Chapter 3 - The Box Beneath the BedMina had always hated rich houses.
She should have.
Six men stood inside the café wearing tailored suits beneath rain-darkened overcoats, each one built like the kind of person who never needed to repeat himself.
But Mina’s hands were shaking, and stubbornness was the only thing holding them steady.
“Mrs. Castellano,” Marco repeated, his voice softer now. “Are you hurt badly?”
“I’ll survive.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Evelyn gave him a look.
Marco stopped talking.
That told Mina more about Evelyn than the bowing had.
The older woman walked slowly toward a booth and sat down.
Another man immediately removed his coat and placed it behind her shoulders.
A third pulled a medical kit from inside his SUV.
Mina stared.
“You people carry trauma supplies around?”
Marco looked at her.
“You don’t?”
“I carry gum and unpaid bills.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
The medic knelt beside her.
Mina finally set the coffee pot down.
“What exactly is happening?”
Nobody answered.
“Okay. Great. Six terrifying men invade my workplace, the injured woman I hid apparently owns all of you, and I’m supposed to act normal?”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
“Nobody owns us.”
Mina pointed toward Evelyn.
“You bowed.”
“Respect.”
“That looked like ownership with better tailoring.”
One of the younger men coughed to hide a laugh.
Marco looked at him.
The man stopped immediately.
Evelyn reached for Mina’s hand.
“Sit.”
“No.”
“Mina.”
The way Evelyn said her name made her pause.
Not command.
Concern.
Mina sat across from her.
The medic cleaned Evelyn’s wound.
It was deeper than Mina had realized.
“What happened?” Mina asked again.
Evelyn looked at Marco.
“Not here.”
“We’re leaving,” he said.
Mina stood.
“Good.”
Marco turned toward her.
“You’re coming.”
“No, I am absolutely not.”
“You saw the men who attacked her.”
“I saw two faces I would very much like to forget.”
“They saw yours too.”
The sentence landed differently.
Mina’s anger faded.
“You think they’ll come back?”
“I know they will.”
Mina looked through the windows.
Rain streaked the glass.
Her apartment was six blocks away.
A one-bedroom walk-up above a closed dry cleaner.
Her locks barely worked.
“You can protect me here.”
“No,” Marco said.
“Why?”
“Because fifteen minutes ago, somebody tried to abduct one of the most protected women in Illinois.”
Mina looked toward Evelyn.
“You said you were attacked.”
“I was.”
“Abducted?”
Evelyn’s expression darkened.
Marco continued.
“Her driver is dead.”
Mina went still.
Evelyn’s eyes closed.
“I didn’t know.”
“We found him near the river.”
“I told him to run.”
“He didn’t.”
A heavy silence filled the café.
Mina understood then.
This was not a robbery.
This was not random.
Someone had come for Evelyn deliberately.
And somebody had died trying to stop them.
The bell above the café door suddenly jingled.
Every man in the room moved.
Fast.
Two reached inside their jackets.
Marco stepped in front of Evelyn.
Mina nearly screamed.
Then her manager walked in.
Dennis Harrow stopped in the doorway.
He was fifty-two, balding, perpetually irritated, and completely unprepared to find half a dozen intimidating men standing inside his café before dawn.
“What the hell is this?”
Mina closed her eyes.
Of course.
Dennis pointed at the clock.
“You were supposed to close at four.”
“There was an emergency.”
“I don’t care. Why are all these people here?”
Marco looked at him.
Dennis’s voice became noticeably smaller.
Still, he recovered enough to turn toward Mina.
“You invited them?”
“No.”
“You know them?”
“Not exactly.”
Dennis looked at the blood on the floor.
“What happened?”
“Someone was hurt.”
“You let an injured stranger inside after hours?”
Mina stared.
“Yes.”
“You know the insurance rules.”
“She was bleeding.”
“That’s not your responsibility.”
Something in Mina snapped.
“No, apparently human decency is outside my job description.”
Dennis stepped closer.
“You have been warned before about violating procedure.”
“You warned me for giving soup to a homeless man.”
“I warned you for giving away inventory.”
“It was going in the trash.”
Dennis pointed toward the door.
“You’re done.”
Mina blinked.
“What?”
“Leave your apron.”
“Dennis—”
“You’re fired.”
Evelyn lifted her head.
“Mina.”
Mina shook hers quickly.
“No.”
Evelyn understood.
Mina did not want help.
Not like this.
Not because some mysterious wealthy woman could frighten her boss.
She untied her apron.
Dennis held out his hand.
Mina dropped it onto the floor.
“You can pick it up.”
Then she walked behind the counter and grabbed her purse.
Forty-three dollars.
No job.
An electric bill due Friday.
Perfect.
As she passed Evelyn, the older woman said quietly, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“You lost your job because of me.”
“No. I lost my job because Dennis is a jerk. You were just the final straw.”
Dennis heard that.
“I heard that.”
“Good.”
She reached the door.
Marco blocked her.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“You’re coming with us.”
Mina laughed.
“No.”
