Chapter 1 - THE TWENTY-DOLLAR BET
The Northeast Regional had two kinds of passengers at eight o'clock on a Thursday: the sleeping and the drunk. Audrey Palmer was neither. She was thirty-nine, still wearing the conference lanyard she'd forgotten to take off, and holding a soft pretzel in a paper sleeve like it was the only thing that had gone right all day.
The man in the aisle was swaying before he ever reached her row.
He grabbed her arm.
She twisted—fast, the way you learn when you have brothers—and he stumbled sideways into the seat back. Her phone flew out of her hand and landed face-up in the lap of the man in the window seat.
The drunk lunged again.
The stranger stood. One movement. Not violent, exactly. Economical. The drunk man's face met the floor between the seats with a sound Audrey felt in her teeth.
Two men in dark suits came down the aisle at a run. One of them hauled the drunk upright and walked him forward without a word.
Audrey stared at the man who had done it.
"I had that," she said.
"I noticed."
He picked up her phone to hand it back. The screen lit up in his palm.
Family (6)
Dad: 20 says Audrey walks in alone again.
He read it before he could look away. He handed the phone over with the exact expression of a man who had not read it.
"Pretend you didn't see that," Audrey said.
"Difficult."
"Why?"
His eyes moved from her to the empty seat beside her, then back.
"Twenty seems low."
She stared at him. "For what?"
He settled back into his seat, unhurried, as if the whole carriage were his living room.
"Betting against you."
"You've known me for thirty seconds."
"A faint smile touched the corner of his mouth. And your family still has better odds."
"That was rude."
"It was statistical."
"You don't have statistics."
"I have thirty seconds of data."
"And somehow you've already become unbearable."
"Forty seconds."
Audrey almost smiled.
She refused to give him the satisfaction.
Instead, she looked toward the front of the carriage. The drunk was gone. One of the suited men remained by the door—no uniform, no badge, and he kept glancing toward the stranger beside her like a dog waiting on a command.
Audrey noticed. She noticed everything. She noticed the watch, too, and the coat that had never seen a discount rack, and the shoes she would have bet a month's rent had never touched a sidewalk in the rain.
"You're not an accountant," she said.
His eyebrow lifted. "I never said I was."
"You have a man standing six feet away pretending not to guard you."
The man in the aisle looked straight ahead with tremendous discipline.
Audrey pointed at him. "He's not very good at pretending."
"He can hear you."
"Good. Constructive feedback is important."
The stranger glanced toward the door.
"You can sit down, Daniel."
Daniel moved two rows back.
"That actually worked," Audrey said.
"It usually does."
"That is deeply concerning."
Her phone buzzed.
Dad: 20 says she changes the subject when someone asks if she's dating.
Brother: 30 says she leaves before dessert.
She turned the screen face-down on her thigh.
Beside her, the stranger said nothing.
He said nothing extremely loudly.
"Don't," she said.
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
"I wasn't."
"You have a very judgmental silence."
"I've been told. Frequently."
"No one says it twice."
He delivered the line without changing expression.
Audrey laughed—one short, involuntary laugh—and immediately regretted it.
He'd noticed.
Of course he'd noticed.
"Was that funny?"
"No."
"It sounded like a laugh."
"Respiratory issue."
"I see."
"You don't."
Her phone buzzed again.
She ignored it.
Outside, the dark had gone completely black past the window glass, and the train's reflection showed her own face looking slightly more awake than it had an hour ago.
"So they do this often," he said.
"Do what?"
"Gamble on you."
"They gamble on everybody."
"Comforting."
"My father burns steaks. There's usually money on that."
"Reasonable."
"My brother is incapable of arriving anywhere on time."
"Also reasonable."
"Aunt Ruth brings the same potato salad to every family event."
"That seems less worthy of gambling."
"You haven't eaten the potato salad."
He considered that fair.
Audrey adjusted the strap of her bag.
"They're not cruel."
"I didn't say they were."
"They think it's funny."
"Do you?"
She looked at him.
That one landed somewhere she hadn't been expecting, and so she smiled instead of answering.
Sometimes he waited.
She disliked that.
Most people rushed to fill a silence. This man sat inside it comfortably, like it belonged to him, until somebody else surrendered.
She wasn't going to surrender.
She pointed at his wrist.
"Do you always interrogate strangers between assaults?"
"You weren't assaulted."
"Attempted assault. You handled it."
"I did."
"I noticed."
"That line was better the first time."
He looked down at his watch.
Audrey caught it.
"What?"
"The watch. You've checked it four times."
"You counted."
"I notice things."
"So do I."
"Apparently."
She leaned slightly toward him.
"You have somewhere to be."
"Yes."
"And yet you're on a train."
"That is generally how transportation works."
She stared at him.
"You're very irritating."
"I'm beginning to understand why your family bets on you."
She gave him a flat look.
"That didn't even make sense."
"No."
"Then why did you say it?"
"I wanted to see that expression again."
Audrey paused.
He had said it so calmly that it took her a full second to realize he was teasing her.
She looked away.
That was annoying, too.
"What's your name?"
He asked it casually.
She looked back.
"You already know mine."
"Against my will. Your phone attacked me."
"It was aggressive."
"You survived."
"Barely."
She waited.
He understood.
"Dominic Serrano."
Audrey held out her hand.
"Audrey Palmer."
He looked at her hand.
Then at her.
"I already know."
"That's how introductions work. Dominic."
He took her hand.
His grip was warm, brief, entirely normal.
For some reason, normal surprised her.
She pulled her hand back.
"So, Dominic Serrano. Where are you going?"
"Boston."
Audrey looked at him.
Then up at the digital route display above the carriage door.
Then back at him.
"Boston?"
