Chapter 2 - THE PROPOSAL I COULDN’T REFUSEI woke to the steady beep of a heart monitor and the strange sensation that someone was holding my hand.
For several seconds, I did not remember where I was.
Then pain arrived.
It came in layers.
A brutal ache beneath my shoulder blade. Fire around my ribs. A deep, throbbing pressure in my lower back that made breathing feel like punishment.
I opened my eyes.
Victor Romano sat beside the hospital bed.
The most feared man in Chicago looked as though he had not slept in days.
His black dress shirt was wrinkled. Dark stubble shadowed his jaw. His hair, usually combed with ruthless precision, had fallen across his forehead.
And his right hand was wrapped around mine.
The moment he realized I was awake, his expression hardened.
“You scared my son.”
My lips were dry.
“Good morning to you too.”
Something almost human flickered in his pale eyes.
Then it disappeared.
“Leo has been asking for you every twenty minutes.”
“Is he hurt?”
“No.”
My entire body relaxed.
The movement sent agony through my side.
Victor stood immediately.
“Don’t move.”
“You’re very bossy.”
“I am your boss.”
“Technically, the cleaning agency is.”
His mouth tightened.
“The agency terminated your contract yesterday.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“I bought the agency.”
I genuinely thought the pain medication was making me hallucinate.
“You bought an entire cleaning company?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So no one can order you anywhere without my permission.”
A cold sensation that had nothing to do with the hospital crept down my spine.
“Victor.”
He reached for the water glass and held the straw near my mouth.
“Drink.”
“I’m not a prisoner.”
“No.”
His gaze lowered to the bandages beneath my hospital gown.
“You nearly became a corpse.”
I took a cautious sip.
“Who attacked the house?”
His face changed.
The softness vanished.
“Men who will regret being born.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“They were hired.”
“By who?”
“I’m finding out.”
I looked toward the window.
Two enormous men in dark suits stood outside my door.
“You put guards at my hospital room?”
“Twelve.”
My head snapped back.
“Twelve?”
“Four on this floor. Four downstairs. Two at each entrance.”
“That seems excessive.”
“They fired military-grade ammunition into a room containing my son.”
His voice became dangerously quiet.
“There is no such thing as excessive anymore.”
The door opened.
Leo entered holding a paper bag.
He had a bruise near his temple from flying debris, but otherwise he looked unharmed.
Behind him stood a severe-looking woman in her sixties wearing a tailored cream suit.
Victor straightened immediately.
“Mother.”
So this was Elena Romano.
I had heard the household staff whisper about her.
Victor’s mother had disappeared from Chicago society after her husband died twenty years earlier, but people still lowered their voices when they said her name.
Leo rushed toward my bed.
“You woke up!”
His relief nearly broke me.
I smiled.
“Looks like it.”
He lifted the paper bag.
“I brought you candy.”
Victor stared.
“Candy?”
Leo nodded seriously.
“Butterscotch.”
I laughed, then instantly regretted it.
Pain stabbed through my ribs.
Victor’s hand shot toward my shoulder but stopped before touching me.
Leo noticed.
Children always noticed more than adults believed.
He placed one candy on my blanket.
“For when the doctor says you can have it.”
“Deal.”
Then he climbed carefully onto the chair.
Elena Romano watched me.
Her gaze was not grateful.
It was calculating.
“So you are the housekeeper.”
“My name is Claire Bennett.”
She gave a small nod.
“You protected my grandson.”
“I was there.”
“You took three bullets.”
“I didn’t count.”
“I did.”
Victor turned.
“Mother.”
Elena ignored him.
“You understand what this means?”
I frowned.
“That I need a better insurance plan?”
Leo giggled.
Victor did not.
Elena’s expression remained perfectly still.
“It means our enemies now know you matter.”
The room became quiet.
I looked at Victor.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It isn’t,” he said.
“I’m a housekeeper.”
“You were.”
There it was again.
Was.
I felt something inside me tighten.
“What exactly did you tell the hospital staff?”
Victor folded his arms.
“That you are under my protection.”
“That phrase seems to terrify everybody.”
“It should.”
Elena approached the foot of my bed.
“Protection is not enough.”
Victor’s jaw clenched.
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
“Mother.”
Her eyes shifted toward me.
“You should hear what kind of world you have entered.”
“I didn’t enter anything. I cleaned floors.”
Elena almost smiled.
“You covered the Romano heir with your body while bullets came through the windows. Whatever you were before, you are not invisible anymore.”
I remembered Victor leaning over me while blood soaked his hands.
Nobody touches you.
You belong to me.
My stomach twisted.
“I need to speak with Victor alone.”
Leo looked disappointed.
Victor touched his shoulder.
“Go with your grandmother.”
Leo hesitated.
“Will Claire come home?”
Victor glanced at me.
“Yes.”
I immediately said, “Maybe.”
