Chapter 4 - THE BOY IN THE HALLWAY
“Get behind me!” I screamed, throwing myself between Victor’s gun and my son.
Roman didn't hesitate. Despite his severe blood loss, he lunged off the couch with terrifying speed, tackling Victor to the ground before the man could pull the trigger.
The living room erupted into chaos. Roman’s bodyguards opened fire on Victor’s men. Deafening gunshots shattered my cheap lamps and ripped through the drywall.
I grabbed Leo, wrapping my arms around his small body, and scrambled on my hands and knees toward the kitchen.
“Mommy, it’s loud!” Leo cried, burying his face in my neck.
“I know, baby, keep your head down!”
We slid behind the heavy refrigerator just as the kitchen window shattered from a stray bullet.
In the living room, Roman was fighting like a wounded animal. He had Victor pinned, but his injury was slowing him down. Victor landed a brutal punch to Roman’s ribs, right on the fresh stitches. Roman groaned, his grip slipping.
Victor kicked him away and scrambled to his feet. His men were losing the gunfight against Roman’s highly trained guards.
“Fall back!” Victor roared to his surviving thugs.
He backed toward the ruined front door, his chest heaving. He wiped blood from his mouth and glared at Roman, who was struggling to stand.
“You can't hide a bastard heir forever, Roman,” Victor sneered. “Julian’s trust fund unlocks when the boy turns five. I know what day his birthday is.”
Victor turned and fled down the stairwell, his men covering his retreat.
The apartment fell silent, save for the ringing in my ears and Leo’s soft crying.
Roman leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Blood was seeping through his bandages again. He looked at me, then at Leo.
“He’s Julian’s son,” Roman whispered, awe replacing the anger in his eyes.
“What is he talking about?” I demanded, clutching Leo tighter. “What trust fund?”
Roman walked slowly into the kitchen. He knelt down so he was eye level with Leo. He reached out and gently touched the boy’s messy hair. Leo didn't flinch; he just stared back with those identical gray eyes.
“Julian knew Victor was trying to take over the family,” Roman explained softly, looking at me. “He knew Victor would kill him to remove him from the line of succession. So Julian created a blind trust. He transferred half the family’s legitimate assets into it.”
My heart hammered. “For who?”
“For his unborn child,” Roman said. “Victor thought Julian died without an heir. He thought the money would revert to the estate when the trust expired. But if Victor knows Leo exists... the money goes to Leo on his fifth birthday.”
“Leo turns five tomorrow,” I whispered, the blood draining from my face.
Roman nodded grimly. “Victor didn't just come here to finish me off. He came to eliminate the true heir before midnight.”
I looked at my tiny, sick apartment. We had nothing. And yet, my son was apparently the heir to a mafia fortune, and his uncle wanted him dead.
“We have to run,” I said, grabbing Leo’s hand.
“Victor controls the streets, the airports, the police,” Roman said. “There is only one place in Chicago safe enough to hold off an army until midnight.”
“Where?”
“My family’s estate,” Roman said. “But we have to get past the blockade he just set up outside your building.”
Roman’s lead bodyguard, a giant man named Marcus, stepped into the kitchen.
“Boss, they’ve surrounded the block. We don't have enough firepower to push through the front.”
Roman looked at the back wall of my kitchen.
“Megan,” Roman asked, his eyes darkening. “Does this building still have the old prohibition coal chutes leading to the subway tunnels?”
“Yes,” I said, remembering the rusted iron door in the basement laundry room. “But it’s padlocked.”
Roman pulled a heavy combat knife from Marcus’s belt.
“Not anymore.”
We crept down the back stairwell to the dark, damp basement. Roman smashed the padlock off the rusted iron door.
As we slipped into the pitch-black tunnel beneath the city, Leo pointed his small finger at the ground.
“Mommy, look.”
Lying in the dirt, perfectly clean despite the mud, was a child’s blue mitten.
It was the exact same mitten Leo had lost at the park three weeks ago.
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Victor hadn't just tracked Roman’s phone today. He had been watching my son for weeks.
TITLE: THE BLUE MITTEN IN THE DARK