Marco didn’t.
“Mina,” Evelyn said. “Please.”
Something in her tone changed everything.
The older woman wasn’t asking for herself.
She was afraid for Mina.
Mina looked outside at the SUVs.
“Where?”
“My home.”
“Where’s that?”
“Lake Forest.”
Mina stared.
Of course.
Even she knew Lake Forest.
Old estates.
Private roads.
Money that had generations attached to it.
“Just until we know who attacked me,” Evelyn continued.
“How long?”
“A few hours.”
Marco said nothing.
Mina noticed.
“You don’t think it’ll be a few hours.”
“No.”
“Wonderful.”
Evelyn reached into her pocket.
“What about the ring?”
Mina had forgotten she was still carrying it.
She took it out.
The crowned lion caught the café lights.
Marco’s face changed instantly.
“Where did you get that?”
“She gave it to me.”
Marco looked at Evelyn.
“Why?”
Evelyn’s expression turned strange.
“Mina, may I see your necklace?”
Mina instinctively touched the thin chain around her neck.
A tiny silver pendant rested beneath her shirt.
“My necklace?”
“The charm.”
Confused, Mina pulled it out.
It was an old piece.
Cheap-looking.
Oval.
She had owned it since childhood.
It was the only thing her mother had left her before disappearing when Mina was eight.
Evelyn stared at it.
Then she stopped breathing.
Marco leaned closer.
The silver oval was engraved with the same crowned lion as Evelyn’s ring.
Mina looked from one symbol to the other.
“What?”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with tears.
“Mina… where did you get that?”
“My mother.”
“What was her name?”
Mina’s chest tightened.
“Anna Jenkins.”
Evelyn went pale.
Marco whispered something under his breath.
Mina looked between them.
“Why does everybody suddenly look like they saw a ghost?”
Evelyn reached across the table with trembling fingers.
Because eighteen years earlier, Anna Jenkins had not simply disappeared.
She had fled the Castellano family.
And she had taken a secret with her.
A secret named Mina.
The drive to Lake Forest took forty-five minutes.
Mina sat between Evelyn and Marco in the rear of the largest SUV while the city disappeared behind them.
Nobody spoke for the first ten minutes.
Then Mina said, “Start talking.”
Evelyn looked out the window.
“Your mother’s real name was Anna Castellano.”
Mina laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was impossible.
“My mother was a waitress.”
“She became one.”
“She grew up in Indiana.”
“No.”
“She had no family.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“She had us.”
Mina felt something cold spread through her stomach.
“Who was she to you?”
“My daughter.”
Mina stopped breathing.
The SUV continued through the rain.
Marco looked straight ahead.
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“Anna was my oldest child.”
Mina pushed herself against the door.
“No.”
“Mina—”
“No. You don’t get to walk into my café bleeding at two in the morning, turn out to be some rich crime-family grandmother, and tell me my mother lied about her entire life.”
“Crime family?” Marco muttered.
Mina pointed at him.
“Five SUVs. Bowing. Guns under jackets. Please.”
Evelyn sighed.
“We are not discussing business.”
“Fantastic. Let’s discuss the part where apparently I’m your granddaughter.”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
Mina looked at the pendant again.
Her mother had kissed it every night before bed.
Always told Mina never to lose it.
She had vanished eleven years later.
No body.
No goodbye.
Just an abandoned car at a bus terminal in Wisconsin.
Mina spent years believing she had been left.
Now a woman she had met an hour ago was telling her there was another story.
“What happened to her?”
Evelyn lowered her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
The estate appeared beyond iron gates.
Mina stared through the window.
Stone walls.
Tall trees.
Security lights.
A mansion big enough to swallow her entire apartment building.
The gates opened.
Men with radios watched the convoy enter.
“This is insane,” Mina whispered.
Evelyn touched her hand.
“Mina, there is something else you need to know.”
“Of course there is.”
Marco turned slightly.
“Mrs. Castellano.”
“She deserves the truth.”
“What truth?”
Evelyn looked directly at Mina.
“Your mother didn’t leave Chicago because she was afraid of me.”
Mina’s throat tightened.
“She left because she was trying to protect you.”
“From who?”
Before Evelyn could answer, Marco’s phone rang.
He listened for three seconds.
His face changed.
“What?”
Evelyn stood almost before the vehicle stopped.
Marco turned toward the driver.
“Lock the gates.”
Mina’s pulse surged.
“What happened?”
Marco looked at her.
“The men from the café found your apartment.”
Her blood ran cold.
“They broke in.”
Mina reached for the door.
“I need to go.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“My things—”
“Can be replaced.”
“My mother’s box is there.”
Evelyn froze.
“What box?”
“Letters. Photos. Everything she left.”
Marco was already making another call.
Mina looked toward the mansion.
Then toward the gates closing behind them.
She had saved Evelyn Castellano for one night.
May you like
Now whoever had hunted Evelyn was hunting her too.
And inside a cheap cardboard box in Mina’s apartment was apparently the one thing they were willing to kill for.
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