Chapter 2 - THE NAME EVERYONE IN NEW YORK KNEW
“Who are you?”
The man looked at Nora through the darkness beneath the bridge.
Water ran from his hair. Blood soaked the side of his shirt. His lips were beginning to turn blue.
Still, when he answered, his voice carried the calm of someone accustomed to people obeying him before he had to repeat himself.
“Lorenzo Moretti.”
Nora stopped rubbing his arms beneath the blanket.
She knew the name.
Everyone in New York did.
Moretti International owned hotels, construction companies, trucking firms, restaurants, and three of the most expensive residential towers in Manhattan.
The newspapers called Lorenzo Moretti a billionaire businessman.
Federal prosecutors preferred other words.
Alleged.
Suspected.
Untouchable.
The kind of man photographed leaving charity galas in custom suits while reporters whispered about people who had disappeared after crossing him.
Nora stared.
“You’re that Moretti?”
His mouth twitched.
“There are several.”
“The one the FBI keeps failing to put in prison.”
“That narrows it.”
Nora slowly removed her hands from the blanket.
“Fantastic.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“I save one man in two years, and it has to be organized crime.”
“You could have left me in the river.”
“You mentioned that.”
“It remains an option.”
He almost smiled again.
Then his face changed.
Pain.
His hand clamped harder over his side.
Nora immediately moved back toward him despite herself.
“Let me see.”
“No.”
“You’re bleeding through your fingers.”
“It will stop.”
“That is not how bullets work.”
“It was a graze.”
“You’re lying.”
His eyes sharpened.
She pulled his hand away before he could stop her.
The wound sat beneath his lowest rib.
Small entrance.
No exit.
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“That is not a graze.”
Lorenzo looked down.
“I’ve had worse.”
“Did the worse things also leave bullets inside you?”
He did not answer.
Nora swore.
She pressed part of the blanket against the wound.
Lorenzo caught her wrist.
“Not that.”
“It’s the only dry thing I have.”
“It was yours.”
“So?”
His grip weakened.
“You jumped into a freezing river for a stranger. Now you’re giving away the thing keeping you alive.”
Nora looked at him.
“I’m not giving it away. I’m holding it against a hole in your body.”
“You do this often?”
“I used to.”
That caught his attention.
“What were you?”
“Almost a nurse.”
“Almost?”
“Life happened.”
Another car passed high above them.
Lorenzo suddenly turned his head.
Nora saw the change instantly.
The wounded man disappeared.
Something colder replaced him.
“Get down.”
“What?”
He grabbed her coat and pulled her behind a concrete pillar.
Headlights moved slowly along the access road fifty yards away.
A dark SUV.
It stopped near the broken guardrail.
Two men got out.
Neither shouted for help.
Neither called 911.
They carried flashlights.
And guns.
Nora’s heart slammed.
Lorenzo whispered, “They’re checking the river.”
“You know them?”
“No.”
“That seems bad.”
“They’re the reason my car went through the railing.”
One of the men walked toward the embankment.
Nora looked around.
Her alcove.
Blankets.
A backpack.
Two cans of soup.
The last visible evidence that anyone lived beneath the bridge.
“If they find my things…”
“They’ll know someone was here.”
Exactly.
Nora crawled toward the stash.
Lorenzo grabbed her.
“No.”
“That’s everything I own.”
“You’ll own nothing if you’re dead.”
“They’ll see it.”
The flashlight beam moved closer.
Nora made a decision.
She shoved her backpack and remaining clothes through a narrow drainage gap behind the concrete support.
Then she kicked loose snow and dirt over the place where she had been sleeping.
The men were thirty yards away now.
Lorenzo struggled to stand.
He failed.
Nora caught him.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“We are.”
“Where?”
“There’s an old maintenance tunnel.”
She stared.
“You know my bridge better than I do?”
“My company repaired this section six years ago.”
“Of course it did.”
She hooked his arm over her shoulders.
“Walk.”
“I outweigh you by eighty pounds.”
“Then contribute.”
They moved.
Every step left blood.
Nora saw it immediately.
“Damn it.”
She used the wet hem of her sweatshirt to wipe the snow behind them while Lorenzo leaned against the wall.
The flashlight appeared around the pillar.
“Someone was here.”
Nora froze.
A second voice answered.
“Find them.”
Lorenzo moved faster.
They reached a rusted steel service door nearly hidden behind concrete.
Locked.
Nora looked at him.
“You said tunnel.”
“I didn’t say accessible.”
“Very helpful.”
A flashlight beam swept closer.
Nora grabbed a broken length of rebar from the ground.
She jammed it between the door and frame.
Lorenzo stared.
“What?”
“Push.”
Together they forced it.
Metal screamed.
The door opened six inches.
Enough.
Nora slipped through first.
Lorenzo followed.
She pulled the door shut just as footsteps reached the alcove.
Darkness swallowed them.
Nora pressed a hand over Lorenzo’s mouth when his breathing became too loud.
He looked offended.
