Chapter 10 - THE VAULT BENEATH THE CITYThe passage beneath the Marquetti hotel was older than the building above it.
Stone steps descended into darkness, slick with water and lined with rusted pipes. Damon carried me for the first twenty steps. When I protested, he set me down but kept one arm around my waist.
“You are not walking alone,” he said.
“I’m not asking to walk alone.”
“Good.”
Behind us, the hotel groaned under the weight of the explosives. Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Celeste followed with blood on her cheek. She had abandoned her heels and carried a pistol she had taken from one of the guards.
“Why is she coming?” I asked.
“Because she knows the lower passage,” Miriam replied.
“You trust her?”
“No.”
Celeste looked at me. “You think I want to be here?”
“I think you hit people when you’re angry.”
“I was wrong.”
The admission sounded painful.
“You were cruel,” I said.
“I know.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“It is all I can give you right now.”
We reached a circular door at the bottom of the stairs.
There was no handle. Only a narrow slot and a brass plate marked with a crest: two interlocking Ks.
Damon removed his mother’s ring from the chain around my neck.
“You said the key was inside,” I told him.
He pressed the ring’s edge against the plate. A hidden compartment opened, revealing the tiny brass key.
“Eli knew,” I whispered.
“My mother helped him,” Damon said.
I looked at him. “Your mother knew about the ledger?”
“She knew my father was using the port to move weapons. She wanted to expose him. He died before she could.”
“And the family?”
“They believed she died in an accident.”
Miriam’s face tightened. “She was murdered.”
Damon inserted the key.
The lock turned once.
I removed the watch from my wrist and held it against the brass plate.
The door began to open.
Inside was a room no larger than a kitchen. Shelves covered every wall. Metal boxes filled them, each marked with a date and a name.
At the center stood a black safe.
The watch clicked in my hand.
Its face opened again, revealing a narrow metal tooth.
I pressed it into the safe.
The door unlocked.
Inside was a leather ledger, several drives, and a white envelope addressed to me.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
Adriana,
If you are reading this, I failed to come home. I am sorry for the fear I left behind, but I knew the truth would become more dangerous than the lie. Damon will believe I betrayed him. Let him. He has spent his life protecting people by keeping them away. You must teach him that love is not the same as control.
The child is not a weapon. He is a witness. He carries the names of two brothers who refused to become monsters.
Trust Damon only when he chooses your freedom over his fear.
I love you. I love our son. I am sorry I will not see his face.
Eli
The letter blurred beneath my tears.
Damon stood beside me, reading over my shoulder.
He did not reach for the paper.
He did not ask me to stop crying.
He simply stood there while I mourned the future Eli had written for us.
Then the vault door slammed shut.
Gabriel stood outside the bars.
He had followed us.
“Give me the ledger,” he said.
Damon moved in front of me.
“You were shot,” he said. “You should be resting.”
“I am beyond resting.”
Gabriel raised a remote.
The walls began to tremble.
“The hotel is coming down,” he said. “You have two minutes.”
Celeste stepped beside Damon. “You’ll kill me too.”
“You were always expendable.”
Her face changed.
Not with fear.
With understanding.
She fired through the bars.
Gabriel ducked. Damon grabbed the ledger. Miriam pulled Celeste back as bullets struck the metal door.
“There’s another exit,” Miriam shouted. “Behind the shelves.”
We ran.
The hidden passage narrowed until I could barely breathe. Damon held the ledger under one arm and kept the other wrapped around me.
Behind us, the vault exploded.
The shock wave threw us against the wall.
Pain ripped through my back.
“Damon,” I gasped.
He caught me before I fell.
“Look at me.”
“I can’t.”
“Look at me.”
I did.
His face was inches from mine.
“Breathe,” he said. “You and the baby are leaving this place.”
“What if I can’t?”
“Then I carry you.”
“You can’t carry both of us forever.”
“Try me.”
The passage shook again.
Then the ceiling cracked.
Stone collapsed behind us, separating Damon from the others.
I heard Celeste scream.
Damon shoved the ledger into my hands.
“Take this and keep moving.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to.”
“No.”
He pressed his forehead to mine.
“Adriana, if I don’t get out, you take our son and run.”
Our son.
The words struck me harder than the falling stone.
“He is Eli’s,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“Then don’t call him ours.”
His eyes burned.
“I am not replacing your husband. I am promising to protect the family he left behind.”
The ceiling collapsed between us.
Damon vanished behind a wall of dust.
May you like
I screamed his name.
And somewhere beneath the city, the man who had promised to keep me alive stopped answering.
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