Chapter 4 - The Black Syndicate
For three days, the warehouse in Elgin became a fortress of silence.
Roman recovered with a terrifying speed that defied medical logic. By the third afternoon, despite Ava’s furious protests, he was sitting up in a leather armchair in the warehouse office, wearing a dark gray wool sweater, reviewing encrypted files on three flat-screen monitors.
Sophie sat on the floor beside his desk, happily coloring in a dinosaur book Ava had bought for her at a nearby convenience store.
Ava walked into the office carrying a tray with hot soup and a fresh bag of intravenous antibiotics.
"Eat," she ordered, setting the tray on his desk.
Roman didn't look up from the screen. "I need to be in the city by eight."
"You have twenty-four silk sutures in your abdominal wall, Mr. Black," Ava said, folding her arms across her chest. "If you drive a car or lift anything heavier than a mug of coffee, you will tear your peritoneum and bleed into your abdominal cavity."
Roman slowly pulled his eyes away from the monitor, looking at her. Over the last seventy-two hours, he had watched this twenty-four-year-old waitress manage his recovery with the authority of a chief surgeon and the tenderness of a mother toward Sophie.
She was wearing oversized sweatpants and a gray hoodie he had given her from his emergency wardrobe. Her dark hair was tied back in a messy bun. She looked exhausted, but her hazel eyes held a fierce, unbreakable light that fascinated him.
"My brothers think I'm dead, Ava," Roman said quietly, his voice dropping into that dark, dangerous register. "The syndicate is currently being dismantled by Julian Vance—my second-in-command. He was the one who walked into my house three nights ago."
Ava’s breath caught in her throat. "Julian? The man who called you his brother?"
"Ambition makes monsters out of men," Roman replied coldly. "Julian brought the knife from my own kitchen. He knew I wouldn't draw a weapon on him in front of my daughter. He thought he left me to bleed out on the floor while he took control of the Chicago docks."
"Then let the police handle him!" Ava urged, taking a step closer.
Roman let out a short, hollow laugh. "The police chief in the Fourth District takes his payroll from Julian Vance. If I walk into a station, I'm dead before I reach the booking desk."
He stood up slowly, wincing slightly as his abdominal muscles engaged, but his posture remained towering and imposing. He walked over to Ava, stopping inches from her.
"You saved my life, Ava Monroe," Roman said softly, reaching out to touch the heavy silver pendant hanging from her neck—a small cross that had belonged to her foster sister. "I checked your background while you were asleep yesterday."
Ava went rigid. "You spied on me?"
"I protect what's mine," Roman corrected smoothly. "I know about Lily. I know about the eighty-seven dollars in your apron. I know about the $120,000 in medical debt hanging over your head from Saint Jude's Children's Hospital."
Ava felt a wave of hot shame wash over her face. She looked down at the floor. "I didn't ask for your charity."
Roman reached down, his fingers gently lifting her chin until her hazel eyes met his dark gray ones.
"It's not charity," Roman whispered, his thumb lightly tracing her lower lip. "It's a debt. And Roman Black always pays his debts."
He pulled a thick black leather folder from his desk and slid it into her hands.
"What is this?" Ava asked.
"That is a deed to a townhouse in Lincoln Park," Roman said. "Along with a receipt from Saint Jude's Hospital showing a zero balance on Lily's account... and an official acceptance letter to the University of Chicago’s accelerated Master of Nursing program, fully paid."
Ava stared at the papers in her hands. Her heart hammered against her ribs so loudly she was sure he could hear it. Her debt—the crushing, suffocating weight that had ruled her life for two years—was gone. Her dream was sitting right in front of her.
"Why?" she choked out, tears stinging her eyes.
"Because you gave my daughter her father back," Roman said gently, his hand coming to rest against the side of her neck, his thumb feeling the rapid pulse fluttering beneath her skin. "And because I am never letting you go back to that diner again."
Before Ava could process his words, the red emergency strobe light on the warehouse wall began to flash silently.
May you like
The security monitors on the desk flickered.
Four black SUVs had just crashed through the chain-link perimeter fence outside.
