Chapter 10 - Three Cribs, Three Targets
Elena wanted to come with me.
“No.”
“That is my daughter.”
“That’s why you’re staying.”
Her hand struck my chest.
Marco’s guards shifted.
I raised my hand.
Nobody touched her.
“You do not get to tell me to stay behind while my child is missing!”
Her voice shook.
The triplets began crying from the next room.
“I will bring her back.”
“You don’t know that.”
The truth hurt because it was true.
I leaned closer.
“If Dominic sees you, Sophie becomes leverage twice over.”
“She already is leverage.”
“I know.”
“Then stop speaking to me like an employee.”
I stared at her.
She was not afraid of me anymore.
Perhaps fear had simply run out of room.
“You’re right.”
That surprised her.
“You’re Sophie’s mother.”
“Yes.”
“And because I failed to discover what happened to Mateo seven years ago, this reached you.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
She looked away.
I continued.
“But if you come, I have to protect two people. If you stay, I can focus on one.”
Her eyes filled.
“Bring my baby home.”
“I will.”
It was a promise I had no right to make.
I made it anyway.
Gabriel gave me the key.
Luca copied Mateo’s card.
The original remained hidden.
Dominic would receive a duplicate.
“Can he tell?” I asked.
“Eventually.”
“How eventually?”
“If he checks cryptographic metadata, minutes.”
“I only need seconds.”
Marco fitted a tracker inside my belt buckle.
“No wire.”
“Why?”
“Dominic knows every model we use.”
“Tracker?”
“Passive. Harder to detect.”
I checked my weapon.
Marco shook his head.
“He’ll search you.”
“I know.”
“Then why bring it?”
“Habit.”
“You’re going to get shot out of habit.”
“Possibly.”
Gabriel called from the bed.
“Adrien.”
I turned.
“Dominic will try to make this personal.”
“It is personal.”
“No. I mean he’ll talk about your father.”
I said nothing.
“He always hated that your father stopped listening to him.”
“Why?”
“Because Matteo Moretti discovered Dominic was profiting from both families.”
My father.
Another secret.
“When?”
“Three weeks before he died.”
Every part of me froze.
“My father died from cancer.”
Gabriel stared at me.
“Are you sure?”
The room seemed to shrink.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Dominic visited him the night before his condition suddenly worsened.”
“You’re telling me this now?”
“I didn’t know until he told me yesterday.”
“Why would he confess?”
“Because he wanted me to understand that nobody leaves him.”
I walked away before anger consumed me.
Marco followed.
“Focus on Sophie.”
He was right.
My father had been dead twelve years.
Sophie had one hour.
The instructions arrived by text.
Old Union Station.
Of course.
Dominic wanted the key because the vault was there.
He wanted the card because Mateo had copied evidence from it.
He wanted Sophie because he believed children were useful leverage.
We arrived with forty minutes remaining.
Marco’s men stayed six blocks away.
I approached alone.
The station had once been beautiful.
Now broken windows stared into empty streets.
I entered.
“Dominic.”
My voice echoed.
A speaker clicked.
“Leave the gun on the floor.”
I removed it.
“Kick it away.”
I did.
“Phone.”
I dropped that too.
“Jacket.”
I obeyed.
“Walk.”
Lights illuminated one by one.
A path.
I followed it through the abandoned waiting hall.
At the end stood Damien Rusk.
He smiled.
“Been a while, boss.”
“You were never good enough to call me that.”
His smile weakened.
“Hands.”
He searched me.
Found the tracker.
Crushed it beneath his boot.
Marco would lose the signal.
“Cute.”
“Where’s Sophie?”
“Safe.”
“I want to see her.”
“You’ll see who Dominic lets you see.”
Damien walked me downstairs.
Old maintenance tunnels.
Concrete.
Rusting pipes.
Then a room.
Dominic sat at a table.
Black suit.
Silver hair.
Raven ring.
Sophie sat beside him.
She was frightened.
But alive.
“Mr. Adrien!”
I stopped myself from rushing forward.
Dominic rested a hand on her chair.
“Easy.”
“Let her go.”
“Card.”
I placed the copied memory card on the table.
“Key.”
I added Gabriel’s key.
Dominic smiled.
“Remarkable.”
“What?”
“Your father never learned cooperation.”
“Maybe that’s why I’m still alive.”
He inserted the key into a steel door behind him.
Vault.
Inside were boxes.
Files.
Drives.
Decades of secrets.
Dominic held up the memory card.
“Mateo almost destroyed everything.”
“You killed him.”
“Damien did.”
Damien showed no regret.
Sophie stared at him.
“My daddy?”
The room changed.
Even Dominic looked uncomfortable.
I regretted saying it where she could hear.
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“You hurt my daddy?”
Damien looked away.
That tiny movement told me something.
Guilt.
Perhaps not enough to save him.
Enough to use.
“Tell her,” I said.
Dominic snapped, “Adrien.”
“No.”
I looked at Damien.
“Tell the girl why her father never came home.”
Damien’s face hardened.
“He made a choice.”
“He discovered you were a traitor.”
“He should’ve stayed quiet.”
Sophie began crying.
Not loudly.
That was worse.
Then she whispered:
“My daddy was brave.”
Damien stared at her.
“Yes.”
Dominic turned sharply.
“What?”
Damien swallowed.
“I said yes.”
A fracture.
Tiny.
But real.
Dominic sensed it too.
“Take the child outside.”
Damien reached toward Sophie.
She recoiled.
I moved.
A gun appeared in Dominic’s hand.
“Stop.”
I stopped.
Damien lifted Sophie.
She screamed for Elena.
Then something fell from her dress.
The cloth doll.
She had hidden it beneath her coat.
It hit the floor.
Click.
Damien froze.
Sophie froze.
So did Dominic.
A tiny red light appeared inside the doll’s repaired seam.
Luca.
I understood instantly.
He had placed something inside when he repaired it.
Not an acoustic emitter.
A transmitter.
Dominic grabbed the doll.
“What is this?”
Too late.
Outside, faintly—
sirens.
Not police.
My men’s vehicles.
Marco had the signal.
Dominic’s face changed.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Then a gunshot exploded in the tunnel.
The lights went out.
Sophie screamed.
And in total darkness, I heard Damien shout:
May you like
“Run, kid!”
Then three more shots followed.
