🖤 THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED A WAITRESS GET FIRED—THEN THE OLD WOMAN CALLED HIM BY A NAME NO ONE KNEW

Chapter 04 - A Threat With Sophie's Name On It

Sophie recognized the apartment building in the photograph. She recognized the coat she was wearing, the cracked planter beside the entrance, and the blue sedan parked across the street. She had noticed the car twice that week and assumed it belonged to someone visiting the upstairs tenants. Now she understood why it had remained in the same spot long after the driver should have gone home.

“Someone’s been watching me,” she said.

Adrian took the photograph from her. His expression had gone cold in a way that made the room seem smaller. “How long have you had this?”

“I didn’t know I had it. It was in her sleeve.”

Lydia looked stricken. “I’m sorry. I should have checked my bag before I came inside. I didn’t want to bring danger to you.”

“You didn’t,” Sophie said, though she could feel her pulse in her throat. “Someone else chose to do this.”

Adrian turned to Marcus’s empty chair. “Get a car to her building. Have someone check whether the sedan is still there. No confrontation unless they move first.”

“You’re not sending people to my apartment,” Sophie said.

He looked at her. “Someone has photographed you and threatened you because you helped a woman eat lunch.”

“I know. I’m still not comfortable with strangers going through my home.”

“They won’t go inside. They’ll watch the street.”

“Then tell me who they are, and let me decide what I’m willing to do.”

Adrian’s jaw shifted. He was accustomed to giving instructions and watching people carry them out. Sophie’s refusal was not loud or dramatic. It was simply a boundary, and he had to decide whether he respected it more than he valued being obeyed.

“Marcus will tell you what he sees,” he said at last. “Nothing happens at your apartment without your permission.”

Sophie nodded. “Thank you.”

Lydia watched them with an expression Sophie could not quite read. “You remind me of a woman I knew,” she said.

“Someone brave?”

“Someone who had learned that being useful was not the same as being safe.”

Before Sophie could ask what she meant, the door opened. Marcus returned with a tablet in his hand. “The sedan is gone. We have a partial plate and a traffic camera image. It belongs to a company called North Shore Consulting.”

Adrian’s face changed. “That’s one of Victor’s shell companies.”

Marcus nodded. “And there’s another problem. The restaurant manager sent a message to a number registered to North Shore ten minutes before the woman arrived. The message says, ‘She’s here. The girl is helping her.’”

Sophie thought of Marlene’s expression, the way she had reached for her phone, and the text from V.V. “She knew the woman would come.”

“She may have been told to watch for her,” Adrian said. “That doesn’t tell us how much she knows.”

“Or how much she’s being paid,” Sophie replied.

Adrian studied her. “You notice more than people expect.”

“I work in restaurants. People tell you everything when they think you’re carrying plates and not listening.”

A brief smile touched his mouth and vanished. Then he turned serious again. “I want you to stay somewhere secure until we know who is following you.”

“I can go to my cousin’s place.”

“Does your cousin know anything about this?”

“No.”

“Then don’t involve her until we know the threat is real.”

“It is real. You have a photograph of me.”

“I know. I’m asking you to choose a place where someone can’t use your family to get to you.”

Sophie hated that he was right. Her cousin had two small children and a husband who worked nights. Bringing danger to their door would be a selfish way to prove she could manage alone.

“I’ll stay at a hotel,” she said. “One I choose. You can arrange a car, but I’ll pay for the room.”

Adrian started to object, then stopped. “All right.”

Lydia reached across the table and touched Sophie’s fingers. “You shouldn’t have to pay for the trouble I brought you.”

“I paid twelve dollars and forty cents for soup,” Sophie said. “I’m not going to start charging you for being a person.”

The old woman’s eyes filled. Adrian looked away, as if the exchange had shown him a kind of courage he did not know how to imitate.

They left the restaurant through the service corridor. Outside, the night air smelled of wet pavement and the lake. Marcus brought the car around, but before Sophie could climb in, a woman stepped out from beneath the awning.

Marlene.

Her ivory blazer was gone. She wore a dark coat and held her phone in both hands. She looked smaller without the dining room behind her.

“Mr. Voss,” she said. “I need to speak with you privately.”

Adrian moved slightly in front of Lydia. “You’ve had plenty of opportunities to speak.”

“I know. I’m not asking you to forgive me. I’m asking you to listen before you decide what I did.”

Sophie watched Marlene’s face. The manager looked frightened, but not of Adrian. She kept glancing over her shoulder toward the street.

“Who are you afraid of?” Sophie asked.

Marlene swallowed. “Victor.”

“Why?”

“Because I told him the woman had arrived, and now he knows I let her leave with you.”

Adrian’s expression hardened. “You told him?”

“He pays my brother’s legal bills. My brother is in prison because of a delivery he says he never knew was illegal. Victor promised he would get him out if I reported anything unusual at the restaurant. I thought I was watching a guest. I didn’t know she was—”

“Your employer’s mother?” Sophie asked.

Marlene stared at her. “I didn’t know that.”

A car rolled slowly past the curb. Marlene flinched and stepped closer to Adrian.

“They’re here,” she whispered. “Please. You have to help me.”

The car stopped at the corner. Its rear window lowered a few inches.

A man’s voice came through the dark.

“Miss Shaw. You were told not to make this complicated.”