Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Photograph
Dominic caught Grace's shoulder.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze.
He showed her the photograph.
Grace went pale.
Sofia whispered, “They're in the tunnel.”
“No,” Dominic said. “Ahead of us.”
Elena switched off the flashlight.
Darkness swallowed them.
Maisie began to whimper.
Grace pressed her close.
“Shh.”
Dominic listened.
Water dripping.
Distant footsteps behind them.
Nothing ahead.
That was worse.
Whoever had taken the photo knew they were coming.
“Is there another branch?” Dominic whispered.
Elena thought.
“Twenty feet ahead. Maintenance shaft.”
“Where does it go?”
“Greenhouse.”
“Take them.”
“What about you?”
“I'll keep going.”
Grace grabbed him.
“No.”
“If someone is waiting, they'll expect all of us.”
“You don't even have a weapon.”
Dominic smiled without humor.
“Neither did I in the shed.”
Grace hated the answer.
He could see it.
But the footsteps behind them grew louder.
They had no time.
Dominic knelt beside Maisie.
She stared at him with huge eyes.
“Domic go?”
“For a minute.”
“Fire?”
“No fire.”
He touched Bunny's floppy ear.
“You keep Mommy safe.”
Maisie nodded solemnly.
“Okay.”
The trust in her face nearly broke him.
Grace leaned toward Dominic.
“If you get yourself killed after I spent four years keeping you alive, I'll bring you back and kill you myself.”
He almost smiled.
“There she is.”
“Don't.”
“I missed you.”
Her eyes filled.
Then she kissed him.
Brief.
Desperate.
Gone.
Elena opened the maintenance panel.
Grace carried Maisie through.
Sofia hesitated.
Dominic looked at her.
“Go.”
“My son—”
“We'll talk when we're alive.”
She nodded.
Then disappeared.
Dominic closed the panel.
He continued alone.
Twenty yards.
Thirty.
The tunnel opened into an old underground chapel beneath the estate.
Dominic remembered rumors about it.
His grandfather had built the chapel in the 1950s.
Carlo had sealed it when Dominic was a child.
Apparently he had only sealed the visible entrance.
Dominic stepped inside.
Candles were burning.
Someone had prepared the room.
A woman stood beside the altar.
Dominic stopped.
Not Matteo.
Not Carlo.
The woman was perhaps fifty.
Elegant.
Dark hair streaked with gray.
She held a photograph.
“You look like Sofia,” she said.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Evelyn Ward.”
Dominic had heard the name.
An assistant U.S. attorney who disappeared seventeen years ago.
Presumed murdered.
His mother had mentioned federal investigators.
“You investigated my father.”
“I investigated your mother.”
Dominic narrowed his eyes.
“Why are you here?”
“To keep Matteo from getting that memory card.”
“How did you know about it?”
“Sofia told me.”
Dominic stared.
“My mother knows you're alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't she mention you?”
“Because she doesn't trust me.”
“Should she?”
Evelyn smiled sadly.
“No.”
A door slammed somewhere behind Dominic.
He looked back.
Evelyn said, “We have approximately two minutes.”
“To do what?”
“Decide whether you want the truth.”
“I've had enough cryptic nonsense for one day.”
Evelyn held out the photograph.
Dominic took it.
Carlo stood beside Sofia.
Matteo stood behind them.
And beside Matteo was Grace.
The date was six months after Grace's supposed death.
Dominic stared.
“You already know she survived.”
“Look closer.”
He did.
Grace was holding a baby.
Maisie.
But the man beside her wasn't Matteo.
It was Dominic's father.
Carlo's hand rested on Grace's shoulder.
Dominic looked at Evelyn.
“What am I supposed to see?”
“The location.”
He examined the background.
A federal courthouse.
“This was taken in Washington.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Grace made a deal.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“What kind?”
“She agreed to testify.”
“That isn't surprising.”
“Against Sofia.”
Dominic stared.
“No.”
Evelyn said nothing.
“My mother was helping investigators.”
“She was.”
“Then why would Grace testify against her?”
“Because Sofia wasn't merely helping the DeLuca organization in the beginning.”
Dominic's stomach tightened.
“What did she do?”
“She chose targets.”
Dominic thought of Elena's sister.
