Chapter 5 - The Empty Crib
Lorenzo carried Leo.
I ran beside him.
The guards shouted as we rushed into the hallway.
Five seconds remained on the device.
Four.
Three.
We reached the staircase.
An explosion shook the second floor.
Glass shattered behind us.
A wave of heat pushed us forward.
Lorenzo turned his body around Leo and took the impact across his back.
We fell against the marble wall.
Smoke poured from the nursery.
“Is he hurt?” Lorenzo demanded.
I checked Leo’s face and limbs.
“He’s crying.”
“That is good.”
I had never heard relief sound so painful.
The explosion had been small.
It destroyed the listening device and set fire to the curtains, but it was not designed to bring down the mansion.
It was designed to erase evidence.
Guards flooded the upper floor.
The fire was contained within minutes.
The estate remained locked.
Yet Mason had spoken through a phone that could not be traced.
Someone was still helping him.
Lorenzo placed Leo in my arms.
“Stay with four guards.”
“Where are you going?”
“To speak with Marco.”
“He wanted you to go downstairs.”
Lorenzo stopped.
“What?”
“Mason knew we would find the device.”
“He knew it would explode.”
“Marco threatened that you would not survive the morning.”
“They could be pulling you toward the cellar.”
Lorenzo looked down the staircase.
The corridor leading to the lower level was empty.
Too empty.
“Search the cellar without entering it,” he ordered.
Two guards activated the estate’s internal cameras.
Every screen showing the basement had gone black.
Lorenzo’s phone rang.
The chief guard’s voice came through.
“Sir, Marco is gone.”
The door to the wine cellar remained locked.
The guards outside had not moved.
Yet the room was empty.
A hidden passage had been opened behind the wine racks.
Lorenzo swore quietly.
“The mansion has tunnels?” I asked.
“My grandfather built them during Prohibition.”
“Who knows where they lead?”
“Marco.”
A cry came from the guards’ room.
One of the monitors had changed.
The nursery camera was playing live footage again.
On the screen, the crib stood untouched among the smoke-blackened walls.
Then the image jumped.
The crib was suddenly empty.
I looked down.
Leo was no longer in my arms.
For one impossible second, my mind refused to understand what I was seeing.
I was holding only a folded blanket.
“No.”
I tore it open.
A small speaker fell onto the floor.
Leo’s recorded cry played from inside it.
Lorenzo went completely still.
Someone had exchanged the baby while the guards surrounded us.
I replayed the last minute in my mind.
The smoke.
The shouting.
A medic checking Lorenzo’s back.
A masked worker placing a blanket around Leo.
“The medic,” I said.
Lorenzo turned.
“The man who checked you.”
“He took Leo.”
Every guard rushed toward the front entrance.
The gates had never opened.
No vehicle had left.
“He is still inside,” I whispered.
A wet drop struck my shoe.
Then another.
A thin trail of milk crossed the marble floor.
Leo had been feeding moments earlier.
The trail led toward a linen cabinet.
I opened it.
Behind the shelves was a narrow service door.
Cold air touched my face.
I stepped into the dark passage.
Lorenzo followed.
The tunnel descended behind the walls of the mansion.
The drops of milk continued down the stone steps.
At the bottom, we heard a baby whimper.
Lorenzo moved ahead of me.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“He wants you angry.”
“I am angry.”
“He knows.”
“That makes you predictable.”
Lorenzo looked at me for a moment.
Then he handed me a small pistol.
“I do not know how to use this.”
“Point it away from my son.”
We followed the sound into an underground chapel.
Mason stood beneath a stone cross.
Leo was strapped against his chest inside a medical carrier.
One hand supported the baby’s head.
The other held a gun.
Mason smiled at me.
“You look terrible, Clara.”
My fingers tightened around the pistol.
Lorenzo raised his weapon.
“Put him down.”
Mason laughed.
“That sounds familiar.”
Leo whimpered.
A red mark covered his tiny arm.
There was a fresh puncture in his skin.
“What did you give him?” I demanded.
Mason kissed the top of Leo’s head.
May you like
“The same thing I gave your daughter before she died.”
Lorenzo fired.
