Chapter 5 - Blood Inside the Penthouse
Sebastian was already running before the call ended.
“Daniel!”
Marco understood immediately.
They reached the dining area in seconds.
Luca’s chair was empty.
A sheet of paper lay on the floor.
Sebastian’s stomach dropped.
“Lock every exit.”
Alarms activated.
Steel security doors sealed the elevators.
Marco shouted into his radio.
“No one leaves. Daniel Price is hostile.”
Sebastian found the boy’s pencil beneath the table.
Broken.
“Luca!”
A muffled crash came from the service corridor.
Sebastian drew his weapon.
He and Marco moved through the kitchen.
A chef stood frozen beside the stove.
“Where?”
The chef pointed.
“Pantry.”
Sebastian kicked the door open.
Daniel Price had one arm around Luca’s chest and a pistol pressed against the boy’s ribs.
Luca was crying silently.
Sebastian stopped.
Every violent instinct in him demanded speed.
Fatherhood demanded patience.
Daniel’s face was wet with sweat.
“Gun down.”
Sebastian complied.
Marco did not.
Daniel shouted, “Both!”
Marco looked at Sebastian.
Sebastian nodded.
Marco lowered his weapon.
Luca stared at Sebastian.
“Dad.”
The word nearly destroyed his control.
“I’m here.”
Daniel dragged the boy backward.
“Open the freight elevator.”
“No.”
“I’ll shoot him.”
“No, you won’t.”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
Sebastian kept his voice calm.
“You’ve known me twelve years.”
“Exactly.”
“You know what happens if you hurt him.”
Daniel laughed nervously.
“You think that scares me now?”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then why is your hand shaking?”
Daniel looked down instinctively.
Marco moved half an inch.
Daniel jerked the weapon up.
“Don’t!”
Sebastian raised both hands.
“Look at me.”
Daniel did.
“You don’t want Luca.”
“I want out.”
“Then let him go.”
“And trust you?”
“No.”
Daniel blinked.
Sebastian continued.
“I won’t lie to you. You’re not walking out after this.”
Luca looked confused.
Marco muttered, “Great negotiation.”
Sebastian ignored him.
“But you can decide what happens next. Release him, and you face me. Hurt him, and every person who ever cared about you becomes afraid to say your name.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“You were always like this.”
“Like what?”
“Acting like you’re some king.”
“No.”
Sebastian glanced at Luca.
“I’m his father.”
Something changed in Luca’s expression.
Fear remained.
But beneath it came trust.
Daniel noticed too.
For one second, his attention shifted toward the boy.
Luca stomped on his foot.
Hard.
Daniel cursed.
Sebastian moved.
Marco fired once.
The bullet struck Daniel’s shoulder.
Sebastian crossed the space, pulled Luca free, and covered his body.
Daniel hit the floor screaming.
Marco kicked the gun away.
Sebastian barely noticed.
Luca clung to his neck.
“You came.”
Sebastian held him.
“Yes.”
“You said you would.”
“Yes.”
The boy shook.
Sebastian did too.
Marco looked at them, then turned away to give them something resembling privacy.
Luca whispered, “Mom?”
Sebastian remembered the gunshot.
His chest tightened.
“She’s fighting.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she always does.”
An hour later, Daniel sat handcuffed in a secure room with a doctor treating his shoulder.
Sebastian stood across from him.
No threats.
No weapons.
That frightened Daniel more.
“You’ve been working for Vescari since before Meline disappeared,” Sebastian said.
Daniel looked away.
“How much did they pay you?”
Nothing.
“Was it money?”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“It’s always money to people like you.”
“Then tell me.”
“They had my brother.”
Sebastian frowned.
Daniel’s brother, Michael, had disappeared eight years earlier.
“You told us Michael left the country.”
“That’s what they made me tell you.”
Daniel’s eyes filled with rage.
“They kidnapped him because I was on your security team. They sent me pieces.”
Sebastian’s face remained still.
“What pieces?”
“You don’t want to know.”
Perhaps he didn’t.
Perhaps that was exactly the problem.
For years, Sebastian had built a world where fear purchased obedience.
The Vescari family had simply learned to use the same currency.
“How long did he survive?”
