Chapter 10 - The Target Is Carter
Adrienne was not in her room.
She was not in the kitchen.
She was not in the east wing or the guest house.
Her car remained in the garage.
Her coat was still upstairs.
Her phone lay on the floor beside the side entrance.
Mateo found it himself.
The screen was cracked.
Elena watched him kneel and pick it up.
“Mateo.”
He didn’t answer.
Luca began issuing instructions.
“Lock down the property.”
Another guard said, “No alarms triggered.”
“Then she left with someone authorized.”
Mateo stood.
His face had become frighteningly calm.
“Check every vehicle.”
“Already happening.”
“Gate logs.”
“Yes.”
“Staff.”
“Yes.”
Elena knew enough now to understand the calm.
Mateo was furious beyond expression.
She stepped toward him.
“Think.”
His eyes snapped to hers.
“Victor wants you angry.”
“You don’t know what he wants.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
“Because he has spent the whole day controlling what we see.”
Mateo said nothing.
“Elena—”
“No. Look.”
She returned to the library table and gathered the photographs.
“This began with surveillance.”
She placed one image down.
“Then the abandoned sedan.”
Another.
“Then Dad’s photograph.”
Another.
“Then the call.”
She looked at him.
“Everything is designed to make us react.”
Luca slowly nodded.
“Victor wants movement.”
“Exactly.”
Mateo came closer.
“You think Adrienne left willingly?”
“I think someone gave her a reason.”
They checked her messages.
One arrived at 10:58.
DAD NEEDS YOU. DON’T TELL MATEO. COME TO SERVICE GATE 3.
Adrienne had replied:
Where is he?
The response:
HURT. HURRY.
Elena closed her eyes.
“She thought Marco was in danger.”
Luca cursed softly.
Mateo’s hands curled into fists.
“What camera covers Gate Three?”
“Two.”
“Pull them.”
Footage appeared.
Adrienne left at 11:03.
A maintenance vehicle approached.
She entered.
Vehicle departed.
No visible force.
Elena checked the time.
11:03.
She looked at Mateo.
“What time is it?”
“11:17.”
Forty-three minutes until midnight.
The ridiculous bet suddenly felt like a clock counting down toward something terrible.
Luca traced the maintenance vehicle.
“Plate belongs to one of our contractors.”
“Driver?”
“Face hidden.”
“Route?”
“North access road.”
Mateo turned.
“We move.”
Elena blocked him.
“No.”
Every man in the room froze.
Mateo stared at her.
“Move.”
“You don’t know where you’re going.”
“I know the route.”
“That’s what Victor wants.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do.”
“My cousin is out there.”
“And running blindly gets her hurt.”
Mateo leaned closer.
His voice was low.
“Do not try to stop me.”
Elena’s fear flared.
Then transformed into anger.
“You spent all day telling everyone else what to do because you think being the scariest person in the room makes you the smartest.”
His expression hardened.
Luca looked ready to disappear.
Elena continued.
“But Victor has been ahead of you all night.”
Mateo’s eyes flashed.
“That was unnecessary.”
“It was true.”
Silence.
Elena pointed at the map.
“What does he want?”
“The key.”
“Which he thinks I have.”
“Yes.”
“Then Adrienne isn’t the target.”
Mateo understood.
“She’s leverage.”
“Exactly.”
A phone rang.
Elena’s phone.
Unknown number again.
Mateo looked at it.
This time neither told the other what to do.
Elena answered.
“Where is she?”
Victor’s voice came through.
“Straight to business.”
“Adrienne.”
“She’s safe.”
“Prove it.”
There was movement.
Then Adrienne’s voice.
“Elena?”
Mateo stepped closer.
Adrienne sounded frightened but uninjured.
“Elena, don’t—”
The phone changed hands.
Victor returned.
“You’re clever.”
“I’ve been told.”
“By Mateo?”
“Mostly by people who underestimated me first.”
A faint laugh.
“I see why he likes you.”
Mateo’s gaze sharpened.
“What do you want?”
“You know.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Your father disagreed.”
“My father is dead.”
“Yes.”
Victor’s voice turned almost gentle.
“But before he died, Daniel hid the only thing capable of destroying several powerful families.”
Elena looked at Mateo.
“Where?”
“That’s your problem.”
“Then why call?”
“Because Romano knows more than he told you.”
Mateo shook his head.
Elena ignored him.
“What does he know?”
Victor paused.
“Ask him about the necklace.”
Elena’s fingers moved instinctively to her throat.
The necklace she had worn for years.
Small gold chain.
Oval pendant.
Her father had given it to her on her twenty-first birthday.
Mateo stared.
Victor whispered, “There you are.”
The call ended.
Elena unclasped the necklace.
Her hands shook.
“I’ve had this for nine years.”
Mateo took the pendant gently.
“It opens?”
“No.”
Luca brought a small tool.
The back plate separated after thirty seconds.
Inside was no photograph.
No sentimental engraving.
There was a tiny metallic storage chip.
Elena stopped breathing.
Her father had given her Victor’s missing key a full year before he died.
And she had been carrying it against her skin ever since.
Mateo’s phone lit up.
A message.
He opened it.
Five words.
THE TARGET IS CARTER. ROMANO SECONDARY.
Mateo looked at Elena.
Then at the clock.
11:24 p.m.
May you like
Thirty-six minutes until midnight.
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