I was still staring at the photo of me and Elliot when Tony arrived in his SUV, tires screeching in the parking garage. He was out of the car before it even stopped, face chiseled from anger.
"Get in the car. Now!"
"Tony, what-"
"Now, Katherine." His hand was on my arm, firmly but not painfully, already guiding me toward the passenger seat. "We're going to your apartment. You're going to pack. And then we're getting you somewhere safe."
His commanding tone should've pissed me off. Instead, it frightened me. Because Tony Marvin wasn't easily intimidated, and at the moment, he appeared to have seen the face of death itself.
Twenty minutes later, we were in my small Brooklyn apartment, with Tony pacing like a caged predator while I tried to process what he'd just shown me. Photos. Lots of them, from two weeks' worth.
"Someone's been following me before we even had dinner?" My voice shook despite my best attempts to remain calm.
"Before I made my proposition at the club." Tony stopped pacing to face me now. "Whoever it is, they've been after you the moment you entered my world. The question now is why?"
"Maybe because I'm involved with you." I carefully laid the photos on the table, my hands shaking. "Isn't that what you said? That being with you makes me a target?"
"It's different." He pulled out his phone to show me more pictures - security footage taken in his warehouse, the person he'd seen. "There is someone in my company who is doing this to you. And they've been watching you even longer than I have."
The implications made my stomach turn. "You think someone in your family-"
"I don't think. I know." His jaw clenched. "And until I know who, I need you out of the city. You and Elliot. I have a house in the Hamptons, which is completely secure, with its own security detail. You'll be safe there while I take care of this."
"Handle this?" I stood, anger mingling with fear at last. "You mean while you're off to war with whoever is threatening me. While you're in danger."
"That's not your concern."
"The hell it isn't." The words spurted out of me in anger. "You can't just make decisions for me, Tony, concerning my own life. You can't just decide to pack me off to somewhere 'safe' while you take on dangerous work."
"I'm trying to protect you-"
"By keeping secrets? By not telling me that I've been under surveillance for weeks?" I stepped forward, poking his chest with one finger. "You promised me honesty. You promised no more secrets. And yet you're here, making decisions about my safety without even consulting with me."
There was something there in his eyes - frustration, maybe, or respect. "What is it you want from me, Katherine? That I'm terrified? That the thought of someone hurting you makes me want to tear this city apart brick by brick? You want honesty? Here's the truth: I can't do my job if I'm worried about you. I can't think strategically if every decision is clouded by the fear that you'll pay the price for my choices."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have gotten involved with me in the first place."
The words hung between us, like a grenade with the safety removed. His expression went entirely blank, and I immediately regretted the spite behind it.
"Maybe I shouldn't have," he whispered. "But I did. And now we both have to live with the consequences."
Before I could even think to reply to that, my apartment door swung open, and Elliot entered with his headphones looped around his neck and his backpack across his shoulder. He was taken aback at the sight of Tony's aggressive stance and my defensive posture.
"You're arguing," Elliot pointed out. "Katherine's heart rate is elevated. Mr. Marvin's jaw muscles are tensed. Conflict resolution in progress."
Despite everything, I almost smiled. "Elliot, this is Tony. Tony, my brother Elliot."
"We already met briefly at the park." Tony's expression changed in an instant - the dangerous edge temporarily tempered. "It's good to see you again, Elliot."
"Is it?" Elliot put his backpack on the floor and went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of juice, acting out his routine with mechanical precision. "You're behind the vandalism of Katherine's car, the threatening pictures, and the stress Katherine has been experiencing for the last seventy-two hours."
"Elliot-" I began.
"It's fine." Tony leaned against the wall, observing my brother with what seemed to be genuine curiosity rather than annoyance. "He's right. I am the reason."
"Then logically, removing yourself from Katherine's life would eliminate the threat." Elliot drank his juice in precisely three swallows, as he always did. "Unless the threat has somehow become independent of your presence. And if the surveillance timeline Katherine showed me is any indication, it would seem the targeting began before any meaningful relationship."
Tony's eyes sharpened. "What are you getting at?"
"Katherine showed me the picture from the park. "It was taken on Saturday, the 21st of October." Elliot pulled out his phone and scrolled through with ease. "But Katherine went to your club on Wednesday, the 18th of October; that's three days before. If someone was following her by the 21st, that's remarkably fast response time for a threat assessment."
My blood ran cold. "Unless they were already watching me before I even went to the club."
"Exactly." Elliot locked eyes with Tony. "Which means either you're not the driving force behind the threat, or someone anticipated Katherine's approaching you before it occurred."
Tony had gone still, that kind of stillness that preceded violence. "Someone knew she was coming."
"But how?" I tried to move to sit down before my legs gave out. "I'd only just considered approaching you on my own volition. How would someone know?"
"Your boss." "Richard Blackwood assigned you the Marvin account." Tony's voice was deadly calm. "Who else knew about it?"
"Just Richard, the senior partners, and-" I stopped, my stomach turning. "Marcus Davidson. He's been wanting my job! He knew about the assignment before I did."
"Davidson." Tony was already reaching for his phone. "Vincent, I need every bit of information on Marcus Davidson with Premier Financial - employment record, finances, ties to his family. I need it like yesterday."
He went over to the window, still talking in muffled tones. Elliot observed him with great interest.
"He's more controlled than I would've expected," my brother said. "Reports of mafia bosses indicate they're emotionally unstable." "He's already calculating. Being strategic."
"He doesn't want to frighten you."
"Why would his authentic behavior scare me?" Elliot tilted his head. "Fear response is triggered by perceived threat. Mr. Marvin is directing his threat response away from us and toward external enemies. That's optimal protective behavior."
Sometimes my brother was able to control my emotions in ways that no therapy session possibly could.
Tony returned, his expression grim. "Davidson has a cousin who works in the Torrino family businesses. Junior position, but enough connection to pass information."
"So Davidson told the Torrinos that I was in pursuit of your account", I said. "They saw an opening to come after you through me."
"That is the theory." Tony crouched in front of me, his hands on my knees, his green eyes intense. "Which means it is not random violence but planned. It's calculated, and it began the minute you were assigned to my account."
"Actually, Katherine received the assignment on the 17th of October. A day before she was to visit your club for the first time."
The words hit like a physical blow. We were all stunned in silence. "Someone knew about the assignment before Katherine came to me," Tony said in that frightening calm way of his. "Which means there's a mole in Katherine's bank who has been giving the Torrinos information, and they set Katherine up from the very start."
I studied the photos scattered across my coffee table. At the picture of myself entering Tony's building. At the surveillance that was recording my every move.
"It was never about us feeling something for each other". I whispered. "This was always a trap."
"Yes." Tony rose to his feet, and the man I saw was the ruthless mafia boss everyone in the world feared. "And now we're going to find out who set it and make them regret every goddamn second of it."