She whispered, “Terrifying mafia boss or not, you breathe like a wounded buffalo.”
His eyes narrowed.
Outside, one of the gunmen said, “Blood.”
Nora’s chest tightened.
Another flashlight beam crossed the cracks around the door.
“There’s a trail.”
“Where?”
“Stops here.”
Silence.
Then the handle moved.
Lorenzo reached inside his coat.
Nothing.
His gun had gone down with the car.
Nora gripped the rebar.
The handle moved again.
Then a phone rang outside.
One of the men answered.
“Yeah?”
Pause.
“No body.”
Another pause.
“What woman?”
Nora felt Lorenzo become completely still.
The man outside continued.
“We haven’t seen anyone.”
Pause.
“All right.”
Footsteps retreated.
Nora waited a full minute.
Then another.
Only when she heard the SUV leave did she remove her hand from Lorenzo’s mouth.
“What woman?”
He said nothing.
“They knew about me.”
“I heard.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
She stepped away.
“You said they were after you.”
“They were.”
“Then why are they looking for me?”
“Because somebody saw you pull me out.”
“That quickly?”
Lorenzo’s expression darkened.
“Which means this wasn’t random.”
Nora’s fear deepened.
“Who wants you dead?”
He gave her a tired look.
“Would you like alphabetical order?”
“Not funny.”
“No.”
He leaned against the wall.
Then his knees buckled.
Nora caught him badly.
His full weight dragged her down.
“Lorenzo.”
He did not answer.
She touched his neck.
Pulse rapid.
Weak.
“Damn it.”
She opened his shirt.
Blood everywhere now.
His skin had turned clammy.
Shock.
Possibly internal bleeding.
She needed heat.
Medical supplies.
A doctor.
Everything he had forbidden.
“Wake up.”
Nothing.
Nora slapped him.
“Lorenzo.”
His eyes opened.
Barely.
“No hospital.”
“If you die, I’m billing you for the blanket.”
A strange sound escaped him.
Might have been laughter.
Might have been pain.
Then he whispered, “Inside pocket.”
Nora reached into his coat.
Found a black phone sealed in waterproof casing.
“Call Nico.”
“Password?”
“0419.”
She entered it.
A single contact marked N.
She called.
A man answered instantly.
“Boss?”
Nora said, “If you’re Nico, your boss is bleeding to death under the George Washington Bridge.”
Silence.
Then the voice became lethal.
“Who are you?”
“The woman currently preventing him from becoming a very expensive corpse.”
“Where exactly?”
Nora looked at Lorenzo.
His eyes had closed again.
“South maintenance tunnel, river side.”
“Do not move.”
“That seems to be his specialty.”
The line went dead.
Eleven minutes later, Nora heard engines.
Not one.
Six.
Black SUVs appeared along the service road.
Men poured out.
Armed.
Disciplined.
The first was younger than Lorenzo, perhaps thirty-five, with a scar along his jaw.
He entered the tunnel carrying a pistol.
He saw Lorenzo on the ground.
Then Nora.
His gun rose.
Nora lifted the bloody rebar.
“Try it.”
The man froze.
Lorenzo’s eyes opened.
“Nico.”
The pistol lowered instantly.
“Boss.”
Nico dropped to one knee.
More men entered.
Every one of them stopped when they saw Nora.
Wet.
Barely dressed.
Blood on her hands.
Standing over Lorenzo Moretti with a piece of rusted metal like she intended to fight an army.
“Who is she?” Nico asked.
Lorenzo looked at Nora.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he held out his hand.
Not to Nico.
To her.
“Nora.”
She stared.
He had remembered.
Lorenzo looked at the men surrounding them.
His voice was weak.
His order was not.
“She saved my life.”
Nobody moved.
Lorenzo’s eyes hardened.
“Which means from this moment forward, anyone who threatens hers is threatening mine.”
The men glanced at one another.
Nico looked stunned.
Nora did too.
Lorenzo continued.
“She rides with me.”
Nico stood.
“Boss, we need to move.”
“Then move.”
Two men lifted him onto a stretcher.
Nora stepped backward.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“You heard the men outside asking about you.”
“I heard.”
“They know your face.”
“You don’t.”
“I know enough.”
“You know nothing.”
He looked toward the concrete alcove where she had been sleeping.
Then at her bare hands turning purple from cold.
His expression changed.
“No.”
His voice softened.
“I know somebody left you under a bridge long enough that you started calling it home.”
The words hurt because they were true.
Nora’s jaw tightened.
Lorenzo held her gaze.
“And I know you jumped into the Hudson anyway because another human being was dying.”
He shifted painfully.
“You can hate me tomorrow.”
The faintest smile touched his mouth.
“Tonight, get in the car.”
Nora should have walked away.
Instead she looked toward the empty darkness beneath the bridge.
Her blanket was gone.
Her hiding place exposed.
Armed men knew she existed.
May you like
And for the first time in almost two years, somebody was holding open a car door and waiting for her to choose warmth.
Nora climbed inside.
