Chapter 8 - THE HOUSE BENEATH BLACKRIDGE
The address Vincent gave us was Blackridge Estate.
I thought it had to be another trick.
Roman didn't.
“Of course.”
He stared at the message on my phone.
“What?”
“He spent all day pulling us away from the house.”
“Why?”
“Because there's something beneath Blackridge he needs.”
“The tunnels?”
“More than tunnels.”
Roman drove faster.
No convoy.
No agents visible.
But Ortega had ignored our demands.
I knew it.
Roman knew it.
Somewhere behind us, far enough away to avoid Vincent's watchers, federal teams followed.
“Tell me what is under your house.”
Roman's hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“My grandfather kept an archive.”
“You have an archive room.”
“That's the official one.”
I stared.
“There are two?”
“There are always two of everything in families like mine.”
“What is in the other?”
“Records nobody was supposed to survive long enough to read.”
“And Vincent wants Daniel's card to unlock them.”
“I think so.”
“Why?”
“Because the card may contain the encryption certificate for the archive.”
“And if he gets inside?”
“He can destroy the evidence.”
My stomach turned.
“Then why take Lily?”
“Because he knew nothing else would make me open it.”
Blackridge appeared through the trees.
The iron gates stood open.
Nobody guarded them.
That was wrong.
Roman stopped the car fifty yards away.
We walked.
Every window in the mansion was dark.
The property where dozens of guards usually moved around suddenly seemed abandoned.
I whispered Lily's name.
Roman touched my arm.
“Quiet.”
We entered through the servants' wing.
The smell hit first.
Smoke.
Not fire.
Something electrical.
Security panels had been destroyed.
Roman led me downstairs.
Past the wine cellar.
Past the hidden passage we'd used hours earlier.
Then he stopped beside a stone wall.
There was no door.
Roman pressed his hand against one block.
Nothing.
He removed his signet ring.
Inserted it into a narrow recess.
A section of wall unlocked.
“Family tradition?” I whispered.
“Paranoia.”
Inside was a staircase.
Down.
Farther than the ordinary basement.
My heart hammered.
Roman gave me a small earpiece.
“Tomas is listening.”
“Tomas is in the hospital.”
“He checked himself out.”
Of course he had.
I inserted the earpiece.
Tomas's voice whispered.
“I really hate this family.”
Despite terror, I nearly laughed.
We descended.
At the bottom was a corridor built like an old bunker.
Steel doors.
Concrete walls.
Roman moved silently.
Then we heard Lily crying.
My body reacted before my mind.
I ran.
Roman caught me around the waist.
“Wait.”
“That's my baby.”
“I know.”
“She needs me.”
“And running through that door gets you both killed.”
I hated him.
I knew he was right.
We followed the sound.
Through a narrow observation slit, I saw a room.
Lily sat on a chair.
Her feet didn't reach the floor.
Nobody had tied her.
She hugged herself.
Vincent stood nearby.
Felix was with him.
Free.
My blood went cold.
“How did he get here?” I whispered.
Tomas cursed in my ear.
“We lost Felix from ambulance transport twenty-eight minutes ago.”
Vincent held a pistol.
Felix carried another.
There were four additional men.
Roman studied the room.
Then Lily did something strange.
She looked directly at the observation slit.
Could she see us?
No.
Impossible.
Then she lowered one hand.
She had something hidden beneath her cardigan.
A tiny silver object.
Roman's ring.
I stared.
He touched his empty little finger.
“You gave her that in the library.”
“I never took it back.”
Lily dropped the ring.
It rolled across the floor.
She climbed down.
“I get it.”
Vincent looked at her.
“What?”
“My ring.”
He laughed.
“Fine.”
Lily crawled beneath the table.
Closer to the door.
My clever baby wasn't planning an escape.
She simply wanted Roman's ring.
But her movement put her away from Vincent.
Roman saw the opportunity.
He whispered to Tomas.
“Cut bunker lights in ten seconds.”
“How?”
“Panel B-7.”
“I found it.”
Roman looked at me.
“When the lights die, stay behind me.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“You're going for Vincent.”
“I'm going for Lily.”
That was the right answer.
Darkness slammed down.
Roman opened the steel door.
Chaos exploded.
Tomas's voice guided him through night-vision cameras.
“Two right! One left!”
Roman hit the first man before he could fire.
I rushed toward Lily.
“Mommy!”
I grabbed her.
Gunfire erupted.
A bullet struck the wall.
Felix shouted.
Vincent cursed.
Roman tackled someone.
I crawled behind a steel cabinet with Lily against my chest.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Did they touch you?”
She shook her head.
“Scary man said Daddy bad.”
My heart broke.
“No. Daddy was brave.”
Lights flashed back on.
Felix stood across the room.
Gun pointed at Roman.
Roman had no weapon.
Vincent was gone.
Felix smiled.
“You should've stayed on the road.”
Roman glanced toward me.
Not at Felix.
At Lily.
“Run,” he said.
Felix fired.
Roman threw himself sideways.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
I screamed.
Tomas's men crashed through the opposite door.
Felix fled.
I ran to Roman.
Blood spread across his sweater.
Lily sobbed.
“Roman!”
It was the first time she had used his name.
He looked up.
“I'm okay.”
He clearly wasn't.
Tomas entered.
“Vincent opened the archive.”
Roman struggled to stand.
“Then we have minutes.”
“You've been shot.”
“Again, apparently.”
“Roman!”
He looked at me.
“There are records down there proving every payment, murder, judge, official, company, and shell account my family ever touched.”
“So let the government have them.”
“I intend to.”
“Then why are we chasing Vincent?”
“Because there's something else.”
“What?”
Roman's face tightened.
“My father's final ledger.”
“And?”
“It includes a list of every protected witness and every family member who ever cooperated against the organization.”
My stomach dropped.
“If Vincent gets it—”
“He can kill people who disappeared twenty years ago.”
Tomas swore.
We moved.
Roman bleeding.
Lily in my arms.
Agents flooding the tunnels.
The archive door was open.
Inside, shelves of records surrounded a central computer.
The monitor displayed a progress bar.
DELETE ARCHIVE: 62%.
Roman ran toward it.
Tomas connected a device.
“Stop it!”
“Trying.”
67%.
72%.
Roman reached behind the computer and ripped out a cable.
The screen froze.
73%.
Tomas exhaled.
“Got it.”
Then a speaker crackled.
Vincent's voice filled the room.
“Congratulations.”
Roman looked up.
“You saved the files.”
A pause.
“But you didn't save everything.”
The archive monitor changed.
A live camera appeared.
Celeste.
Detective Ortega.
Two federal agents.
All held at gunpoint inside Blackridge's old chapel.
Vincent stepped into frame.
And beside him stood a woman Roman clearly recognized.
An elegant older woman with silver hair.
Roman stopped breathing.
I looked at him.
“Who is that?”
His voice came out raw.
“My mother.”
May you like
Vincent smiled into the camera.
“Now, cousin, let's find out whether you've really changed.”
