By sunrise, the Corso estate had become a locked fortress.
No employee left.
No employee entered.
Carmine’s men searched every room, vehicle, hallway, vent, and storage closet.
They found four hidden cameras.
One faced Dominic’s bedroom door.
One watched the therapy room.
One covered the back entrance.
The fourth had been placed in Fay’s guest room less than twenty-four hours after she moved in.
That detail changed Dominic.
Fay had seen him angry.
She had never seen him quiet like this.
His rage became controlled.
Cold.
Dangerous.
“Send Fay away,” Carmine said.
They were in Dominic’s office.
“No,” Dominic replied.
Fay folded her arms.
“Nice of both of you to discuss me while I’m standing here.”
Carmine ignored her.
“If the person inside knows she matters to you, she’s leverage.”
Fay looked at Dominic.
He didn’t correct him.
Her heartbeat changed.
“Matters?”
Dominic’s gaze met hers.
Carmine suddenly looked uncomfortable.
“I’m going to check downstairs.”
“You do that,” Dominic said.
The door closed.
Fay remained still.
“Does he always throw grenades and leave?”
“Usually.”
“Dominic.”
He looked toward the window.
“Don’t.”
“No. He said I matter to you.”
“You’re an employee in my house. Of course your safety matters.”
“That isn’t what he meant.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Fay stepped closer.
“What are you afraid of?”
He laughed once.
“You’ve been living in a house where someone tried to poison me, and you’re asking what I’m afraid of?”
“Yes.”
He looked at her.
“You.”
Fay stopped.
Dominic’s hands tightened around the wheelchair rims.
“You are the first thing in six months I didn’t expect.”
His voice was quieter now.
“I expected doctors. I expected pain. I expected people trying to take advantage of weakness. I expected enemies.”
He swallowed.
“I didn’t expect some five-foot-nothing maid with leaking boots to walk into my room and tell me my tantrums were a vacation.”
“I’m five-four.”
“Not the important part.”
Fay’s lips almost curved.
Dominic continued.
“I didn’t expect to care whether you came back the next morning.”
The humor disappeared.
“I didn’t expect to listen for your footsteps.”
Fay’s chest tightened.
“And now someone else has noticed.”
Dominic looked away.
“That makes you dangerous to me.”
The words hurt.
Then he finished.
“And me dangerous to you.”
Fay understood.
“You want me to leave.”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
His silence answered.
She moved closer.
“I’m not leaving because someone put a camera in my room.”
“You don’t understand these people.”
“Neither do you, apparently, because you still don’t know who did it.”
Dominic’s eyes flashed.
Fay immediately regretted the cruelty.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
He nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
That afternoon, Carmine found the first real break.
The camera transmitters were connected to a receiver in an unused storage building near the east edge of the property.
Inside they found surveillance equipment, photographs, and copies of Dominic’s therapy schedule.
There were also photographs of Fay.
At the grocery store.
Leaving her apartment.
Walking from her car to the estate.
One image had a red circle drawn around her face.
Dominic saw it.
His entire body went still.
“Who had access to that building?”
Carmine hesitated.
“Family.”
Fay looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic said nothing.
Carmine answered.
“Dominic’s uncle. His cousins. Senior people in the organization.”
“Family” suddenly sounded more frightening than enemy.
That evening, Dominic finally told Fay about the accident.
He had been driving alone along a private road outside the city.
He rarely drove himself.
That night he had insisted.
His brakes failed on a steep curve.
The car crashed through a barrier and rolled down an embankment.
He remembered metal folding.
Glass exploding.
Then nothing until the hospital.
Doctors told him the spinal damage was severe.
They could not promise he would ever walk again.
“When I woke up,” Dominic said, “my uncle Victor was beside the bed.”
Fay sat across from him.
“Was that unusual?”
“No. Victor practically raised me after my father died.”
“So you trust him?”
Dominic’s eyes darkened.
“I did.”
Victor Corso had managed much of the organization during Dominic’s recovery.
He had argued that Dominic needed time away from business.
At first that seemed reasonable.
Then meetings stopped coming to Dominic.
Accounts shifted.
Men who had answered directly to him began reporting to Victor.
“You think he caused the accident.”
“I think someone benefited.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“No.”
Fay studied him.
“Then don’t decide before you know.”
Dominic gave her a faint smile.
“You’re remarkably comfortable giving orders to criminals.”
“I spent three years working retail during holiday season. Your people are amateurs.”
He laughed softly.
Later, during therapy, Dominic tried standing again.
Dr. Hayes locked the braces.
Dominic pulled himself upright between the bars.
Fay stood several feet ahead.
“One minute,” Hayes said.
Dominic’s arms trembled.
“Thirty seconds.”
“Fifty-two.”
“You’re lying.”
“Occupational hazard.”
Dominic gritted his teeth.
His right knee began to buckle.
Fay instinctively moved forward.
“Don’t,” Dominic said.
She stopped.
He corrected his grip.
His shoulders shook.
Then, slowly, he stabilized.
One minute.
Dr. Hayes smiled.
“Good.”
Dominic lowered himself into the chair.
Fay handed him a towel.
“You did it.”
“We did sixty-three seconds.”
“You counted?”
“I count everything.”
She smiled.
Then Dominic reached for her wrist.
Fay froze.
His touch was gentle.
Nothing about Dominic was usually gentle.
“Thank you.”
Two simple words.
They affected her more than all the expensive rooms, armed guards, and whispered warnings combined.
“You’re welcome.”
Their eyes held.
Dominic slowly released her.
That evening, Victor Corso arrived.
Fay recognized immediately why Dominic had once trusted him.
Victor was charming.
Silver-haired, elegant, perhaps sixty. He greeted Mrs. Gable by name, shook Carmine’s hand, and brought Dominic a bottle of expensive bourbon.
Then he noticed Fay.
“So this is the famous maid.”
Fay stiffened.
“Famous?”
Victor smiled.
“The woman who survived Dominic.”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“Leave her out of it.”
Victor raised both hands.
“Relax. I’m impressed.”
His gaze returned to Fay.
But the warmth in his smile never reached his eyes.
During dinner, Fay served quietly.
Victor talked about business.
Dominic listened.
Then Victor mentioned something.
“I hear therapy is going well.”
Dominic’s fork stopped.
Fay looked up.
Only a handful of people knew Dominic had restarted therapy.
Victor seemed to realize his mistake.
“Carmine mentioned it.”
Carmine, standing near the door, said nothing.
Fay looked at him.
His expression told her everything.
He had not told Victor.
Dominic continued eating as though nothing happened.
But beneath the table, his hand clenched.
Victor left at nine.
The instant the front door closed, Carmine entered Dominic’s office.
“I never told him.”
“I know.”
Dominic stared at the fire.
Fay stood near the desk.
“So he knew because of the cameras?”
“Maybe.”
Dominic’s voice was grim.
“Or because the person who installed them reports to him.”
Then Fay remembered something.
The hidden camera in her room.
Victor had looked directly at her when he called her famous.
Not curious.
Familiar.
As though he had seen her before.
Her stomach turned.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
“When Victor saw me tonight…”
She swallowed.
“I don’t think tonight was the first time he’d seen my face.”
Before Dominic could answer, a tremendous crash exploded downstairs.
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the estate.
A second later, Carmine pulled a gun.
“Stay here.”
Footsteps thundered in the hallway.
Then came a gunshot from downstairs.
Fay jumped.
Dominic reached for her.
“Get behind me.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
“You’re in a wheelchair.”
“And I’m still Dominic Corso.”
Another shot cracked through the darkness.
Then a voice shouted from the hallway:
“They’re inside!”