Chapter 7 - THE HOUSE WHERE ELENA SCREAMED
Luca woke with blood in his mouth.
His wrists were tied behind a wooden chair.
A single bulb hung above him.
The room smelled of damp stone and gasoline.
For several seconds, he could not remember where he was.
Then he heard Sophie breathing.
She sat three feet away.
Her hands were bound in front of her.
A cloth covered her mouth.
Emma lay on the floor beside an old furnace.
Her hospital gown had been replaced with a gray sweatshirt.
A dark stain spread across the bandage on her shoulder.
Rafe was not there.
Marco was not there.
Isabella was not there.
Luca looked around the basement.
A narrow window stood near the ceiling.
Rust covered the bars.
A metal staircase led to a locked door.
Cold Spring.
The house where Elena had been held.
Sophie saw Luca wake.
Her hands moved as much as the restraints allowed.
Emma is bleeding.
Luca looked at Emma.
Her skin was pale.
Her breathing was shallow.
He pulled against the rope.
The chair did not move.
Footsteps sounded above them.
The door opened.
Vincent descended the stairs.
He wore a clean navy suit.
The bruise on his face had darkened.
The wolf ring remained on his hand.
Behind him came a man holding the silver bird pendant.
Vincent smiled at Luca.
“You always did look more like your mother when you were angry.”
“Untie Sophie.”
“No.”
“She has nothing to do with this.”
Vincent laughed.
“She has everything to do with it.”
He stopped beside Emma.
He pressed the toe of his shoe against her injured shoulder.
Emma groaned.
Sophie thrashed against her chair.
Luca’s voice became deadly.
“Touch her again.”
Vincent increased the pressure.
“You will do what?”
“Kill me?”
“Expose me?”
“Become the moral man your wife mistakenly believed you could be?”
Luca lunged against the restraints.
The chair tipped forward.
His shoulder struck the floor.
Vincent removed his foot from Emma and looked down at him.
“This is why your father never trusted you.”
“My father trusted you.”
“And that killed him.”
Vincent crouched.
“He was becoming weak.”
“He wanted to confess.”
“He wanted to hand the organization to you before you were ready.”
“So you poisoned him.”
“Yes.”
The confession came without shame.
Sophie stared at Vincent.
He turned toward her.
“You should know your family history.”
Luca forced himself upright.
“My daughter has no family connection to you.”
“She carries my name.”
“She carries Elena’s blood.”
Vincent’s smile disappeared.
“That woman poisoned everything.”
Emma moved weakly.
“She exposed you.”
Vincent looked down.
“You are awake.”
Emma’s eyes opened.
“Unfortunately for you.”
He grabbed her hair and pulled her head back.
Sophie screamed behind the cloth.
Luca dragged the chair forward.
Vincent released Emma.
“You took another bullet.”
He looked at the bandage.
“You always were stubborn.”
Emma’s voice was barely audible.
“You always were afraid of women who could read.”
Vincent slapped her.
Her head struck the floor.
Sophie began sobbing.
Luca’s entire body went still.
The calm in his face was more dangerous than rage.
Vincent saw it.
He smiled.
“There he is.”
“The man your wife spent years pretending did not exist.”
“You know nothing about my wife.”
“I knew every secret she kept from you.”
Vincent walked toward a rusted cabinet.
He opened it.
Inside were dozens of photographs.
Elena leaving a courthouse.
Elena meeting Colonel Hale.
Elena standing beside Rafe.
Emma entering a Boston apartment.
Sophie walking through a school gate.
Luca saw the dates.
The surveillance had lasted more than a decade.
Vincent removed an old photograph.
Elena stood inside that same basement.
Bruises covered her throat.
Her hands were tied.
She was looking directly at the camera.
Luca stopped breathing.
Vincent placed the picture on his lap.
“She begged me not to touch Sophie.”
“She offered me the notebook.”
“She offered me the accounts.”
“She offered me her own life.”
Luca stared at the photograph.
“And you killed her anyway.”
“No.”
Vincent’s answer was quiet.
“I let Isabella decide.”
Sophie looked toward him.
Vincent continued.
“Elena escaped.”