Of vanished witnesses.
“No.”
“Sofia later regretted what she'd done. She became an informant. But before that, people died because of her.”
Dominic backed away.
“Grace knew.”
“She discovered everything.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“You were Carlo's son.”
“She loved me.”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more than an accusation.
Evelyn continued.
“And she was pregnant. She had to decide whether trusting you was worth risking your child.”
Dominic looked again at the photo.
Carlo's hand on Grace.
“My father helped her?”
“For a while.”
That made no sense.
“He ordered her killed.”
“Later.”
“Why?”
“Because Grace discovered Carlo wasn't the highest person in the network.”
Dominic stared.
“Who was?”
Evelyn looked toward the tunnel entrance.
Footsteps approached.
“One minute.”
“Who?”
“Someone you've met today.”
Dominic's mind raced.
Matteo.
Sofia.
Elena.
Evelyn.
Grace.
Then he understood.
“You.”
Evelyn smiled faintly.
“Very good.”
Dominic lunged.
A gun appeared in her hand.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
“You ran it.”
“I inherited it.”
“From whom?”
“Your grandfather.”
Dominic stared.
“The DeLuca organization was never just a family business. It was a pipeline. Money bought access. Access bought power.”
“And you?”
“I kept the pipeline alive after Carlo tried to leave.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“My father tried to leave?”
“After your mother disappeared.”
Everything kept turning upside down.
Evelyn continued.
“Carlo spent eighteen years pretending to run the organization while quietly dismantling it.”
“Then why did he try to kill Grace?”
“He didn't.”
Dominic stopped.
“Matteo forged the order.”
The shed returned to him.
You think Carlo controlled me?
Dominic swallowed.
“So Matteo wanted Grace dead.”
“Yes.”
“And my father?”
“Tried to hide her.”
“Then why hasn't Grace told me?”
“Because Grace doesn't know who to trust anymore.”
Footsteps entered the chapel.
Matteo appeared.
Blood dried beneath his nose.
A pistol in his hand.
“Evelyn.”
She turned.
“You took your time.”
Dominic looked between them.
“You're together.”
Matteo laughed.
“No.”
Evelyn aimed at him.
“Not anymore.”
The chapel door slammed shut behind Matteo.
Three armed men entered through another passage.
Dominic recognized them as estate security.
Evelyn smiled.
“Give me the card.”
Dominic said, “I don't have it.”
“I know.”
Her gun lowered toward his leg.
“But Grace does.”
Matteo smiled.
“That's why he stays alive.”
Dominic looked at the passage Grace had taken.
Then at Matteo.
“You burned the shed to flush her out.”
“Yes.”
“You used Maisie.”
Matteo shrugged.
“That part was unexpected.”
Dominic attacked.
Everything exploded at once.
Gunfire.
Shouting.
Dominic hit Matteo.
Evelyn fired at the ceiling.
Stone shattered.
Dominic grabbed Matteo's wrist and slammed it against the altar.
A shot fired.
One security guard fell.
Matteo drove a knee into Dominic's ribs.
Dominic punched him.
Again.
Again.
Then someone shouted from the tunnel.
“Stop!”
Everyone froze.
Grace stood in the entrance.
She held the memory card in one hand.
A pistol in the other.
Evelyn smiled.
“There you are.”
Dominic shouted, “Grace, run!”
Grace looked at him.
Then at Evelyn.
Then at Matteo.
“No more running.”
She lifted the memory card.
“You want this?”
Evelyn nodded.
Grace snapped it in half.
Matteo screamed.
Evelyn fired.
Dominic moved.
The bullet missed Grace.
She disappeared behind the wall.
Dominic tackled Evelyn.
Matteo ran after Grace.
Dominic saw him vanish into the tunnel.
“Grace!”
He tried to follow.
Evelyn grabbed his ankle.
Dominic kicked free.
He ran.
By the time he reached the greenhouse, it was empty.
Rain hammered the glass.
“Grace!”
No answer.
Then he saw Bunny.
Maisie's stuffed rabbit lay in the mud.
Dominic picked it up.
There was blood on one ear.
His phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared.
Maisie asleep in someone's arms.
May you like
Below it were six words:
BRING SOFIA OR LOSE YOUR DAUGHTER.
