Chapter 7 - The Shadow from Louisville
The peace they had fought so hard to regain was shattered a week later by a single phone call.
It was Marco, calling Ronan’s personal cell phone in the middle of the afternoon. Seraphina was in the study, organizing the charity files, when she heard Ronan’s voice turn to ice.
"Where is he?" Ronan asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
A pause.
"Do not touch him yet. Set a tail. I’m on my way."
Ronan hung up the phone. He looked at Seraphina, his eyes dark with an old, terrible anger.
"What is it?" she asked, her heart dropping into her stomach.
"Marcus Hale is in Chicago," Ronan said.
Seraphina felt the ground vanish beneath her feet. She grabbed the edge of the desk to keep from falling. "No... no, please. How did he find me?"
"Dominic Vance," Ronan spit, his jaw clenching so hard the muscles jumped. "Vance must have run your name after the gala. He found Hale in Louisville, told him where you were, and paid for his ticket to Chicago. He wants to use your husband to create a distraction, to draw me into a public fight with a cop."
"I have to run," Seraphina panicked, her mind instantly reverting to the old, survivalist instincts. "I'll pack my bags. I'll go to Canada, I'll go to—"
"No," Ronan said, stepping forward and grabbing her by the shoulders. He looked into her eyes with a fierce, absolute certainty. "You are not running anymore, Seraphina. This is your home. You are my woman. We are going to end this tonight."
"But he’s a cop!" she cried. "If you kill him, the police—"
"I am not going to kill him in a way that leads back to us," Ronan said, his voice flat and professional. "But Marcus Hale has a long list of crimes in Louisville. Extortion, drug dealing, police brutality. I have been compiling a file on him since the day I met you. Tonight, we are going to hand him to the federal prosecutors. But first... he wants to see you. And you are going to give him exactly what he wants."
"What do you mean?" she whispered, her chest heaving.
"He’s waiting at a motel near the docks," Ronan said. "Vance set up a meeting. Hale thinks he’s going to kidnap you and take you back to Kentucky. But he doesn't know that he’s walking into a trap."
He looked at her, his eyes searching hers. "Can you do this, Seraphina? Can you stand in front of him one last time, knowing that I am right behind you?"
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Seraphina looked at her hands. They were trembling, but as she clenched them into fists, she felt a new, quiet strength flowing through her veins. The strength she had built over the past year, the strength Ronan had given her.
"Yes," she said, her voice turning solid. "I can do it."