“Three years.”
“And you kept working for them after he died.”
Daniel looked at him.
“By then, I had nothing else.”
“You had choices.”
“So did Meline.”
The name sharpened the room.
Daniel continued.
“You want to know why she never trusted you with the truth?”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“Careful.”
“She knew you’d solve everything with bodies.”
Sebastian said nothing.
Daniel smiled weakly.
“She was right.”
Five years ago, Sebastian would have hit him.
Maybe killed him.
Today, Luca waited upstairs.
Meline waited somewhere else.
Sebastian looked at Daniel and finally understood part of what she had feared.
He turned toward the door.
Daniel called after him.
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not going to kill me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Sebastian looked back.
“Because my son is upstairs.”
Daniel laughed.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Everything.”
Marco waited outside.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good. I was getting worried.”
Sebastian handed him Daniel’s recovered phone.
“Tomas will expect Daniel to report.”
Marco nodded.
“We can use that.”
“Tell him Luca is secured.”
“You want them to believe they still have an asset inside?”
“Yes.”
“And Pier Seventeen?”
“A trap.”
“Ours or theirs?”
“Both.”
Marco smiled grimly.
“Now you sound familiar.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“We don’t go in shooting.”
Marco stared.
“Who are you?”
“Meline was right.”
“That may be the first time I’ve heard you say those words.”
“She left because she believed I would start a war.”
“You would have.”
“I nearly did anyway.”
Sebastian looked through the glass wall toward Luca, who sat with Adrian in the next room.
The boy was showing his uncle the dinosaur.
“I’m not letting Luca meet his mother over a pile of bodies.”
Marco folded his arms.
“So what’s the plan?”
“We give Tomas what he thinks he wants.”
“The real ledger?”
Sebastian looked at him.
“Yes.”
Marco’s expression vanished.
“No.”
“The ledger is why this never ended.”
“It protects people.”
“It also gives men like Tomas something to chase.”
“You destroy it, we lose leverage.”
“Good.”
Marco studied him.
“You mean that.”
“Yes.”
“What about the politicians, judges, cops?”
“We copy only what is evidence of active crimes. Send it anonymously to federal prosecutors.”
Marco almost smiled.
“Meline really did come back from the dead and change you in under twelve hours.”
“She changed me five years ago. I was too angry to notice.”
At eleven thirty that night, Sebastian prepared to leave.
Luca stood in the office doorway wearing pajamas.
“You’re going to Mom?”
“Yes.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Luca crossed his arms.
“Mom lets me decide things.”
“I doubt that.”
“She does.”
“You’re five.”
“Five and a half.”
“Still no.”
Luca’s face crumpled.
“You might not come back.”
Sebastian stopped.
There it was.
The fear underneath everything.
The child had spent his entire life running.
Every move probably began with Meline saying they had to leave somewhere before someone found them.
Sebastian knelt.
“I’m coming back.”
“You said you don’t promise things you don’t know.”
Sebastian almost smiled.
The boy remembered.
“You’re right.”
“So?”
“So I can’t promise nothing will happen.”
Luca stared at him.
“But I can tell you something true.”
“What?”
“I spent five years thinking your mother was dead.”
His voice tightened.
“Tonight I learned I have you both. I am going to do everything I can to make sure this family gets a tomorrow.”
Luca’s eyes filled.
“Family?”
Sebastian looked at him.
“Yes.”
The boy hugged him.
This time Sebastian knew what to do.
He held him tightly.
When he stood, Adrian was watching.
“I’ll stay with him,” Adrian said.
Sebastian nodded.
Then Luca called:
“Dad?”
Sebastian turned.
“Bring Mom home.”
He looked at his son.
Then at Meline’s photograph tucked inside his jacket.
“I will.”
At Pier Seventeen, midnight arrived with no rain.
Only fog.
Sebastian walked alone beneath the warehouse lights carrying the old leather ledger.
Tomas emerged from the shadows.
Two armed men escorted Meline.
Alive.
Bruised.
But walking.
Sebastian forgot the plan.
Forgot the guns.
Forgot five years.
Meline lifted her face.
Their eyes met.
May you like
And the entire world became one impossible truth.
She was alive.
