Chương 4
Lorenzo’s expression suggested the doctor had exceeded the limit of his patience.
She stepped into the elevator anyway. “Good night.”
When the doors closed, Nina said, “I’m taking him.”
“No.”
“He was stolen.”
“You have not established that.”
“Your own vet said—”
“She said he may be the same dog. She did not say I stole him.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“You looked at me when you said it.”
“You’re the one standing in a penthouse with four armed men.”
“Five,” Rocco said.
Nina looked at him.
He touched the side of his jacket. “Counting him.”
Lorenzo gave him a warning glance.
Rocco’s face returned to stone.
Nina bent close to Ghost. His eyes were closing. The muscles around them twitched with fatigue.
“What do you call him?” she asked.
“Ghost.”
She looked up.
Lorenzo’s expression remained unreadable. “The first name did not suit him.”
“When did you change it?”
“The day he came to me.”
“Why?”
“He moved through my house without making a sound.”
Nina ran her fingers over the dog’s brow. “He always did that.”
Lorenzo crossed to a cabinet and poured water into a glass. He drank half, set it down, then moved it two inches to align it with the edge of the counter.
“Three years ago,” he said, “a man entered my home through a service stairwell. Ghost found him before my security team did.”
Nina waited.
“The man had a gun.”
“Did Ghost kill him?”
“No.”
The pause that followed suggested this had not been due to restraint.
“He saved your life,” Nina said.
“Yes.”
“He saved mine too.”
Lorenzo studied her.
“When I was nineteen, a man followed me from the bus stop,” she said. “Ghost was six months old. He didn’t know how to protect anyone. He hid behind my leg and barked until he threw up.”
Rocco looked away, possibly to hide a smile.
“The man left,” Nina continued. “Ghost spent the rest of the night under my bed. He was afraid of everybody for a week.”
The dog’s eyes opened at his name.
Lorenzo rubbed his thumb across the face of his silver watch. “You will stay tonight.”
“No.”
“There is a guest room.”
“I’m not sleeping in your house.”
“You would rather leave him?”
The question hit exactly where he intended.
Nina looked at Ghost.
Lorenzo saw the answer before she gave it.
The guest room was larger than the apartment Nina shared with her cousin Camila. It had a private bath, a window overlooking the East River, and decorative pillows no human being had ever leaned against. Ghost entered first, circled the rug, then stood by the door as Lorenzo remained in the hallway.
“He usually sleeps downstairs,” Lorenzo said.
“He used to sleep wherever I was.”
“He isn’t the dog you lost.”
“No. Somebody made sure of that.”
Lorenzo’s gaze sharpened, but Ghost stepped between them.
Nina touched the crescent on his chest. “I won’t take him out of the apartment tonight.”
“You could not.”
“Was that meant to reassure me?”
“It was meant to be accurate.”
She looked past him at the guards stationed near the hall.
“I need to call my cousin.”
“Use the room phone.”
“You still have mine.”
Lorenzo held it out.
Nina reached for it.
He did not release it immediately.
“If you contact the police,” he said, “they will not arrive before my attorneys.”
“I filed a police report six years ago.”
“That is not an answer.”
“You don’t ask questions. You place threats where answers are supposed to go.”
His eyes rested on her face for a moment, then he let go of the phone.
“Lock the door if it makes you feel better.”
“Will it stop anyone?”
“No.”
“Then I won’t waste the energy.”
The door closed between them.
Ghost stood facing it long after Lorenzo’s footsteps had faded.
Nina sat on the edge of the bed and called Camila.
Her cousin answered on the seventh ring. “Where are you?”
“At work.”
“It is two fourteen in the morning.”
“There was a problem.”
“Did Marjorie finally kill somebody with a chafing dish?”
Nina looked at Ghost. He had turned toward her voice.
“I found him.”
Camila was quiet.
Nina heard a television in the background, then the sound of it being muted.
“Found who?”
“Ghost.”
Another silence, longer this time.
“Nina.”
“He’s here.”
“Where is here?”
Nina looked at the closed door. “A penthouse.”
“What kind of penthouse?”
“The kind with armed men.”
Camila breathed out slowly. “You need to tell me the address.”
“I will.”
“No. Now.”
Nina gave it to her.
Camila typed while muttering under her breath. “That’s Lorenzo Castellano’s building.”
“I know his name.”
“Do you know anything else?”
“He owns Ghost.”
“He owns half of New York, according to the internet.”
“That isn’t how halves work.”
“This is not the time for your personality to return.”
Nina lowered her voice. “I have to stay tonight.”
“You absolutely do not.”
“They won’t let me take him.”
“Then leave and call the police.”
“I can’t leave him.”
“You left him once.”
The words came out before Camila could stop them.
Nina stared at the carpet.
Ghost walked over and placed his head on her knee.
Camila whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re right.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I worked an extra shift. I asked Raul to check the gate.”
“That does not mean you left him.”
“It means I wasn’t there.”
“People go to work, Nina. Dogs survive it.”
“This one didn’t.”
Ghost’s ears lowered.
Nina rubbed them, then hummed the six notes under her breath until his eyes softened.
Camila heard. “Is he really Ghost?”
“Yes.”
“How can you be sure?”
“He hates laundry baskets.”
“That is not evidence.”
“I have better evidence.”
“What are you going to do?”
Nina looked toward the windows. Rainwater bent the city into wavering lines.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first honest answer she had given all night.
May you like
Ghost slept across the doorway.
Nina did not sleep at all.
