Chapter 9 - THE FALSE RESCUE
We did not hand over the ledger.
We also did not leave Daniel to whatever Victor had planned.
The solution came from Tessa, who had spent six months studying the financial network and three minutes studying the video.
“The room is not in Boston,” she said.
“How do you know?” I asked.
She paused the image. “The shadow from the window falls east, but the weather report shows the storm came from the west. The window is artificial.”
Owen leaned over the phone. “There is a ventilation grille behind Daniel.”
“And the bolts are industrial,” Tessa added. “The same type used in Meridian's unfinished warehouse projects.”
Matteo, pale from blood loss, sat on the dining room floor while a paramedic wrapped his shoulder.
“There are four Meridian properties with underground rooms,” he said. “Three are empty. One is outside Worcester.”
“You know that quickly,” I said.
“I know every place my family has hidden money.”
“And people?”
He looked away.
Grace stood near the window, holding Lily. She had not spoken since seeing the video.
Mia sat beside her, clutching the blue notebook.
I approached Grace.
“We are going after Daniel.”
She nodded.
“You cannot come.”
“I am his wife.”
“You are sick.”
“I am his wife.”
There was nothing left to argue.
“You stay with Owen in the second vehicle.”
“I will not be kept away from him.”
“You will not be allowed to put Mia in danger.”
Grace looked at the girl.
Mia met her eyes.
“I can stay here with Mr. Duca.”
“No.”
I turned. “You are staying at the safe apartment with a guard.”
Mia frowned. “But I heard the knocking.”
“You have done enough.”
“Papa wrote that I was supposed to help.”
“Your father wrote that before he knew the people hunting him would enter a house full of armed men.”
Mia lowered her head.
I immediately regretted the sharpness in my voice, but fear had made me sound like every powerful man I had ever despised.
I crouched in front of her.
“You helped us find the ledger. You saved my life in the cellar. You identified the man at the gate. Now your job is to stay alive.”
She studied me. “Will you bring Papa back?”
I looked toward Grace.
“We will try.”
“That means maybe.”
“It means I will not stop.”
She accepted that.
We left thirty minutes later.
The drive to Worcester was quiet except for the radio and the rain. Grace sat in the back seat beside Owen, gripping Daniel's photograph. I drove the lead vehicle with Tessa in front and Matteo's security man behind us.
The unfinished warehouse stood beyond a chain-link fence, surrounded by empty lots and black trees. The building had no signs, no lights, and no official record connecting it to Meridian Holdings.
Which meant it was exactly where Victor would go.
We entered through a service door.
The interior smelled of concrete dust and burned wiring. Tessa found fresh tire tracks in the basement ramp. Owen signaled his men forward.
At the bottom, we found a steel room.
The door was open.
Daniel was gone.
On the chair where he had been tied lay a bloody piece of cloth and a note.
YOU ARE TOO LATE.
Grace made a sound that seemed to come from the center of her body.
I caught her before she fell.
“There is no body,” Tessa said. “That means he moved him.”
Owen examined the floor. “Fresh drag marks lead to the drainage corridor.”
We followed them into a narrow underground passage. The corridor ended at a locked gate. Beyond it, we heard an engine.
The gate began to rise.
A black van accelerated toward us.
“Back!” I shouted.
We scattered as the van burst through the gate. Owen fired at the tires. The vehicle swerved, struck a concrete pillar, and stopped.
The rear doors opened.
Daniel fell out.
Grace ran to him.
He was alive, barely conscious, with blood at his temple and his wrists bound. She dropped beside him and held his face between her hands.
“Daniel.”
His eyes opened.
“Grace?”
“I am here.”
He tried to sit up. “The house.”
“We secured it.”
“No.” He coughed. “Not the house. The person inside it.”
I looked toward the van.
The driver was dead. The passenger had escaped through the front door.
Tessa found a small device beneath the driver's seat.
“Tracker.”
The screen displayed a blinking red point.
“It is transmitting from the mansion,” she said.
I called Owen's lieutenant.
No answer.
I called the safe apartment.
No answer.
Grace's face drained of color.
“Mia.”
I turned toward the stairs.
“Take Daniel to the hospital,” I told Owen. “Everyone else returns to the house.”
Grace seized my coat. “I am coming.”
“No.”
“My daughter is there.”
“Then stay beside me.”
Daniel grabbed my wrist.
His fingers were weak, but his eyes were clear.
“Adrian,” he whispered. “Victor has been using your name for months. But he is not the one behind the wall.”
“Who is?”
Daniel swallowed.
“The second witness.”
“Who?”
He looked toward the dark tunnel.
“Your grandfather's daughter.”
I stared at him.
“My grandfather had one child. My father.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That is what the records say.”
May you like
He closed his eyes.
“The woman in the wall is your aunt.”
