Chapter 2 - THE COAT AND THE CONSEQUENCE
The big man named Cain did not run. He didn’t even seem to walk quickly. But in the space of three seconds, he was suddenly standing between Sage and Tyler, blocking the candlelit aisle like a granite wall in a tailored suit.
“Show the gentleman the door,” the stranger said to Cain. His voice was still quiet. It didn't carry across the restaurant, but it carried enough weight to make the maître d’ freeze near the kitchen doors.
Tyler’s face flushed an ugly, mottled red. He looked at Cain’s massive shoulders, then at the stranger still standing close to Sage.
“You’re making a mistake,” Tyler said, his voice tightening into the frantic, defensive pitch Sage had heard a hundred times behind closed doors. “She’s my fiancée. She’s not well.”
“I’m not your fiancée,” Sage said, her voice shaking but finally finding its volume. “I gave the ring back three months ago.”
The stranger didn’t look at Tyler again. He looked down at Sage. His gray eyes swept over her pale face, the trembling of her hands, and the awkward way she was favoring her right foot. He reached down and smoothly picked up her ruined high heel from the floor.
He didn't hand it back to her. He set it on the edge of the linen-covered table.
“Escort him out,” the stranger repeated, addressing Cain. “If he speaks again, break his jaw.”
Tyler opened his mouth, caught the dead, empty look in Cain’s eyes, and snapped it shut. Humiliation radiated off him in waves as Cain placed one massive hand on Tyler’s shoulder and steered him toward the exit. The entire restaurant watched in absolute silence as Chicago’s rising real estate star was marched out like a common trespasser.
Sage let out a breath she felt like she had been holding for ninety days. Her knees buckled slightly.
The stranger caught her elbow again. “Sit.”
He guided her into the chair he had just vacated. It was warm. His warmth.
“Thank you,” she whispered, staring at her lap. She felt the sudden, crushing weight of the adrenaline leaving her system. “I’m so sorry. I’ll pay for your dinner. I didn't mean to cause a scene.”
“I don’t care about the dinner,” he said. He sat down in the chair opposite her. He poured a glass of water from a crystal pitcher and slid it across the table. “Drink.”
Sage took it with shaking hands. She took a slow sip. When she looked up, he was watching her with an intensity that made the fine hairs on her arms stand up.
“Why was he following you?” he asked.
“He doesn't like losing control,” Sage said honestly. “I finally moved out. I changed my number. He thinks if he just corners me in public, I’ll fold.”
“Will you?”
“No.”
The stranger tilted his head. A faint, almost imperceptible approval shifted in his gray eyes. “Good.”
He stood up and pulled a heavy, charcoal-gray wool coat from the back of an empty chair. He held it out. “You’re shivering. Put this on. I’m having my driver take you home.”
“You really don’t have to—”
“Put it on, Sage.”
Hearing her name in his deep, resonant voice sent a strange shiver down her spine. She stood up, favoring her bare foot, and slid her arms into the coat. It was massive on her, smelling faintly of expensive cedar and rain. It felt like armor.
He walked her through the restaurant. Nobody stared at them. In fact, people deliberately looked away. The realization hit Sage like a drop of cold water. Tyler was feared by his employees. But this man? This man was feared by the people who owned the city.
They stepped out into the freezing Chicago night. A sleek black SUV was idling at the curb.
Sage turned to him. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Dominic,” he said. He opened the heavy car door for her.
As Sage climbed in, she reached into the deep pocket of his wool coat to pull her phone out. Her fingers brushed against something hard and metallic. A silver lighter.
Without thinking, she pulled it out just far enough to see it in the streetlights.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Engraved on the side of the heavy silver lighter was a crest—two crossed keys over a shield. It was the exact same insignia Tyler had on a heavy wax seal on his desk. The same insignia she had seen on the letterhead of the shell company Tyler used to hide his assets.
Tyler wasn't just a controlling ex. He was involved with this man's family.
May you like
Sage looked up, her blood turning to ice. Dominic was staring down at her, the polite detachment gone from his face.
“You didn’t fall into my lap by accident, did you, Sage?” Dominic asked softly. He leaned down, bracing one hand on the roof of the SUV. “Now tell me where the flash drive is, or you’re not going home at all.”
