Chapter 5 - The Fire on West Armitage
The drive to my apartment took twelve minutes.
It felt like twelve years.
Reed’s black SUV cut through the snow while Tommy drove too fast and said nothing. I sat in the back seat with Ava strapped into a car seat someone had pulled from storage at the restaurant.
That should have comforted me.
Instead, it scared me.
Why did Reed Callaway have a baby car seat ready?
Why did he know the formula Ava drank?
Why did he know my father’s name before I ever told him?
Outside the window, Chicago blurred into gray streets and flashing lights.
When we reached West Armitage, the block was filled with fire trucks.
Smoke poured from the front stairwell of my building.
My legs gave out before the SUV fully stopped.
Reed caught my elbow.
“I need to get inside,” I said.
“You cannot.”
“My apartment is on the third floor.”
“Firefighters are checking every unit.”
“My things are in there.”
“Things can be replaced.”
“Ava’s birth certificate is there.”
Reed’s expression tightened.
“Tommy.”
His lieutenant nodded and moved toward the firefighters.
I stood in the snow, clutching Ava beneath my coat.
The front entrance of the building was blackened. Windows had shattered. Mrs. Perez stood across the street in a red blanket, crying beside an ambulance.
“Mrs. Perez!” I called.
She saw me.
“Oh, mija.”
I ran to her.
“Are you okay? Did anyone get hurt?”
“No, no. The smoke was bad, but they got us out.”
“Did you see who did it?”
Mrs. Perez shook her head.
“But I heard men downstairs.”
My stomach dropped.
“What men?”
“Two men. One said, ‘She works for Callaway now.’”
Reed had come up behind me.
Mrs. Perez saw him and went quiet.
He looked at the burned stairwell.
Then at Tommy.
“This was not an accident,” Tommy said.
“No,” Reed replied. “It was a message.”
I looked at him.
“A message for you.”
“For both of us.”
“I did not ask to be part of this.”
“No,” Reed said. “You did not.”
For the first time, I heard something in his voice I had not expected.
Regret.
Not enough to forgive him.
But real.
A firefighter emerged from the building carrying a cardboard box.
“Apartment 3B?” he called.
I raised my hand.
“Your place has smoke damage but no major fire spread. We found this near your door.”
He handed Reed an evidence bag.
Inside was a black chess piece.
A king.
And a folded note.
Reed opened it.
His face went still.
“What does it say?” I asked.
He handed it to me.
The note had only one sentence.
Your father took something from us. Your daughter will return it.
My knees weakened.
Reed took Ava from my arms before I could fall.
For one terrible moment, I let him.
Ava began reaching for me immediately, crying into the cold air.
I pulled her back against my chest.
“No.”
Reed stepped away.
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I do.”
“You have no idea what it is like to spend every day terrified that one bad thing will take everything you have.”
His eyes met mine.
“I know more than you think.”
Then Tommy returned.
“Boss, we found a second device.”
“What kind?” Reed asked.
“Camera. Across the street.”
My breath caught.
“They were watching?”
“They were waiting,” Tommy said.
Reed looked at the building.
Then at Ava.
Then at me.
“You cannot stay here tonight.”
“I don’t have money for a hotel.”
“You will not stay in a hotel.”
“I’m not going to your estate.”
“I do not have an estate.”
“Whatever rich-man fortress you live in.”
Reed’s mouth almost moved.
Almost.
“You will stay somewhere safe.”
“Safe according to you.”
“Yes.”
“That is not comforting.”
“It does not need to be comforting,” Reed said. “It needs to keep your daughter alive.”
I looked down at the note in my hand.
Then at the blackened doorway to my apartment.
My home had not been much.
A cramped third-floor walk-up with bad heating and a kitchen light that flickered whenever I used the microwave.
But it had been ours.
Now the past my father left behind had found Ava.
May you like
And the only person standing between us and Victor Moretti was Reed Callaway—
the man I had spent eleven months hoping never to be noticed by.
