Chapter 12 - The Man Behind Arthur Rossi
The man descending the stairs was Luca Romano.
He looked enough like Victor to make Harper’s stomach turn.
Older.
Thinner.
Smiling.
“Finally.”
Harper stood beside her mother.
Luca looked at Margaret.
“You were told to bring the ledger.”
“I burned it.”
Luca’s smile vanished.
“No, you didn’t.”
Harper heard Victor through the earpiece.
“Keep him talking.”
Luca’s eyes flicked toward her ear.
He knew.
He crossed the room and ripped the device away.
“Victor always did like expensive toys.”
He crushed it.
Outside, Victor ordered his men forward.
Then every window exploded inward.
Luca’s shooters opened fire from neighboring buildings.
Victor’s team scattered for cover.
Inside, Luca grabbed Harper.
“You’re going to open the archive.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Yes, you do.”
He recited the first numbers.
Harper remembered.
Her father’s games.
Birthdays converted into primes.
Addresses reversed.
A childhood song.
Everything had been training.
Margaret whispered, “Don’t.”
Luca pointed a gun at her.
Harper gave him the sequence.
Almost.
She deliberately changed one number.
Luca entered it into a laptop.
ACCESS DENIED.
He struck Harper.
Margaret screamed.
Outside, Victor saw red.
He entered through the basement.
Luca tried again.
Harper gave another false sequence.
“You’re testing me.”
“Yes.”
Luca smiled.
“You’re Thomas’s daughter.”
“No.”
Harper wiped blood from her lip.
“I’m my own person.”
The basement door opened silently.
Victor entered.
Luca did not see him.
Margaret did.
She kept her expression neutral.
Harper understood.
She gave Luca another sequence.
Victor moved closer.
Luca suddenly turned.
Gunfire.
Margaret screamed.
Harper dropped.
Victor and Luca fired almost simultaneously.
Luca escaped through the back door.
Victor had been hit.
Harper crawled toward him.
Blood spread across his side.
“No.”
“It went through.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know what being shot feels like.”
“That is not reassuring.”
Despite the pain, Victor laughed once.
Harper pressed her hands against the wound.
His eyes stayed on her.
“You came back.”
“I said I wouldn’t let anyone touch you.”
“You’re terrible at keeping that promise.”
She laughed through tears.
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
For the first time, Victor had called legitimate authorities.
Not because he trusted the system blindly.
Because Harper had convinced him that ending Luca’s network required evidence, not another body hidden somewhere.
Margaret knelt beside them.
“He’ll go for the archive.”
Harper looked up.
“Where is it?”
Margaret answered.
“Under the Romano estate.”
Victor stared.
“My father kept it there?”
“Yes.”
“And the final access?”
Margaret looked at Harper.
“Your voice.”
Harper understood.
The numbers were only half the key.
Her father had recorded her as a child.
Luca needed her alive.
Victor’s phone rang.
Thomas.
Victor answered.
Only Luca spoke.
“I have Thomas and Caleb.”
Harper’s face drained.
“Come home, Harper.”
May you like
A gun cocked over the line.
“Or decide which one dies first.”
