Chapter 6 - FIRE
Smoke reached the fourth floor before flames did.
Mave heard people screaming in the hallway.
Families.
Children.
An old man from apartment 4B pounding on doors.
Vincent looked toward the broken window.
Voss had trapped them.
“If we stay, people die,” Mave said.
“I know.”
“If I go down—”
“No.”
“If he wants me—”
“No.”
“You can’t just keep saying no!”
Vincent grabbed her shoulders.
“I am not trading your life.”
“For twenty others?”
His jaw clenched.
Mave pushed his hands away.
“This is my building.”
Vincent looked toward Leo.
“Fire escape?”
“Covered.”
“Roof?”
“Maybe.”
They ran upstairs, knocking on doors as they went.
“Everybody out! Roof access!”
Mave helped a woman carry a toddler.
Leo carried an elderly man.
Smoke filled the stairwell.
On the roof, rain came down hard.
Vincent kicked open the door to the next building’s roof.
“Across!”
Residents rushed through.
A shot struck the brick beside Vincent.
Voss’s men had reached another rooftop.
Leo fired back.
“Move!”
Mave pushed the last child through the doorway.
Vincent followed.
A bullet hit the steel frame inches from his head.
They slammed the door.
“Downstairs,” Leo said.
The neighboring building was empty offices.
They raced down six flights.
On the second floor, glass shattered.
A man crashed through a side door.
Vincent hit him hard enough to send both of them into a desk.
Another man appeared behind Mave.
She grabbed the nearest object.
A heavy stapler.
She swung.
It hit his nose.
He cursed.
Mave hit him again.
Then Leo arrived and dropped him with one punch.
He looked at the stapler.
“Remind me never to miss a meeting.”
They reached the alley.
Frank’s car skidded around the corner.
“Get in!”
They piled inside.
Flames climbed from Mave’s apartment building.
She stared through the rear window.
Everything she owned was inside.
Her mother’s photographs.
Her father’s records.
Clothes.
Books.
Letters.
Gone.
Vincent looked at her.
“I’ll replace everything.”
She turned on him.
“No, you won’t.”
“Mave—”
“You think money fixes everything.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You were about to.”
He fell silent.
Mave looked down at the memory card.
“This is what matters.”
Frank drove toward the highway.
Leo pulled out a laptop.
“No internet connection.”
“Good,” Vincent said. “Keep it isolated.”
They inserted the card.
One folder appeared.
MARTIN_H.
Inside were hundreds of documents.
Shipping records.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Photographs.
Then one video file.
Mave clicked it.
Her father appeared on screen.
Older than she remembered.
Tired.
Afraid.
“Mave.”
Her breath stopped.
“If you’re watching this, then I failed to come home.”
Tears filled her eyes.
Her father continued.
“There’s one person you can trust. Vincent Costa.”
Mave looked at Vincent.
He had gone completely still.
Then Martin said:
“Vincent knows who ordered the first murder.”
Mave frowned.
“The first?”
May you like
Her father looked directly into the camera.
“And Vincent knows his father approved it.”
