Chapter 10 - Someone Inside the Mansion Was Listening
Adrian Cole was waiting in the cottage living room when Dante arrived.
He was seated in a chair.
Two guards stood behind him.
His jacket and phone had been removed.
Ellie was upstairs with Rosa and Rebecca.
Dante entered alone.
Adrian looked exhausted.
“You think I tried to take Ellie.”
“You appeared at a location you were not supposed to know.”
“I followed you.”
“That is not helping.”
Adrian sighed.
“I knew something was wrong.”
“So you tracked me.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Vehicle transponder.”
Dante laughed coldly.
“My private car doesn’t have one.”
Adrian said nothing.
Dante understood.
“You installed it.”
“Years ago.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“Another convenient sentence.”
Adrian stood.
The guards moved.
Dante raised a hand.
“Let him.”
Adrian faced him.
“I received a message outside the foundation.”
“From Sebastian?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Lucia.”
Silence.
Dante stared.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Show me.”
“My phone.”
Dante took it from the guard.
Adrian gave him a code.
Inside was a message from an unknown number.
You followed Dante to Evelyn’s archive. Sebastian knows. If you want Ellie safe, go north now.
Dante read it twice.
“When did you receive this?”
“Twenty minutes before arriving.”
“You didn’t call me.”
“The message said your phone might be monitored.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante studied Adrian.
“Why approach the cottage?”
“When I arrived, I saw a man near the rear entrance.”
“The one who escaped?”
“Yes.”
“I went after him. Your guards assumed I was with him.”
Possible.
Very possible.
Which annoyed Dante.
“Why should I believe the message came from Lucia?”
Adrian’s voice softened.
“Because of the signature.”
Dante looked.
At the bottom:
5M.
Five minutes.
Dante’s chest tightened.
“She used that when sending me coded messages fifteen years ago.”
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
Dante looked toward the ceiling.
Ellie was upstairs.
Safe.
He had nearly accused one of his oldest friends of threatening her.
Yet Adrian still had questions to answer.
“You worked for Sebastian.”
Adrian went still.
“You found Evelyn’s photograph.”
“Yes.”
“I did.”
“For how long?”
“From nineteen until twenty-four.”
“And then?”
“I learned what he was.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your father would have killed me.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
Adrian corrected himself.
“Or ruined me. Maybe both.”
“What did Sebastian ask you to do?”
“Listen.”
“To me?”
“To everyone.”
“Lucia?”
“Yes.”
Dante stepped closer.
“And you did.”
“At first.”
“How much did you tell him?”
Adrian looked ashamed.
“Enough.”
That answer hurt more than denial.
“Was Lucia’s crash your fault?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Sebastian where she was?”
“No.”
“Did you ever betray one of her locations?”
Adrian met Dante’s eyes.
“No.”
Dante believed him.
Not completely.
But enough.
Adrian sat again.
“The reason I helped Lucia after the crash was guilt.”
“Because you had watched her for Sebastian.”
“Yes.”
“She knew?”
“Eventually.”
“And forgave you?”
“No.”
Dante almost smiled.
That sounded like Lucia.
“But she trusted you.”
“Barely.”
A door opened upstairs.
Ellie appeared despite Rosa telling her to stay put.
She looked at Adrian.
“Are you the bad man?”
Adrian blinked.
“I certainly hope not.”
“Mr. Mercer looked mad.”
“He usually does.”
Dante turned.
“Ellie.”
She walked toward him.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“It’s not bedtime.”
“I know. But Mom said to lie down.”
Dante crouched.
“You’re safe.”
“I know.”
She put her arms around him.
No request this time.
Dante froze only a second before hugging her back.
Adrian watched.
Something like astonishment crossed his face.
Ellie whispered, “Five minutes.”
Dante closed his eyes.
Behind her, Adrian’s expression changed.
Not because of the hug.
Because of the words.
“What?” Dante asked.
Adrian leaned forward.
“Ask her father.”
“What?”
“Lucia said that once.”
Dante became still.
“When?”
“The first night after the crash.”
Dante looked at Ellie.
Adrian continued.
“She was terrified. Jacob found her shaking beside the road.”
“Lucia asked him to hold her?”
“No.”
Adrian shook his head.
“She asked him whether Dante was safe.”
“Then she said if she ever got home, she only wanted five minutes with her brother.”
Dante stared.
“And Jacob heard that.”
“Yes.”
Dante looked at Ellie.
Now he understood.
Jacob had carried Lucia’s words for years.
Eventually they became something he said to his own daughter.
A piece of Lucia had survived inside Jacob’s family without anyone knowing.
Rosa came downstairs.
“Ellie.”
“I’m going.”
Ellie kissed Dante’s cheek.
The room went silent.
Ellie seemed unaware she had done anything unusual.
She headed upstairs.
Adrian looked at Dante.
“Did she just—”
“Don’t.”
For the first time in hours, Rosa smiled.
Then Dante’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at it.
Dante answered.
No one spoke.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then a woman’s voice.
Older.
Unsteady.
But unmistakable.
“Dante?”
He stopped breathing.
Rosa grabbed the table.
Adrian stood.
Dante could not speak.
The voice came again.
“Dante, it’s me.”
He sat down.
Fifteen years disappeared.
“Lucia?”
A sob came through the line.
“Yes.”
Dante pressed one hand against his eyes.
There were a thousand things he wanted to say.
Where are you?
Why did you leave?
Why didn’t you trust me?
Are you safe?
Instead, the only words he managed were the words he should have said fifteen years ago.
“I’m sorry.”
Lucia cried.
“So am I.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Lucia.”
“Sebastian is watching.”
“He’s gone.”
“No. He’s hiding.”
“Let me find you.”
“You will.”
“When?”
“When I know Ellie is safe.”
Dante looked toward the stairs.
“Why Ellie?”
Lucia went silent.
“Lucia?”
“Because Jacob had the last piece of evidence.”
“We found his box.”
“No.”
Her voice changed.
“Not that evidence.”
Dante’s pulse rose.
“What evidence?”
“The one thing Sebastian has spent fifteen years trying to find.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know where Jacob hid it.”
“Then why would Ellie?”
Lucia whispered something that made Rosa sit down hard.
“Because Jacob told me that if he ever died before he could give it to Dante, he would hide it in the one place no Mercer would think to search.”
Dante waited.
“Where?”
Lucia answered.
“With his daughter.”
Rosa shook her head.
“No.”
Dante tightened his grip on the phone.
“What does that mean?”
But Lucia’s line filled with static.
Before disconnecting, she said one final thing.
“Look inside the rabbit.”
Everyone turned toward the stairs.
Ellie’s stuffed rabbit.
She had carried it for three years.
It had belonged to Jacob.
And suddenly the most dangerous object connected to the Mercer family might be sleeping beneath a seven-year-old girl’s arm.
May you like
Someone had already tried once to reach Ellie. Now Dante knew why.
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