Chapter 2 - THE SILVER WATCH
I stared at the black card in my hand until the silver serpent seemed to blur.
You now belong under my protection.
The words echoed in my ears over the clatter of the busy diner, completely detached from the reality of my life. I was a waitress. I delivered cold noodles at midnight to make rent. Men who wore five-thousand-dollar suits and had bodyguards did not offer protection to girls like me just because I helped an old woman eat her soup.
“Hey!” My manager, Greg, snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Did you just get a tip from Gabriel Vance? And why is table four screaming about their water?”
Gabriel Vance.
The name sent a spike of ice straight into my stomach. Even in the poorest neighborhoods of San Antonio, you knew that name. He owned the shipping yards, the luxury high-rises, and, according to the whispers, the politicians.
“I need to go home,” I whispered, untying my stained apron.
“Your shift isn’t over for two hours, Emily. You walk out now, you don’t come back.”
I didn't answer. I just grabbed my jacket and practically ran out the back door.
My motorcycle sputtered to life, the engine whining as I sped toward my rundown apartment complex on the south side. My chest was tight. I wasn’t just a struggling twenty-three-year-old. I was the sole guardian of my six-year-old niece, Maya.
Since my sister died two years ago, Maya was my entire world. Keeping her safe, fed, and hidden from the brutal realities of our neighborhood was the only thing that mattered.
I took the concrete stairs to the third floor two at a time.
But when I reached my door, my heart completely stopped.
The deadbolt was shattered. The wood around the frame was splintered, hanging off the hinges.
“Maya!” I screamed, shoving the door open.
My tiny apartment was completely trashed. Couch cushions were ripped open. Drawers were dumped on the floor.
“Maya!” I yelled again, terror blinding me.
“Auntie Em?”
A small voice came from the narrow hall closet. I ripped the door open. Maya was huddled in the dark, clutching her worn-out stuffed rabbit, her large brown eyes wide with fear.
I fell to my knees and pulled her into my chest, burying my face in her curly hair. She was shaking.
“I stayed quiet, just like you taught me,” Maya whispered.
“You did so good, baby. You did perfectly.”
Before I could ask her what happened, heavy footsteps crunched on the broken glass behind me.
I spun around, shoving Maya behind my back.
Two men were standing in my living room. They weren't Gabriel Vance’s men. They wore dirty leather jackets, and one of them was holding a crowbar.
“Look what we found,” the man with the crowbar grinned, his eyes trailing over me. “We were just looking for the ledger, but you’ll do.”
“I don't know what you're talking about. Get out!” I shouted, inching backward toward the fire escape window.
“Your daddy owed our boss a lot of money before he died, Emily. The debt didn't die with him.”
He lunged forward.
Before I could even raise my arms to protect Maya, a massive shadow filled the doorway.
The man with the crowbar was suddenly lifted off his feet and thrown into the drywall with a sickening crunch. The second intruder pulled a knife, but a towering man in a black suit simply gripped his wrist, twisted it until a loud snap echoed through the room, and tossed him onto the floor.
It was one of Gabriel Vance’s men. The one who had been standing behind him at the diner.
He didn't even look out of breath. He stepped over the groaning intruders and looked at me.
“Mr. Vance said tomorrow,” the bodyguard rumbled. “He was mistaken. We are leaving now.”
My hands were shaking as I held Maya tight. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
The bodyguard didn't argue. He simply looked down at the floor near the shattered coffee table.
When the intruder had been thrown against the wall, something had fallen out of his leather jacket.
I felt all the blood drain from my face.
Resting on the cheap carpet was a heavy, tarnished silver pocket watch. The lid was engraved with the initials T.R.
It was my father’s watch.
The one he was supposedly wearing the night he died in a car crash ten years ago.
“How did he get that?” I choked out, staring at the thief.
“Because your father didn't die in a car crash, Emily,” a smooth, dark voice said from the doorway.
May you like
Gabriel Vance stepped into my ruined apartment, the silver serpent pin on his lapel catching the dim light.
“He was murdered. And the men who killed him just found you.”