"Yes."
She pointed upward.
He followed her finger.
The display showed the next three stops.
None of them were Boston.
In fact, the train was moving in precisely the wrong direction.
Audrey looked delighted.
Dominic did not.
"This train is going south," she said.
"I'm aware."
"You're going to Boston."
"Yes."
"Which is north."
"I'm also aware of that."
She sat back for the first time since he had opened his mouth.
"This is wonderful," she said.
"It isn't."
"Oh, it absolutely is."
"My flight was grounded."
"That doesn't explain why you're traveling away from your destination."
"My assistant arranged an alternative connection."
"Your assistant."
"Yes."
She glanced toward Daniel.
Then toward the second suited man farther down the carriage.
Then back at Dominic.
"You have an assistant and two bodyguards, and all three of you got on the wrong train."
Dominic's expression tightened by perhaps a millimeter.
"Temporary routing error."
Audrey laughed.
"That is the most expensive phrase for lost I have ever heard."
"I am not lost."
"Where are you?"
He looked at her.
"On a train," he said.
"Going where?"
He said nothing.
"Lost," Audrey said. "Temporarily misdirected. Lost with vocabulary."
Dominic looked away.
She caught the faint movement at the corner of his mouth.
"Oh, you think I'm funny?"
"No."
"You smiled."
"Respiratory issue."
She stared at him.
He looked perfectly, professionally serious.
Audrey laughed again.
"Thief."
"I prefer efficient."
"You stole my joke."
"You weren't using it."
Her phone buzzed.
This time Dominic looked deliberately toward the window—away from the screen, away from her.
She noticed that, too.
He could have looked.
He didn't.
They were somewhere past the state line when the announcement chimed and the train began to slow.
Dominic checked his watch.
Daniel stood immediately.
So did the second man.
Audrey looked between them.
"This is you?"
"Yes."
"I thought Boston was several hundred miles in the other direction."
"A car is waiting."
"Ah."
He buttoned his coat, and suddenly the strange little conversation had an ending, and Audrey found herself noticing that.
She disliked noticing it.
So she reached for sarcasm.
"Try to make sure the car is facing north."
He looked down at her.
"I'll mention it."
"Maybe draw your assistant a map."
"I'll mention that, too."
The brakes hissed.
Dominic stepped into the aisle.
Daniel collected a leather case from the overhead rack.
The second man moved to the door.
Audrey lifted two fingers in a small salute.
"Goodbye, temporarily misdirected."
"Goodbye, twenty dollars."
She snorted.
"That is not my name."
"It's the only verified information I have."
"You know my full name."
"Twenty dollars is more memorable."
The doors opened.
Cold air rolled through the carriage, carrying diesel and rain.
Dominic stepped onto the platform.
Daniel followed.
So did the second man.
Audrey watched them through the glass.
A black sedan waited beyond the station entrance, engine running, another man standing beside the rear door.
She frowned.
Three men.
A car waiting at a station he hadn't planned to use.
An assistant who could rearrange transportation in under four minutes.
Whatever Dominic Serrano did for a living, she doubted it involved quarterly spreadsheets.
Then he stopped.
Halfway to the exit, Dominic Serrano stopped walking, turned his head, and looked at a small food stand near the platform steps.
Daniel said something to him.
Dominic looked at the black sedan.
Then back at the stand.
Then—Audrey leaned closer to the window—he started walking toward it.
She watched the vendor hand him something in a paper sleeve.
"No," she said out loud, to no one.
The warning chime sounded.
The doors began to close.
And Dominic Serrano turned around and started running.
Audrey sat upright.
The man who had spent the entire journey looking as though nothing on earth could hurry him was running toward a departing train with a soft pretzel in his hand.
"You're kidding," she whispered.
The doors slid shut.
Dominic reached them a second too late.
He stopped on the platform, breathing hard, and looked directly through the glass at her.
Then he held up the pretzel.
Audrey burst out laughing.
He pointed at his phone.
A moment later, hers rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
"How did you get my number?"
"Your conference badge."
"My conference badge has my company name, not my number."
"Your company's website has a directory."
"That's a disturbing amount of effort for a pretzel."
"Your original one looked damaged."
She glanced at the crushed paper sleeve on the seat beside her.
"Dominic."
"Audrey."
"You're standing on a platform in the rain."
"I'm aware."
"Your car is leaving without you."
"It won't."
"And you've bought me a pretzel you can't deliver."
A pause.
"Temporary logistical complication."
She laughed so hard the woman across the aisle looked up.
Then Dominic said something that made her stop.
"Where are you getting off?"
"Philadelphia."
"Family dinner?"
She hesitated.
"Tomorrow night."
"Is that where the twenty-dollar bet happens?"
"Among other humiliations."
He looked through the glass as the train began moving.
"Would you like some company?"
Audrey stared at him.
"You don't know me."
"I know you dislike being underestimated."
"That's not an answer."
"No," Dominic agreed. "It isn't."
The train gathered speed.
He began disappearing behind the station lights.
"Good night, Audrey."
"Good night, Dominic."
She lowered the phone.
Three seconds later, a message arrived.
Unknown Number: The pretzel is yours if you decide to collect it.
Audrey smiled.
Then typed:
Audrey: You'd better not be charging delivery.
His reply came immediately.
Dominic: Only for passengers traveling in the wrong direction.
She put her phone away.
For the first time in years, she was looking forward to going home.
She didn't know that Dominic Serrano was the most feared organized-crime figure on the Eastern Seaboard.
May you like
She didn't know that he had missed a meeting worth forty million dollars to buy her a pretzel.
And she certainly didn't know that the man waiting in her father's dining room the following evening had been sent there to destroy Dominic's life.
