Chapter 10 - Mateo’s Deadliest Mistake
Hazel lunged.
The gunman grabbed Noah.
She hit him with the metal flashlight in her hand.
He staggered.
Noah bit his wrist.
The man cursed.
Hazel pulled Noah free.
Dante appeared and drove the gunman to the pavement.
Inside the warehouse, gunfire erupted.
Hazel covered Noah’s ears.
“Stay with Dante.”
“No.”
“Noah.”
“I don’t want Dad to die.”
Neither did Hazel.
The realization hit with brutal clarity.
She loved Mateo.
Still.
Not the memory.
Not the man she had known.
This difficult, damaged man who was trying to become someone better.
Hazel ran toward the warehouse.
Inside, Christian was bleeding.
Victor had disappeared.
Mateo knelt beside Christian.
“He took the ledger,” Christian said.
“Forget the ledger.”
“No.”
Christian grabbed Mateo’s shirt.
“He knows about the tunnel.”
“What tunnel?”
“The old Lombardi house.”
Mateo went still.
The original estate.
Where Hazel had lived.
Where their relationship began.
Victor was going home.
They arrived before dawn.
The house had been empty for years.
Hazel entered the kitchen.
Everything came back.
Midnight coffee.
Mateo leaning against the counter.
His first kiss.
The night he told her he had never trusted anyone enough to sleep deeply beside them.
Then the foyer.
The bag.
Take nothing tied to my name.
Mateo stood beside her.
“I hate this house.”
Hazel looked at him.
“I thought you loved it.”
“I did until you left.”
They found the tunnel entrance beneath the wine cellar.
Victor had been there.
The ledger lay open.
Pages missing.
“He took names,” Mateo said.
“Which ones?”
“The ones still useful.”
A sound came upstairs.
They followed it.
Hazel’s old bedroom door was open.
On the bed sat the brown overnight bag.
The same one.
Hazel approached slowly.
Inside were items she thought she had lost during her escape.
A scarf.
An old cookbook.
A photograph of her mother.
And a pregnancy test.
Hazel recoiled.
“No.”
Mateo stared.
Victor had entered her bathroom that day.
He had known.
He had taken one of the tests.
Hazel suddenly remembered something.
The bag.
Maria had packed it.
But Victor had carried it downstairs.
He could have hidden anything inside.
Mateo searched the lining.
His fingers found a seam.
He cut it.
A tiny tracking device fell out.
Hazel stared.
“That’s how they found me.”
Mateo’s face went cold.
“For how long?”
“Maybe until the bag was discarded.”
Hazel remembered.
She kept it through Indianapolis.
Then Louisville.
She finally threw it away when the zipper broke.
Victor had known her movements for months.
Mateo turned away.
“This was my fault.”
“Victor did this.”
“I gave you the bag.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I ordered you out.”
“Yes.”
Mateo faced her.
“I will spend the rest of my life regretting that.”
Hazel’s eyes filled.
“Then stop regretting and do something better.”
He stared.
“Stay.”
The word came quietly.
Hazel stepped closer.
“I’m here.”
Mateo touched her cheek.
Slowly.
Giving her time to move away.
She didn’t.
Their kiss was not dramatic.
It was careful.
Almost frightened.
Five years existed inside it.
Then Mateo’s phone rang.
Caleb.
“Victor just accessed the trust server.”
“How?”
“Samuel’s credentials.”
Mateo looked at Hazel.
“Where is Samuel?”
A pause.
“We can’t find him.”
Hazel’s stomach tightened.
Then a second call arrived.
Samuel.
Mateo answered.
Victor appeared on video.
Behind him, Samuel sat tied to a chair.
Victor smiled.
“You keep finding pieces, Mateo. But you still haven’t figured out which piece matters.”
“What do you want?”
“Your signature.”
“On what?”
“A relinquishment.”
“No.”
Victor smiled wider.
“I expected that.”
The camera shifted.
Someone else was tied beside Samuel.
Hazel screamed.
“Caleb!”
Mateo turned toward her.
Impossible.
Caleb had called them seconds earlier.
Mateo looked at his phone.
The first call had not come from Caleb.
It had come from a cloned number.
Victor leaned toward the camera.
“Midnight.”
Then he held up the missing pages from Antonio’s ledger.
“One signature, or Hazel loses her brother for real.”
The feed ended.
Mateo’s phone immediately received another message.
A location.
Hazel opened it.
Her face drained.
It was not a warehouse.
May you like
It was Brooks & Thyme.
And the security camera showed someone already inside Noah’s bedroom upstairs.
