Chapter 5 - THE THIN ICE
The next evening, the rain turned into a blinding, heavy snowstorm that paralyzed the city streets.
At 8:15 p.m., Diamond sat in his study, listening to the wind howl against the bulletproof windows. The driveway was buried under six inches of fresh powder, and the main roads leading to the compound were impassable.
Levi walked in, holding a tablet. "The night staff couldn't make it up the hill, Dom. The plows haven't hit Lake Forest yet. Mrs. Higgins and the kitchen crew left early to beat the storm."
Diamond didn't look up from his ledger. "Did the night cleaner arrive?"
Levi paused, tapping the tablet screen. "The girl? Caprice? Her bus got stuck three blocks down at the main gate. Security said she walked the rest of the way up the mile-long driveway in a light jacket."
Diamond snapped his head up, his dark eyes instantly flashing with anger. "She walked up the driveway in a snowstorm?"
"Yeah. Guard at the gate said he offered her a ride in the patrol jeep, but she said she didn't want to make him turn around in the drift." Levi shook his head, half-amused. "Girl’s built out of iron wire, I swear."
"Where is she?" Diamond demanded, already hit the joystick on his chair to roll out from behind his desk.
"Downstairs in the staff breakroom, I think. Trying to thaw out."
Diamond didn't wait for Levi. He drove his chair out of the study, down the wide elevator shaft, and straight into the basement service wing where the staff breakroom was located.
He pushed the door open.
Caprice was sitting on a plastic chair near a small space heater. She was shivering violently. Her cheap canvas sneakers were soaked through and caked in gray snow slush. She was wearing an oversized, threadbare denim jacket that offered zero protection against zero-degree weather. Her teeth were clicking together, her lips a faint, terrifying shade of blue.
She looked up as the heavy wheelchair entered the room.
"You're an idiot," Diamond barked, rolling right up to her.
"Good... evening, Mr. Kelly," she managed to stammer out through shivering teeth.
"Don't 'good evening' me!" he shouted. "Walking a mile through a blizzard in canvas shoes? Are you trying to freeze to death on my property?"
"I... I couldn't miss the shift," she whispered, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest. "I need... the hours."
Diamond swore loudly under his breath—a string of dark, crude Italian blasphemies that echoed off the concrete walls.
He reached out, grabbed her denim jacket by the collar, and unzipped it with one harsh jerk.
"What are you doing?" she gasped softly.
"Shut up," he growled.
He stripped the wet jacket off her shoulders, threw it onto the floor, and pulled off his own dark, heavyweight cashmere sweater—leaving him in his sleeveless undershirt—and slammed the warm sweater over her head.
"Put it on," he ordered.
Caprice was too cold to argue. She slid her thin arms into the massive sleeves. The fine cashmere was heavy, warm, and smelled intoxicatingly of his amber cologne, cedarwood, and clean leather. The sweater reached down past her knees like a dress.
Diamond leaned down, his massive hands reaching for her wet sneakers.
Caprice pulled her feet back slightly. "No... Mr. Kelly, don't—"
"Hold still!" he snapped, his voice leave no room for debate.
He unlaced her soaked sneakers, pulled them off her frozen feet, and tossed them near the space heater. Her socks were damp and icy. He stripped those off too, exposing her pale, freezing feet.
He reached onto a shelf, pulled down a dry wool blanket left by the housekeepers, and wrapped her feet and legs tightly inside it.
Then, he sat back in his chair, his broad, bare shoulders breathing heavily, his dark eyes burning into hers.
"You are not cleaning a single room tonight," he commanded.
Caprice looked down at the massive cashmere sweater engulfing her body, then at her blanket-wrapped feet, and finally up into his furious, dark face.
"If I don't clean... you won't pay me," she said softly.
Diamond reached into his back pocket, pulled out his heavy gold money clip, pulled off five hundred-dollar bills, and slammed them into her lap on top of the blanket.
"You're getting paid for four hours of sitting right here in front of this heater, drinking hot tea," he said, pointing a thick finger at her face. "If you try to pick up a mop tonight, I will have Levi throw you out into the snow myself."
Caprice looked at the green bills in her lap, then up at the terrifying mob boss standing guard over her in his sleeveless shirt, his massive chest covered in dark tattoos, his face furious because she had walked through the cold.
For the first time in three years, the tight, icy knot of despair in Caprice's chest loosened.
A tiny, almost imperceptible breath of a smile touched the corner of her soft lips.
"Yes, sir," she whispered.
Diamond froze. He stared at her mouth, catching the brief, delicate flicker of amusement before it vanished.
May you like
His heart gave a strange, violent thud against his ribs.
He turned his wheelchair around abruptly. "I'll have the kitchen bring down tea," he muttered gruffly, speeding out of the breakroom before she could see the dark flush rising up his neck.
