what?”
“Whatever rich-person solution just entered your head.”
“I was going to pay your rent.”
“Exactly.”
“You saved my mother.”
“I didn’t send you an invoice.”
“You’re injured because of my family.”
“I’m injured because I made a choice.”
Dominic stared at her.
Nobody spoke to him like this.
Nobody refused money when refusing it made their life harder.
Sadie opened the door fully.
“Come inside for five minutes.”
Carmine raised an eyebrow.
Dominic entered alone.
Sadie closed the door behind him.
Her apartment looked even smaller with him inside.
She pointed toward a chair.
“Sit.”
Dominic remained standing.
“Fine.”
Sadie sat opposite him.
“Tell me only what I need to know.”
Dominic did.
Not names.
Not details.
He explained that his family had enemies. That Rosa had apparently been targeted because of him. That the people responsible could become interested in Sadie.
When he finished, she was quiet.
Then she asked, “How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s comforting.”
“I won’t lie to you.”
“Good. Because you’re terrible at sounding reassuring.”
Again, that nearly invisible hint of amusement.
Sadie noticed it.
For a moment, Dominic Castile looked almost human.
Then someone knocked.
Carmine opened the door without waiting.
“Boss.”
Dominic immediately stood.
“What?”
Carmine held up his phone.
His expression had changed.
“We have a problem.”
Sadie’s pulse accelerated.
Dominic stepped into the hall.
“What happened?”
“One of our guys saw a car parked across the street.”
“So?”
“It left when we arrived.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
Carmine lowered his voice.
“The plates came back stolen.”
Dominic looked toward Sadie.
She had heard every word.
“Pack a bag,” he said.
Sadie shook her head.
“No.”
“Sadie.”
“I’m not being kidnapped by the people claiming they’re protecting me.”
Dominic approached her.
“I’m giving you a choice.”
“Does one option involve staying here?”
“No.”
“Then that’s not a choice.”
A sound came from the street.
Tires.
Fast.
Carmine moved toward the window.
Dominic grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
Everyone went silent.
The car did not return.
But Dominic’s decision had already been made.
Sadie saw it in his face.
And something else became clear too.
The frightening man in her apartment was not the person Dominic feared.
Someone else was out there.
Someone who had already found her.
Sadie looked down at her damaged hands.
Twenty-four hours earlier, her biggest problem had been rent.
Now she packed one change of clothes into an old canvas bag and followed Dominic Castile downstairs.
But as she stepped into the black sedan, neither she nor Dominic noticed the phone camera watching from a parked car at the far end of the block.
Someone took a photograph.
Then sent it with four words.
May you like
Castile found the girl.
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