Chapter 8 - LISTEN BEFORE YOU MOVE
My gun hit the concrete.
“Good,” Vittorio said.
Grace stood perfectly still beneath his arm.
Evelyn froze near Daniel.
Vittorio pulled Grace backward.
“Give me the pendant.”
Evelyn held it tightly.
“Let Daniel go.”
“You’re in no position to bargain.”
Grace suddenly spoke.
“You’re holding the gun wrong.”
Vittorio laughed.
“What?”
“Your hand is shaking.”
“Grace.”
“That means you’re scared.”
His smile disappeared.
“You should stop talking.”
Grace tilted her head.
“No.”
I knew that tone.
She was buying time.
Evelyn knew it too.
Vittorio tightened his grip.
“You think because you learned a few tricks you’re dangerous?”
“No.”
Grace inhaled slowly.
“I think you keep shifting your weight to your right leg because your left knee hurts.”
Vittorio looked down instinctively.
That was the mistake.
Grace dropped.
Fast.
Her elbow slammed into his injured knee.
He cursed.
She twisted away.
I lunged.
The gun fired.
For half a second, I thought Grace had been hit.
Then Vittorio fell backward.
The bullet had gone into the ceiling.
I hit him hard enough to knock the weapon loose.
We crashed into a table.
He drove a knife toward me.
I caught his wrist.
“You killed Sofia.”
“You still don’t understand!”
I slammed his hand against the table.
The knife dropped.
“What don’t I understand?”
“She was going to give everything away!”
“To who?”
“To the government!”
His face twisted with rage.
“Your father wanted to dismantle everything.”
I stared at him.
Vittorio laughed.
“Antonio became weak before he died. Sofia helped him build the trust. Grace wasn’t meant to inherit an empire.”
He looked toward my daughter.
“She was meant to destroy it.”
Grace stood beside Evelyn.
“What does that mean?”
Vittorio smiled.
“At eighteen, the trust automatically transfers every Caruso company into legitimate control unless you sign an override.”
“And if I die before eighteen?” Grace asked.
My stomach turned.
Vittorio answered calmly.
“The shares revert to the family trustee.”
Him.
That was why Grace had become a target.
Not because he needed her alive.
Because he needed her either obedient or dead.
A timer beeped.
Evelyn looked toward the fuel lines.
“Dominic!”
Vittorio smiled.
“Too late.”
Flames exploded near the west wall.
The fire climbed instantly.
Daniel shouted.
The building filled with smoke.
Vittorio shoved me away and ran.
I started after him.
Then Grace coughed.
I stopped.
Every part of me wanted Vittorio.
Sofia’s voice echoed in my memory.
Do not let your anger become more important than Grace.
I turned away from him.
“Everybody out!”
We ran toward the tunnel.
Behind us, the warehouse became an orange wall of fire.
As we reached the passage, Daniel stopped.
“The ledger!”
Evelyn shouted, “Forget it!”
“No!”
He pointed toward an office above the warehouse floor.
“Sofia told me where it was before she died.”
The roof cracked.
Flames rolled across the ceiling.
May you like
Daniel looked at me.
“The proof is still inside.”
