Chapter 2 - THE LINEN HANDKERCHIEF
“Have dinner with me.”
Marcus’s request hung in the frigid November air, completely unexpected.
I stared at the linen handkerchief in my hands. His initials, M.S., were embroidered in dark navy thread. It felt heavy with a sudden, dangerous implication.
I was an executive secretary. He was a senior partner. In the eighteen months I had worked at Caruso & Santoro, Marcus had never spoken to me about anything other than quarterly margins and client acquisitions.
“Marcus,” I started, my voice still slightly thick from crying. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because Dominic would fire me before the appetizers arrived.”
Marcus smiled. A warm, easy expression that reached his brown eyes. “Dominic doesn’t own my evenings. And he certainly doesn’t own yours. You cancel your life for him, Diana. You canceled on your sister twice this week.”
I froze. “How did you know about my sister?”
Marcus shifted on the bench, turning his body fully toward me. “Because I pay attention. I hear you on the phone. I see you working through lunch. I watch a brilliant, capable woman let a tyrant make her feel small, and it bothers me.”
He reached out, his fingers lightly brushing the sleeve of my coat.
“Let me take you to dinner. No shop talk. No Dominic. Just a decent meal to remind you that you are a person, not a machine.”
It was exactly what I needed to hear. After the morning I’d had—the shattered crystal, the coldness in Dominic’s gray eyes, the sheer humiliation of my own tears—Marcus felt like a lifeline.
“Okay,” I breathed. “Okay. Dinner.”
We met at eight o’clock at a quiet, dimly lit Italian place in River North. Far enough from the office that we wouldn’t run into clients.
For the first hour, it was perfect. Marcus was charming. He asked about my childhood in the suburbs, my sister Elena’s new photography studio, and my dreams of opening my own consulting firm. He listened. He actually listened.
Then, the waiter cleared our plates, and the conversation shifted.
“You know, I worry about Dominic,” Marcus said softly, swirling the last of his Cabernet.
I stiffened. “You promised. No shop talk.”
“This isn’t shop talk. This is about his well-being.” Marcus leaned forward, his voice dropping. “He’s been erratic lately. The outburst this morning… that isn’t just stress. He’s isolating himself. And he’s isolating his files.”
I looked down at my hands. “He’s always been private.”
“There’s private, and there’s paranoid,” Marcus countered. He reached across the table, his hand resting lightly over mine. “I’m his partner, Diana. But for the last three months, he’s locked me out of the Vitelli negotiations. He keeps the physical files in that back room. The one only he has the code to.”
My heart did a slow, uncomfortable thud.
“I don’t know anything about that room, Marcus. You know I don’t.”
“I know you’re the only person who can get close enough to find out,” he urged gently. “I need to know if he’s gambling with the firm’s money. With our futures. Yours included.”
The warmth of the wine instantly evaporated.
I pulled my hand out from under his.
He didn’t bring me here because he cared about my canceled dinners with my sister. He didn’t bring me here because I was a brilliant woman.
He brought me here because I had the keys to the kingdom. Or at least, I was the only one who could steal them.
“I’m not a corporate spy, Marcus.”
“I’m not asking you to be a spy. I’m asking you to protect the firm.”
“I have to go.” I stood up quickly, my chair scraping loudly against the wooden floor. Several heads turned.
Marcus stood up with me, his warm facade cracking for just a fraction of a second, revealing something sharp and impatient underneath. “Diana, sit down. You’re being dramatic.”
“Thank you for dinner,” I said, my voice trembling but cold.
I grabbed my purse and practically ran out the front door into the freezing Chicago night. The wind bit through my thin coat as I hurried down the sidewalk, desperately looking for a taxi.
I felt like an absolute fool. I had let my hurt over Dominic blind me to Marcus’s manipulation.
A black town car idled at the corner of the street.
As I approached it, the rear door opened.
A man stepped out.
Six-foot-three. Charcoal overcoat.
Dominic.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
He looked from me to the restaurant doors a block away. His jaw tightened. The gray eyes that had been so cold this morning were now blazing with an emotion I had never seen in him. It looked terrifyingly like panic.
“Get in the car,” he commanded.
“Excuse me?” I snapped, the anger from the morning and the humiliation from dinner boiling over. “You don’t get to dictate my evenings, Mr. Caruso.”
“Diana.” His voice was a low, dangerous rumble. “Get in the car before he comes out here.”
“Marcus is your partner! Why are you so terrified of him?”
Dominic took two large steps, closing the distance between us. He loomed over me, the scent of cedar and expensive cologne wrapping around me.
“I am not terrified of him,” Dominic said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “I am terrified of what he will do to you if he thinks you know too much.”
I stared at him, my breath pluming in the cold air. “What are you talking about?”
Dominic didn’t explain. He reached into the deep pocket of his overcoat.
He pulled out a heavy, antique silver key.
It wasn’t a modern electronic fob. It was an old-fashioned skeleton key.
He pressed it into my palm. His fingers were surprisingly warm.
“You think I’m a tyrant,” Dominic said softly, looking down at me. “You think I push you away because I don’t value you.”
“You told me I was replaceable,” I whispered, my throat tight.
Dominic’s eyes flickered with intense pain. “I said it so Marcus would hear it. I need him to believe you mean absolutely nothing to me.”
My heart stopped.
Dominic closed my fingers over the silver key.
May you like
“Go to the office. Go to the locked door at the end of the hall. Use this.” He took a ragged breath. “And whatever you find in there, Diana… do not let Marcus know you’ve seen it.”
Before I could ask another question, he turned, got back into the town car, and drove away, leaving me standing in the dark with the key to his greatest secret.
