Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME IN FROM THE RAIN
Nora Hayes arrived twenty-eight minutes late to a blind date at an elegant Boston Harbor restaurant, barefoot, drenched in rain, and covered in mud.
Instead of introducing herself, she dropped into the chair across from Elias Bellini and whispered for him to smile, pretend he had been waiting for her, and not look at the two men following her.
Elias noticed them anyway.
Nora, a historical restoration specialist, had been working inside the basement of Saint Agnes House when she discovered an old metal lunchbox hidden behind a wall that had not been opened in thirty-eight years. Before she could examine its contents, two men wearing fake uniforms from her own company cornered her and demanded it.
She escaped through a basement window, crawled beneath a construction fence, lost both shoes, and ran through the storm to the restaurant where her blind date was waiting.
When one of the men approached their table, Elias quietly ordered the restaurant doors locked.
Only then did Nora realize her date was no ordinary restaurant owner.
The pursuer recognized Elias immediately—and feared him.
Elias Bellini came from one of Boston’s most notorious families, a name once deeply connected to organized crime. Elias claimed he was trying to turn the family legitimate, but his calm authority suggested the Bellini name still carried enormous power.
Then Elias mentioned Malcolm Reed.
Nora’s employer.
Her mentor.
The man who had given her a career.
The pursuer warned that Reed would not let the lunchbox go.
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For the first time, Nora understood that whatever she had found inside the walls of Saint Agnes House was valuable enough for men to chase her through Boston.
And dangerous enough to make a Bellini interested.
