"Why are you still after me?" Norah repeats, her voice breaking the heavy silence. "I demand an honest answer."
Dante exhales slowly, the weight of what he knows pressing into his shoulders.
"Because the Calabria family doesn't leave loose ends," he says. "Even if you don't have the evidence, you're still Vincent Chamberlain's daughter. You're a connection to their past they can't control. And they always tie up their past."
"Because the Calabria family doesn't leave loose ends," he says. "Even if you don't have the evidence, you're still Vincent Chamberlain's daughter. You're still a connection to their past they can't control. So they're going to tie you up."
"By killing me."
"Yes."
The word is simple. Final.
Norah looks back down at the photo. Her father's face smiling up at her, young and ignorant of what was coming.
"You said I have a choice," she says quietly.
"You do." Dante shifts in his seat. "Two choices, actually."
"Tell me."
"Choice one: you come with me. Willingly. I take you somewhere safe, somewhere the Calabrias can't reach you easily. You stay there while I figure out how to extract you from this situation permanently."
"And choice two?"
"You don't come with me." Dante's voice doesn't change. "I drop you off somewhere public—police station, maybe, or a friend's house—and I disappear. You go back to your life. Back to Sacred Heart, back to your apartment, back to your routine."
Norah frowns. "That doesn't sound so bad."
"It's not," Dante agrees. "Right up until the Calabrias find you. Which they will. Probably within forty-eight hours."
"And then?"
"And then you die." He says it like he's telling her the sky is blue. "They'll make it look like an accident. Car crash, maybe. Gas leak in your apartment. Mugging gone wrong. Something the police will write off as unfortunate but not suspicious."
Norah's throat is tight. "You're saying I don't really have a choice."
"You have a choice." Dante's gaze doesn't waver. "It's just not a good one. Come with me and maybe survive. Or go home and definitely die. But it's still your choice."
"That's not fair."
"No," he agrees. "It's not."
The SUV is still idling, engine humming. Outside, the alley is dark and empty. Norah can hear the distant sound of a siren, somewhere in the city. Someone else's emergency.
"If I come with you," she says slowly, "where would we go?"
"New Orleans."
"Why New Orleans?"
"Because that's where the Calabria family is based. And the safest place to hide from them is in their own backyard, where they won't think to look."
It's the craziest thing Norah's heard all night. Which is saying something.
"You're insane," she tells him.
"Probably." Dante almost smiles. "But I'm also your best chance at staying alive. So. What's it going to be?"
Norah looks at the photo one more time. Her father, smiling, with his arm around a man who would later order his daughter's death.
She thinks about Enzo Ricci's last words. They know.
She thinks about her apartment, her job, her routine. The life she's built from the ashes of her father's scandal. Small and quiet and safe.
Except it's not safe. It never was.
"If I come with you," she says, "I want answers. Real answers. Everything you know about my father, the Calabrias, all of it."
"Deal."
"And I want your word that you won't hurt me."
Dante's expression shifts. Something like hurt flashes across his face.
"I'm not here to hurt you, Norah," he says quietly. "I'm here to keep you alive."
"Why?" The question bursts out of her. "Why do you even care? If you work for the Calabrias—"
"I don't work for them." Dante's voice goes hard. "I owe them. There's a difference."
"What's the difference?"
"One is a choice." His hands tighten on the steering wheel. "The other is a debt."
Before Norah can ask what that means, Dante's phone buzzes. He glances at the screen, and his jaw clenches.
"We need to move," he says. "Now."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"They found us." He throws the SUV into reverse, already backing out of the alley. "They're two blocks away and closing fast."
Norah's heart jumps into her throat. "How is that possible?"
"They're tracking something," Dante says, eyes flicking to her. "Your phone. Your pager. Anything on you?"
Norah pats her scrubs. Her phone is in her locker at the hospital. But her pager—
"My pager," she says. "But it's just—"
"Give it to me."
She unclips it and hands it over. Dante rolls down the window and tosses it into a dumpster as they speed through the alley.
"That was hospital property," Norah says, trying to sound normal.
"Think of it as trading it for your life," he says.
The SUV races through the empty streets. Behind them, headlights appear again—closer this time.
"They're still on us," Dante mutters.
"What do we do?"
"You trust me?" he asks.
"No."
"Good answer." He almost smiles. "Hold on anyway."
The SUV takes another sharp turn. Norah's shoulder hits the door. She grips the handle tight, heart thudding so hard she feels dizzy.
The chase goes on—fast, wild, loud. Streetlights flash by like camera flashes. The city around them blurs into shadows and color.
Norah sneaks a glance out the back window. Headlights follow, weaving through traffic.
"They're catching up!" she says.
"Not for long," Dante replies. He turns down a narrow street lined with warehouses. The road dips suddenly, and Norah gasps.
She doesn't know where they are anymore. Everything looks the same—gray walls, empty roads, closed gates.
Then Dante kills the headlights. The SUV slides into darkness.
"Why'd you turn them off?" she whispers.
"So they lose sight of us."
The sound of the engine echoes off concrete as they glide down a ramp. For a moment, Norah feels like they're sinking. Then the car slows to a stop.
Silence.
No headlights behind them. No engines. Just the ticking sound of the cooling engine and both of them breathing hard.
Dante keeps his hands on the wheel, eyes scanning the shadows ahead. "We'll rest a minute," he says quietly.
"Are we safe?" Norah asks.
"For now," Dante says. His voice is calm again, like nothing just happened. "But don't relax. We're not done yet."
He starts the car again, slow this time. The SUV rolls forward into deeper shadows.