Chapter 4 - The Man I Had Already Escaped
I didn't sleep the next night.
Lorenzo sat outside my bedroom door until sunrise.
I knew because at three in the morning I opened it and almost stepped on him.
He was on the floor in a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, a gun on the carpet beside him and a cup of coffee going cold in his hand.
"This is creepy," I said.
"Go back inside."
"You have chairs."
"The hallway gives me a direct line to both staircases."
"Still creepy."
He looked exhausted. "Amelia."
I sat down beside him.
For ten minutes neither of us spoke.
Then I said, "My ex used to check my phone while I slept."
Lorenzo's head turned.
"Ethan Cole. We were engaged. He didn't hit me. He didn't have to. He could make me apologize for breathing too loudly."
"Where is he now?"
"Hopefully irritating somebody in another zip code."
The next morning, Ethan called.
I almost dropped the phone.
"Amy," he said warmly, using the nickname I hated. "I heard you're in Chicago."
"How?"
"People talk."
"People need hobbies."
He laughed like we were still together. "I just want to make sure you're safe. Duca isn't exactly husband material."
Across the breakfast room, Lorenzo went completely still.
"I'm not discussing my life with you."
"You never were good at recognizing when someone was trying to help."
There it was. The old hook. Insult wrapped in concern.
I hung up.
Twenty minutes later, Marco brought in a report.
Ethan had entered Illinois three days before I arrived.
He had also visited Bianca Romano twice that week.
I felt cold all over.
"Coincidence?" I asked.
Lorenzo's answer came flat. "No."
Then Marco placed another document on the table.
A banking authorization form.
My late father's name was printed at the bottom.
Daniel Carter.
My father had been dead for five years.
Yet the form had been signed six months ago.
And the account receiving the money belonged to a Duca company.
I stared at the signature.
It looked exactly like Dad's.
Even the little hook on the C.
Then I saw the amount.
May you like
$4.8 million.
My dead father had just become the most expensive ghost in Chicago.
