Chapter 6 - Fire in the Dark
“Back wall!”
Vincent grabbed Mia.
Marco smashed a metal shelf against the storage unit’s rear panel.
Alina smelled gasoline.
Then smoke.
Daniel kicked the wall beside Marco.
The first flames appeared beneath the front door.
“Again!”
Metal buckled.
Vincent wrapped Mia inside his jacket.
Alina coughed.
Daniel struck the wall until blood covered his hands.
Finally, a panel tore loose.
Marco crawled through.
Then Alina.
Vincent passed Mia to her.
Daniel followed.
Vincent came last.
Flames swallowed the unit seconds later.
Outside, a black SUV sped from the warehouse lot.
Marco fired at a tire.
Missed.
Vincent didn’t chase it.
He checked Mia.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“My truck.”
Vincent looked toward the burning unit.
Gone.
Mia began crying.
Vincent knelt.
“I’ll get you another.”
“I want mine.”
He had no answer.
Alina hugged her.
Vincent looked at the microfilm capsule still clenched in his fist.
They had lost the truck.
Not what Lucia had hidden inside it.
Back at the estate, technicians digitized the film.
It contained photographs.
Samuel beside Vincent’s mother’s damaged car.
Payments.
Mechanical reports.
And a photograph of Samuel meeting Gabriel Voss.
Proof.
Enough to destroy Samuel’s legitimate businesses and expose the conspiracy surrounding Vincent’s mother’s death.
But there was more.
A handwritten trust amendment.
Vincent read it twice.
Alina watched his face.
“What?”
“My father created a protected share.”
“For whom?”
“Lucia.”
Alina stared.
The share had passed to Lucia’s only child upon her death.
Alina.
Its value had grown for eleven years.
She owned twelve percent of Marchetti Holdings.
Alina laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“I clean your house.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Apparently you also own part of it.”
“I don’t want it.”
“That doesn’t change the document.”
Daniel stared.
“This is why Samuel wanted her.”
Vincent nodded.
Samuel couldn’t control the company while Alina’s share remained outside his reach.
Killing Vincent alone wasn’t enough.
He needed Alina too.
Or her signature.
Daniel lowered his head.
“I brought this to her.”
Alina looked at him.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know.”
“But you lied.”
“Yes.”
“You gambled.”
“Yes.”
“You stole.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
She waited for excuses.
None came.
For the first time, Daniel simply accepted what he had done.
“I’m sorry.”
Alina’s voice was quiet.
“I believe you.”
Hope entered his face.
Then she finished.
“But believing you’re sorry doesn’t mean I trust you again.”
Daniel nodded.
“I understand.”
Vincent watched her.
Something in his expression changed.
Respect.
Maybe more.
Later, Mia found Vincent in the kitchen.
He was drinking coffee alone.
She climbed onto a chair.
“My truck burned.”
“I know.”
“Can you fix burned?”
Vincent almost smiled.
“Some things.”
He placed a small wooden truck on the table.
New.
Hand-painted.
Mia touched it.
“You made it?”
“No.”
She frowned.
“I bought it.”
“Then you didn’t fix it.”
Vincent laughed.
A real laugh.
Alina heard it from the doorway.
She had never heard him laugh before.
Mia pushed the truck toward him.
“You can break a wheel and fix it.”
“That seems inefficient.”
Mia didn’t understand.
Alina did.
She laughed.
Vincent looked at her.
For one strange second, surrounded by danger, the three of them felt almost ordinary.
Then Vincent’s phone rang.
The warmth vanished.
Samuel had contacted them.
A video arrived.
Daniel appeared on the screen.
Alina turned.
The chair where Daniel had been sitting twenty minutes earlier was empty.
On the video, Daniel was tied to a chair.
Samuel’s face remained outside the frame.
His voice said:
“Bring Alina Ruiz and Lucia’s evidence to Pier Nine at midnight.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
The voice continued.
“Or Mia’s father dies.”
Alina stared at the screen.
Then Samuel added:
“And Vincent? Ask your security chief why he already knows where Pier Nine is.”
Everyone slowly turned toward Cole.
May you like
Cole’s face went white.
Because Pier Nine was where Vincent’s father had been murdered.
