Chapter 11 - The Trap After Midnight
Darkness has its own geography.
Sound becomes distance.
Breathing becomes direction.
Fear becomes a map.
I dropped immediately.
A bullet struck metal behind me.
Sparks.
Someone shouted.
Sophie cried somewhere to my right.
I moved toward her voice.
Another shot.
Then Damien yelled.
“Stop shooting! She’s here!”
Dominic answered from the darkness.
“Get the card!”
That told me everything.
Sophie was not his priority anymore.
Evidence was.
I crawled toward the sound of her crying.
My hand touched fabric.
Small arm.
“Sophie.”
She grabbed me.
“Mr. Adrien!”
“Quiet.”
I pulled her against my chest.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Stay attached to me.”
A flashlight beam swept across the room.
Damien.
He saw us.
For one second, we stared at each other.
Then instead of raising his weapon, he pointed toward a doorway.
“Go.”
I did not trust him.
But there was no time.
I ran.
Sophie clung to my neck.
Behind us, Dominic shouted Damien’s name.
Another gunshot.
Then a grunt.
Damien had chosen.
Perhaps seven years too late.
But he had chosen.
We reached the tunnel.
Footsteps approached from the far end.
I pushed Sophie behind me.
“Adrien!”
Marco.
“Here!”
He appeared with two men.
The moment Sophie saw him, she began crying harder.
Marco took her.
“You okay?”
“She is.”
“You?”
“I’m fine.”
Blood ran down my arm.
Apparently, I had been grazed.
“Dominic?”
“Vault room.”
Marco signaled his men.
I took a spare weapon.
“You’re staying.”
“No.”
“You have Sophie.”
I looked at her.
She had wrapped both arms around Marco.
Her face was buried against his jacket.
He was right.
Again.
I hated how often that happened.
“Take her out.”
“What about you?”
“I’m finishing this.”
Marco stared.
“Finishing does not mean killing everybody.”
“Tonight it might.”
“Adrien.”
I walked back toward the vault.
Emergency lights flickered.
Damien lay near the doorway.
Alive.
Blood spread beneath his shoulder.
His eyes opened when I approached.
“Kid?”
“Safe.”
He exhaled.
“Good.”
“You don’t get forgiveness because you changed your mind for ten seconds.”
“I know.”
“You killed Mateo.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Damien’s face tightened.
“Dominic had my brother.”
“What?”
“He owed money.”
“That’s your excuse?”
“No.”
He looked toward the vault.
“It’s the reason.”
“Where’s Dominic?”
“Gone.”
“How?”
“Second exit.”
Of course.
“What did he take?”
“Not sure.”
I entered the vault.
Boxes had been opened.
Files scattered.
The copied memory card lay crushed on the floor.
Gabriel’s key remained in the lock.
Dominic had taken a black ledger.
Nothing else.
Damien called from behind me.
“That book is what matters.”
“What’s inside?”
“Names.”
“What names?”
“People he owns.”
“Politicians?”
“Some.”
“Police?”
“Yes.”
“Judges?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
Damien laughed weakly.
“Everybody.”
I crouched beside him.
“How did he get out?”
“Tunnel to the river.”
Marco’s men were already moving.
“Where will he go?”
“Not far.”
“Why?”
“Because he won’t leave without Gabriel.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Gabriel is the only person who can explain half the ledger codes.”
“He had Gabriel and lost him.”
Damien smiled faintly.
“Did he?”
The meaning hit me.
Gabriel had escaped too easily.
I stood.
“You think Gabriel was released.”
“I know he was.”
“Why?”
“To lead Dominic back to you.”
My blood chilled.
“And now Gabriel is at my estate.”
Damien closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
I called Marco.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then my phone rang.
Elena.
I answered.
Her breathing was frantic.
“Adrien.”
“What happened?”
“Gabriel is gone.”
“When?”
“I don’t know. His room is empty.”
“Where are the children?”
“With me.”
“Lock the safe room.”
“I already did.”
“Do not open it for anyone except Marco or me.”
“Where is Sophie?”
“Safe.”
Elena sobbed once.
“Thank God.”
Then a sound came through her end.
Click.
My entire body froze.
“Elena.”
Silence.
“Elena?”
Another click.
Closer.
She whispered.
“Someone is outside.”
“Do not open the door.”
“I won’t.”
A man’s voice came faintly through her phone.
“Gabriel.”
My heart stopped.
He was speaking from outside the safe room.
“Elena, open the door.”
She covered the phone.
“He says Dominic is in the house.”
“Do not open it.”
Gabriel’s voice again.
“We have to move the children.”
“No,” I said.
Elena whispered, “He says the safe room is compromised.”
I stared toward the tunnel exit.
Was Gabriel warning her?
Or delivering her?
“Tell him to step away from the door.”
She repeated it.
Silence.
Then Gabriel said something I could barely hear.
“Adrien knows.”
Elena looked confused.
“What does that mean?”
I understood.
Gabriel knew I was on the phone.
“Put me on speaker.”
She did.
“Gabriel.”
A pause.
Then his voice.
“Adrien.”
“Why did Dominic let you escape?”
Silence.
“I was waiting for you to ask.”
“Answer.”
“Because he put a tracker in my wound dressing.”
My anger paused.
“What?”
“I found it ten minutes ago.”
“Where is it?”
“I flushed it.”
“Then why are you outside the safe room?”
“Because the tracker led Dominic to the estate.”
“Where is he?”
“Inside.”
“How?”
“East passage.”
Of course.
“Move away from Elena’s door.”
“I’m trying to protect them.”
“So am I.”
“Then get back here.”
A new sound interrupted him.
Gunfire.
Elena screamed.
The call went dead.
I ran.
Old Union Station could burn.
The vault could disappear.
Dominic could take every secret he had ever collected.
None of it mattered now.
May you like
Because the children were back at the mansion.
And the enemy I had chased across the city had returned to the only place he knew I would always come back to.