“Isabella called me.”
“I caught them on the road.”
“I told Isabella one of them could leave.”
“She chose herself.”
Luca closed his eyes.
He had believed grief had already shown him its worst face.
He had been wrong.
Vincent turned toward Emma.
“Elena should have chosen more loyal friends.”
Emma pushed herself onto one elbow.
“She chose people who were afraid.”
“That was her weakness.”
“No.”
Emma looked at Sophie.
“She believed fear did not erase goodness.”
Vincent smiled.
“And what do you believe?”
“I believe you talk too much.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Vincent looked toward the ceiling.
The man beside him reached for his radio.
Static answered.
Vincent drew a gun.
Luca saw Emma’s fingers moving against the floor.
She was signing to Sophie.
When the light goes out, fall left.
Sophie nodded almost imperceptibly.
Vincent stepped toward the staircase.
The bulb above them exploded.
Darkness swallowed the basement.
Sophie threw herself left.
A gunshot struck her empty chair.
Luca heard Emma roll across the floor.
Someone crashed through the basement door.
Gunfire flashed above the stairs.
A man shouted.
Another fell.
Luca tipped his chair sideways and struck the leg against the furnace.
The wood cracked.
He hit it again.
The chair broke apart.
His hands remained tied.
He got to his feet.
Vincent fired toward the doorway.
A bullet hit the stone wall.
Marco appeared through the smoke.
He shot Vincent’s guard in the chest.
Vincent grabbed Sophie.
He pressed the gun against her temple.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze.
The emergency lantern in Marco’s hand cast a weak orange glow.
Vincent backed toward a steel door behind the furnace.
Luca saw a keypad beside it.
The vault.
Vincent held up the memory chip.
“Sophie will open it.”
“She does not know how,” Luca said.
“She will learn.”
Emma stood slowly.
Blood ran down her arm.
Vincent looked at her.
“You will not reach her in time.”
Emma did not move toward Sophie.
She looked at the steel door.
Then she signed one word.
Bird.
Sophie understood.
She looked toward the keypad.
A silver bird had been etched above the numbers.
Vincent dragged her closer.
“Open it.”
Sophie raised her hands.
I cannot hear you.
Vincent struck her.
Luca surged forward.
The gun pressed harder against Sophie’s head.
“One more step.”
Luca stopped.
Emma spoke calmly.
“She needs the pendant.”
Vincent threw it to Sophie.
“Use it.”
Sophie opened the pendant.
She removed the chip.
A small port rested beneath the keypad.
She inserted it.
The screen lit up.
A message appeared.
SECOND KEY REQUIRED.
Vincent turned toward Luca.
“Blood.”
He handed a knife to Marco’s former guard, who had entered through the rear tunnel.
The man cut Luca’s palm.
He pressed Luca’s hand to the scanner.
The machine rejected it.
Vincent frowned.
“Again.”
The scanner rejected Luca a second time.
Emma stared at the screen.
Then she looked at Vincent.
“Elena changed the blood key.”
Vincent turned.
“To whom?”
Emma looked directly at Sophie.
Vincent smiled.
He cut Sophie’s finger.
Luca nearly broke free of Marco’s hands.
Vincent pressed Sophie’s blood to the scanner.
The screen flashed red.
ACCESS DENIED.
Silence filled the basement.
Vincent’s confidence vanished.
Emma smiled through the pain.
“You still do not understand Elena.”
The scanner displayed a new line.
AUTHORIZED BLOODLINE DETECTED NEARBY.
Everyone looked around.
Rafe stepped through the broken basement doorway.
His face was bruised.
A gun hung at his side.
Vincent stared at him.
“That is impossible.”
Rafe looked toward the scanner.
Then toward Luca.
“Elena lied to all of us.”
Emma understood first.
“No.”
Rafe stepped closer.
“She did not lie.”
“She protected the truth.”
Luca stared at him.
“What truth?”
Rafe looked at Vincent.
Then he said the words that changed the Moretti family forever.
“I am not a Calder.”
“I am your father’s first son.”
Luca looked at him.
Rafe continued.
May you like
“And I am your brother.”
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