Leo frowned at his father.
Victor gave me a look that promised an argument.
Elena led Leo from the room.
The door closed.
I waited three seconds.
Then I said, “I am not marrying you.”
Victor did not flinch.
So I had remembered correctly.
“You were awake.”
“Unfortunately.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
“That is normally the part where women say no.”
“This is not normal.”
“No kidding.”
He moved closer to the bed.
My heartbeat accelerated.
Not because I was afraid of him.
That would have been easier.
Victor Romano was frightening, but there was something even more dangerous about the way he looked at me now.
Like the world had changed while I was unconscious.
Like he had decided something permanent.
“Three men escaped the attack,” he said.
“What does that have to do with marriage?”
“One of them knew the precise time Leo would be in the sunroom.”
I went still.
Victor continued.
“They knew which doors were reinforced. Which windows were not. Which guards rotated at two o’clock.”
“Someone inside the estate helped them.”
“Yes.”
“And you think marriage fixes that?”
“No.”
He pulled something from his coat.
A photograph.
He placed it on the blanket.
My brother, Daniel, was leaving his rehabilitation clinic.
A man I did not recognize stood twenty feet behind him.
Watching.
My blood turned cold.
“What is this?”
“The photograph was taken six hours after the attack.”
“Who is that man?”
“One of the shooters who escaped.”
I stared at Victor.
“He followed my brother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To find leverage.”
My chest tightened.
Daniel had been injured in a construction accident three years earlier. Six surgeries had left him able to walk only short distances.
He was all the family I had left.
I had taken the Romano job because his medical insurance stopped covering physical therapy.
“Where is he?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“At one of my properties.”
“You kidnapped my brother?”
“I relocated him.”
“Without asking me?”
“He complained.”
“I bet he did!”
“He also ate two steaks.”
That sounded like Daniel.
I closed my eyes.
Victor stepped closer.
“I can protect him.”
“You could protect him without marrying me.”
“Maybe.”
“Then why?”
For the first time, Victor looked away.
His silence frightened me more than his threats.
Finally, he said, “Because Leo will not let you out of his sight.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“No.”
He looked back.
“Because every man in my organization watched me carry you into the ambulance.”
My breath caught.
“They saw me covered in your blood. They saw my son screaming your name. If I send you away now, my enemies will still believe you matter. My allies will assume you can be used against me.”
“So your solution is to announce that I matter even more?”
“My solution is to make touching you equivalent to declaring war.”
I swallowed.
“That’s insane.”
“It works.”
“And what about what I want?”
Something changed in his eyes.
“Tell me.”
“I want my brother safe.”
“Done.”
“I want Leo safe.”
“Always.”
“I want whoever attacked the house caught.”
“He will be.”
“And I want my life back.”
Victor said nothing.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” I whispered.
His jaw flexed.
“Your old life no longer exists.”
Anger rose through the pain.
“Because I saved your son?”
“Because someone has already put a target on your brother.”
I hated that he was right.
I hated the cold logic of it.
I hated the fear crawling beneath my skin.
Most of all, I hated the small part of me that felt safer because Victor was standing there.
He reached into his coat again.
This time he removed a ring.
Not a diamond.
A dark antique sapphire surrounded by tiny white stones.
“My grandmother’s,” he said.
“I don’t want jewelry.”
“It belonged to every Romano woman who survived this family.”
“That isn’t exactly romantic.”
“I’m not good at romantic.”
“I noticed.”
His fingers closed around the ring.
“This marriage can be legal only.”
I stared at him.
“No expectations?”
“None you do not agree to.”
“Separate bedrooms.”
“If you want.”
“My brother gets proper medical care.”
“Yes.”
“Leo needs a normal school eventually.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“We’ll discuss that.”
“That means no.”
“That means you negotiate aggressively.”
“Good.”
For the first time, the corner of his mouth moved.
Then the hospital room door burst open.
One of Victor’s guards rushed inside.
“Boss.”
Victor turned.
“What?”
The guard handed him a phone.
Victor listened for five seconds.
His entire body went still.
That stillness scared me.
“What happened?” I asked.
He slowly lowered the phone.
“One of the attackers was found.”
“Alive?”
“No.”
“Then how does that help?”
Victor looked at me.
“Because he had something in his pocket.”
“What?”
The guard placed a transparent evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a gray plastic employee card.
My cleaning agency photograph stared back at me.
My name was printed underneath.
CLAIRE BENNETT.
And someone had drawn a red circle around my face.
I forgot how to breathe.
Victor picked up the ring again.
“This was never only about Leo.”
My voice came out barely above a whisper.
“What are you saying?”
He looked toward the guards outside.
Then back at me.
May you like
“I’m saying somebody wanted you inside my house long before those bullets were fired.”
And suddenly, the marriage proposal was no longer the most frightening mystery in the room.
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